It’s officially fall here in Maine. The driveway is covered in leaves. I delight in the crunch under my feet every time I come home. This week was the start of my exploration into printmaking. Which was much more exhausting and tricky than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, I’m excited. About fall, too, and the flavors this time of year. Apples. Cinnamon. Pumpkin. I failed at an extravagant apple pecan cake last week, so I decided to make a new apple recipe. Apple pie blondies. They came out heavenly!

Apple Pie Blondies

I always find it hard to remember Monday when I write this. Typically on a Friday night. But I have a fat bruise on my leg to remind me. I woke up anxious to start the week. I couldn’t believe it was already October. And I’ve felt a little down lately. So I decided to clean. The basement, my ongoing project this year, still has a long way to go. So I started to organize some old furniture to make more room. I also moved a whole couch by myself.

The pull out mattress banged up my leg. After a quick sting, I felt fine. And I worked like Hercules to move the frame and matress onto the other side of the basement, next to our old pool table. Half of the room is mostly done, so I wanted to revel in a mostly swanky and clean left half, replete with gaming table and resting place, with my old couch from my post-college apartment. Finally, after an hour of sweating, I finished putting the couch in place, and nearly collapsed on it in exhaustion. 

Apple Desserts for Fall

The next few days I worked on organizing more things downstairs, mostly to escape from my anxiety. Which seems to linger in the silence of the sunny afternoon, when I feel like I should be productive. I knew baking, or cooking, would help alleviate my stress. As it always does. So I thought of recipes. I also thought of my beloved farmers market, which is coming to a close. There are apples, tomatoes still, some berries, vegetables, and mushrooms. I use my trusty compass when I can’t decide what to make – what do I want to eat? It was an apple dessert. 

Especially after my failed attempt at apple cake with pecans last week. I scoured social media and online articles for apple recipes for fall. After a while they all started to look identical. Pale yellow cooked apple slices on top of golden brown cakes. Square slices. Triangle slices. Pies. Bars. I tried not to push myself creatively to the point of madness. Ironically, I often feel like I’m competing with myself. Paintings and recipes from weeks ago feel like another person made them and like I’ll never live up to his standards. The uniqueness and vibrant colors and designs. 

Honey Crisp Apples

But lately my energy is a little lower. I just want to make something humble and rustic. And not everything needs a fancy whipped cream or custard or garnish of basil. So ultimately I decided to make apple pie blondies. I’ve made blondies once or twice in my life. When there is an option to have chocolate instead, I choose chocolate. I’ve made a ton of batches of brownies. But I decided to pack a chewy, rich, brown butter blondie dough with fall spices. And to top them with fresh honey crisp apples. 

I’ve always loved honey crisp apples. Nothing compares to them. I want to go apple picking, pick up a hot cup of cider and some fried apple cider donuts. But it feels a little too soon. Today felt like summer again. Thankfully my local farm stand has beautiful, plump apples, about 4 varieties, which I decided to utilize. They are so delicious just as a snack, so I knew they would make an amazing dessert. I started my apple pie blondies by peeling and slicing them, snacking on the cores to enjoy every last piece of tart, sweet fruit. 

Cinnamon Sugar + Brown Butter

Once I had a few piles of thin fans of apples, I tossed them in a large bowl with sugar, spices, and a little flour to absorb the moisture. A pinch of salt, too. Just the step you’d take if you were to make an apple pie. I haven’t done it in a while. But mixing fresh apples with cinnamon and sugar is euphoric. I could eat the whole bowl with just a fork. Anyway, I set my apples aside after smelling them several times, and moved on to making my blondie batter. 

Blondies are like a chewy cookie bar without the chocolate chips. It sounds so pointless to a chocolate-lover, cookies without chocolate chips, but I was excited to up the ante with brown butter infused with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Plenty of fresh vanilla too. I started in the same way that I do for my brown butter cookies, which have become a comforting signature of mine. I melt butter in a sauté pan until it browns, which happens pretty fast. Then I take it off the heat and add my spices and vanilla, which infuse their flavor into the butter. 

Chilling Blondie Batter

I first did this so I could chill the butter into a soft consistency to use in a cookie dough. But I realized I could just add the sugars and eggs to the semi-warm butter and it would cool down. I made my own brown sugar. Like I always do, by playing with sugar and molasses like a kid in a sandbox. I highly recommend it, for flavor, too. I whisked my cup of sugar into the deep, dark melted butter, and then added my eggs, one at a time. Finally I had a deep, dark golden brown, almost amber-toned luscious liquid. Ready for flour. 

All that was left to do was add the dry ingredients. I make sure to add little extra salt than most recipes call for, too, because I love a balanced salty-sweet treat. I sifted it all together into the pan and folded my apple pie blondies into a thin stream of gorgeous batter. Like a caramel-colored cousin to a thick, pourable brownie batter. Brownies are always better, too, if they start with melted butter. So I was confident in these. I lined a square baking pan with parchment paper and poured it all in, spreading it evenly. And I chilled it in the fridge so it would thicken. 

Homemade Apple Pie Crust

Once it did, I spread my macerated, spiced apples on top. I originally used only two, but I cut up another one for extra apple flavor. I pressed them into the batter slightly, which was firm, to create a crown of jagged cinnamon apple topping. And then I let it chill again. Overnight. Which always makes cookies chewier and richer in flavor. Why not, right? I was so excited the next day to bake them. On Thursday. Farmers Market day. I got up early and hurried to the market. It was melancholy, knowing it was the penultimate week. 

