Lucky us! Christie's guest post today will have you running to the kitchen and gathering the ingredients for these apple bars. You need these in your life, my friends.

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I married into a pretty amazing family.

My mother-in-law is a stylish, outgoing, thoughtful woman who embraced me from the beginning, even though I sported big bangs, a bad perm, and mooned over her goofy son like a lovesick puppy.

She has always been my biggest cheerleader and I will always be her biggest fan.

It stands to reason that she comes from pretty good stock herself.  Her mother (my husband’s grandmother) was every bit as amazing.  She defined classy, and I would give my right arm to have just a pinch of her sense of style.  She threw parties like Martha long before there was a Martha.  She was a gourmet in the kitchen and a hoot to play cards with.  Some of my favorite newlywed memories are going to dinner with June and Giggs, then stopping to pick up a movie, and watching it back at their place.  

I loved her.

When she passed away a few short years after I married Josh, we all mourned the loss. They divided up her cookbooks and spread them amongst the granddaughters.  I received a cookbook that was for apples.  Each and every recipe in the book is for an apple dish of some sort.  Apple desserts.  Apple snacks.  Apple chutneys and meat marinades.  

The real treasure to me was flipping through and finding her neat handwriting and margin notes on recipes she had tried or liked.  

Having a husband that begs for all things apple, I set out to try a few.  The one I am sharing with you has become my absolute favorite.  It is sort of a shortbread-like crust, with warm apples and cinnamon, topped with a sweet, sugary glaze.   It. Is. Delicious.  I cannot help but think of Grandma June every time I make it, and wonder if somewhere out there, she knows, and is smiling.

In fact, I’m pretty sure of it.

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Grandma June’s Apple Bars

3 ¼ + 1/8 cup flour, divided

1 ¾ + 1/8 cup sugar, divided

¾ tsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. salt

1 ½ cups butter

3 egg yolks

4 cups sliced and peeled apples

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

1 ½ cup powdered sugar

2 ¼ Tsp. milk

Combine 3 cups of the flour, ¾ cup of the sugar, baking powder and salt.  Cut in butter until crumbs are the size of peas.  Stir in egg yolks.  Press half of mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 pan, and reserve the rest.  Combine apples, remaining flour, sugar, and cinnamon.  Place apple mixture over crust in pan.  Sprinkle with remaining dough crumbs.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.  Cool and drizzle with thin icing of powdered sugar and milk.

Enjoy! 

You can find Christie at her blog Stie's Thoughts, where she's been keeping track of her family's adventures and hilarious sagas since 2006. She and her family have lived in Utah, Minnesota, Seattle, Boston (where our paths thankfully crossed), San Diego, St. Louis, and now lucky Dallas gets them for the foreseeable future.