Apple fruity bar

I had A Craving. In this Craving, I was eating something good, moist, loaded with chunks of crunchy apples, maybe some dried fruit, and some nuts. And this was formed like a bar of chocolate. Oh, it was good....
So search no more if you have cravings like mine! I finaly have the recipe you've not been looking for!

Let's go! The faster you make it, the sooner you can eat it ( my personal philosophy)


Type of dish: dessert, snack
Cost: cheap, medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4-6
Time: 40 min
Preparation time: 20 min
Baking time: 20- 25 min
Oven temp: 180C

You'll need:
a cutting board, sharp knife, mixer, 2 medium to large bowls, a spatula, tablespoon, teaspoon, a cup, , a shallow large baking dish- rectangle or square size 23x30 or something that size.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium or large apples ( try the more tangy, crisp type)- half dice finely, half puree.
• a handfull of dried apricots finely diced
• 4-5 ripe plums, pitted, finely diced
• 4 tbsp of butter, softened
• 2/3 cup of brown sugar. Use white sugar if you haven't got brown. Go on, make yourself happier.
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup any kind of nuts you want, chopped, like walnuts, hazelnuts, pistacios, the sort. Or drop it out. But it's good and healthy and great for your poor tired brain. Boost 'em up!
• 3/4 tsp baking soda 
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves ( I skipped it)
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 chopped dates- optional ( I prefered apricots)

Get along:
Chop up the fruit and dump in the bowl. Preheat oven and grease your baking dish. Beat the butter and sugar together so you get a creamy fluffy mixture. Add the milk and egg. mix again.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl, mix well, taste it. Pour the batter in the baking dish, smooth it down with your spatula  and bake for 20-25 min, until it's dry when you insert a toothpick and it come out clean and dry. Then turn off the oven and leave the door closed. This is a moist cake, so it need maximum baking/drying action. After around 20 min you can take it out, start cutting in bars the size of a bounty bar. It's good. The rest you can wrap up in cling film separately, put in a zip lock bag and freeze. When you want a dessert for lunch at work just take out one bar, and by the time you get where you want to and want to eat it, it's defrosted.
I love it.


Additional info: you can add raisins, cranberries, almonds, anything you want to this cake. You can use applesauce instead of cutting up the apples. Just use then 1 cup of the applesauce. This is also good for anybody on a low sodium diet.