I came home and flipped on my oven. I took the plastic wrap off my apple pie blondies and gave it a whiff. A euphoric aroma of tart apples, deep cinnamon spice, and brown butter cookie dough. Truly insane. If it was a candle I would have it burning constantly. While I waited for the oven to preheat, my self-doubt and perfectionism started to creep in yet again. Could I really just serve a square of rustic apple pie blondies for this blog that has become my creative outlet? Is it an insult to my creative potential and artistic eye to just simply photograph a brown brick?

Baked and Spiced Apple Blondies

I started to contemplate ideas. Cinnamon-ginger whipped cream. A warm creme anglaise. A scoop of homemade vanilla bean ice cream on top, cascading melted custard over the warm blondies. But I thought outside of the box. My apple pie blondies made me want to make apple pie. That combination of perfect spiced, sugary apples with homemade crust is unbeatable. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. So I decided to make a quick homemade pie dough. With just 1/2 cup of flour, which was perfect. I cut in butter, sugar, salt, and cold water, and soon rolled up a tender pie dough in plastic wrap. 

I let it chill while I cleaned and ran around like a headless chicken. The oven dinged. This is a typical day for me. A self-employed artist with ADHD. Constantly doing 80 things at once and thriving. I took my dough out and rolled it on my floured corner into a square. Then, I carefully took my pizza cutter and sliced several strips of dough ribbons to lattice on top of my apple pie blondies. I tucked and weaved my pie dough on top of the tantalizing apples, then ended with a quick egg wash. And a sprinkle of rock sugar and sea salt. 

Art Projects + Baked Treats

Into the oven they went. I set a timer and tucked it into my pants pocket. And in the time it took to bake (I would check at 30 minutes), I raced to print as many of my first t-shirts as I could. I’ll talk more about my journey into screen printing next week. But it’s been challenging, with a steep learning curve albeit huge potential for creativity. It’s been nice to work a new muscle of my creative brain. And I’m so excited to wear my own art for the first time. I’m deeply inspired by my favorite clothing store in Portugal, Ementa. It means “menu” in Portuguese. 

I keep reminding myself that I can do it. That it takes everyone time to learn. Moving from medium to medium as an artist can be jarring. Especially when a lot of my pride and self worth is tied to my mastery of watercolor painting. When you jump into a different pool and you’re a beginner, it can make you feel hopeless. Or defeated. But I love being a student, in addition to being an artist, and I’ve really enjoyed just figuring it out as I go. It’s so new, different, and fun. Which is what I need. Change is good. 

Tasting My Apple Pie Blondies

Finally my timer erupted with its signature chirps and I climbed back up to the kitchen. Washing some white ink off my fingers before pulling my apple pie blondies out of the oven. It had a beautiful, deep amber caramelization from the brown sugar and brown butter. The pie dough was a little blonde. So I turned the heat up by 75 degrees and monitored it closely as it finished cooking. The pie dough caramelized and deepened perfectly as the blondie base finished baking. When I took them out, the oven filled with a cloud of that heavenly fall candle scent. I imagine this is what heaven smells like. 

I finished my screen printing while I waited for the blondies to cool. Or, tried to finish, at least. I encountered a road block every time I achieved success. But thankfully I had a delicious treat to reward myself with when it was all done. When I went back upstairs, I cut my apple pie blondies into 9 thick slices and marveled at the apple pie topping. The base reminded me of a rich, flavorful gingerbread, but without the traditional deep molasses coloring. It smelled so much like fall spices. And I picked off a loose apple slice or two as I decided which piece to eat. 

A Mashup of Apple Pie + Blondies

I settled on the center piece with an even grid of crisp pie dough on top. It had a generous amount of apples, too. I wasted little time and took a big bite. They were still warm. The apples melted in my mouth. In a wave of cinnamon sugar and butter richness. The tart apples rode rafts of crisp, buttery pie dough, with pops of crisp sugar and flaky sea salt. The blondie base was delightfully dense, heavily spiced, and rich with brown butter. Each time I thought I had too much of one thing – too tart, too dense, too rich; it all balanced itself out. Each bite was a pop of gorgeous fall flavor. Somewhere in between an apple pie and gingerbread bars. 

I can’t recommend making these enough. Despite my doubts, I’m so happy that I decided to keep the recipe simple. The pie crust on top took the texture and flavor out of the stratosphere. And now I really want to make an apple pie. One of those that takes about 10 apples, piled high in a ridiculous pyramid of fruit and golden dough. Maybe for Thanksgiving. For now, I’ll be enjoying these apple pie blondies for breakfast. Kissed in the toaster in the cold autumn mornings. With some cinnamon orange tea, perhaps. 

Happy Fall!

I can’t wait to continue growing in my journey to screen printing, and to share my shirts soon. And I can’t wait to dive deeper into fall flavors. My mind is filled with visions of pumpkin soufflés, spicy cookies, gingerbread, pies, and breakfast pastries. I can’t wait to crunch over the dry leaves when I drive to the farm stand, too. 

Thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recipes and paintings, be sure to check out my Etsy for 100’s of art prints and recipe cards. Use code THEFORKEDRING for 25% off. Happy fall!