Danish Apple Squares

Danish Apple Squares

serves about 20

family recipe

Crust:

3 cups flour

1 Tb. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter

Combine dry ingredients, then cut in shortening & butter as like pie crust. 

1 egg yolk

milk

2 Tbs. butter

Put egg yolk into measuring cup & add enough milk to make 2/3 cup, mix well. Mix egg yolk/milk into flour mixture to make soft dough. Divide into 2 portions, one slightly larger than the other. Sprinkle more flour on pastry board & roll out larger dough portion first for the bottom crust. Place rolled crust into bottom & sides of a standard jelly roll pan (11 x 16 inches). Spread 2 Tbs. soft butter on bottom crust. Roll out the top crust. 

Apple filling:

5-8 large apples (Granny Smith, Braeburn, or your choice or combination of cooking apples)

2 Tbs.cornstarch

1 cup brown or white sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. frozen lemonade concentrate

Peel & slice apples, making 6 to 8 cups. Mix sugar, cornstarch & cinnamon together, then mix into sliced apples & add lemonade concentrate & mix again. Spread apple mixture onto the buttered crust in pan. Cover with top crust. Patching & sealing crust with ice water as needed. Make a few slits on top crust.

Bake 375 degrees for about 55-60 or until crust is golden brown & apples bubble.

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. frozen lemonade concentrate

1 - 2 Tbs. milk

Combine to make glaze pourable & drizzle over cooled pastry.

This recipe has been a family favorite for as long as I can remember but it was forgotten about until recently.  My mom has been leading the baking and we've been making these bars almost every weekend we go to the lake - either to bring to church Sunday morning or just to eat ourselves!  My mom came up with this recipe based on a Danish Apple Squares recipe she received "in the 80's".  But it's diverted so much for the original that she thinks it needs a new name.  Sisters Bars? (Since these bars are much easier when made with sisters/cousins/aunts!)  Marry Me Apple Bars (The men in your life LOVE them!)  Better-Than-Buckhunter Bars?  (The guys say they'll drop the rifles as soon as these come out of the oven!)  Whatever they're called, they are becoming our family's signature dessert!