Our friends, Colette and Jeffrey (you may remember his bloody mary’s), made a 2-day pit stop in Zurich on their vacation throughout Germany. We haven’t had many guests yet, but I think after this past weekend, we have created a nice little routine for future visitors. Unsurprisingly, it involves a lot of food…both sweet and savory.
Upon arrival, our guests deserve a truly Swiss meal of cheese fondue.
Next up is a “hike” to Uetliberg, also known as the top of Zurich. A picnic of wine, cheese, bread, meat, and chocolate is a must.
The rest includes walking along the lake, touring chocolate shops, and strolling through Old Town.
I also will undoubtedly make a dessert for the occasion since there will be more people in the house to enjoy it with me. In turn, this prevents me from eating all of it myself. Jeffrey and I were on the same sweet tooth wavelength all weekend. Besides Swiss chocolate, we had one thing on our minds.
Sour cream apple bars.
Start by making your crust, which doubles as the topping.
Grab a couple of those apples you have on hand this season and make the filling.
Get baking…
And look what you’ve created!
Time to get ready for our next visitors…
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 2 cups quick cook oats
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- 1 cup sour cream
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 egg
- 2 medium apples, shredded, peeled or unpeeled
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180C). Combine the butter and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Cream the butter and sugar with your mixer on medium speed until creamy. Add the oats, flour, pecans, soda, cinnamon, and allspice to the mixture. Beat until all the ingredients are well combined. Spoon half of the mixture onto the bottom of your 9x13 pan. Press the mixture into the pan until it is evenly covered. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until light brown.
- While the crust is baking, put the filling ingredients into a medium bowl and stir until combined. Pour the filling onto the still hot crust. Crumble the remaining crust mixture on top of the filling. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and the bars are set.
- Let them cool before cutting them into bars. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to a week (if they last that long!)
- Yields about 12-24 bars, depending on the size you cut them.
7 Responses
These look so good! I love bars. That hike looked beautiful too. Sounds like a great visit : )
I can vouch from personal experience.. the visit was incredible AND the bars are delicious!
the bars look yummy!
Have fun with this weekend’s visitors. I hear they are really looking forward to their time in Zurich with you.
we are so excited to see them! they will get definitely get fondue upon arrival like Jeff and Colette 🙂
Sour cream and apple is such a wonder-combo! It’s weird, but the sourness of the apple, seems to be perfectly complimented by the sour cream. Gorgeous.
I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it on my own, but I’m glad I learned about it!