Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/3 cup honey*
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 Honeycrisp apple
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Spray with baking spray or grease and flour an 8×8 inch pan. Set aside.
In a small pan, melt together the honey and apple.
Meanwhile, grate the apple. Squeeze out excess juice. Measure to equal 1/2 cup grated apple. Place the apple, sugar, egg, flour, vanilla and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer or medium mixing bowl. Mix using the stand mixer using a hand mixer until the mixture is smooth. Slowly stream in the melted butter and honey. Mix until a batter forms. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until the edges are browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out with just one or two moist crumbs. Cool on wire rack. Slice and serve.
* I used raw Manuka honey but any flavorful, full-bodied honey should work.
My thoughts:
It has been ages since I’ve made a special dish for Rosh Hashanah! We normally eat apples dipped in honey (while on the phone with Matt’s mom) for a sweet New Year but not being religious in the least, that is the extent of what we do. This year we are invited to a dinner for Rosh Hashanah and while I am not bringing these (they keep kosher) the holiday was on my mind. Matt loves honey and when I saw the first Honeycrisps of the season at the store, I thought it would be fun to make a little treat. These are really good, lots of honey flavor and oddly not as sweet as you would think. It tastes sort of like a bar cookie crossed with a honey caramel apple. Matt thinks they would be even better with some honey drizzled on top so if you are a honey fiend, try that!