Apple Butter Shortbread Bars

October is just around the corner, which is when I have a family reunion in Louisiana. Guess who's responsible for desserts? Yep, that would be me. Here's the first recipe I'm thinking about taking. These bars are composed of apple butter slathered between two buttery, tender shortbread cookie dough layers. Then it's topped with a glaze and finished off with a sprinkling of white sanding sugar. I love apple butter, and the shortbread isn't on the "too sweet" side.

This recipe can be altered in so many ways. I have already used strawberry jam in the middle - delicious, and at some point, I plan to try multiple other flavor combinations in both the filling and the dough.

Here's the ingredient list:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened to room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup apple butter
12 thin ginger snaps (such as Anna's brand), crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 heaping tablespoon apple butter
1 tablespoon water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously coat a 9 x 13 jelly roll pan or baking dish with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg and stir the vanilla into it.

Add the softened butter and egg/vanilla mixture to the flour mixture and mix with your hands until evenly blended and smooth. The dough will be crumbly at first, but continue to work it until it sticks together and forms a ball. Gather up all the loose bits and remaining flour from the bottom of the bowl and press/work into the dough ball.

Divide the dough ball in half by cutting with a knife or bench scraper, as shown.

Press half the dough into the prepared jelly roll pan or baking dish as evenly as possible, covering the bottom and up the sides all the way around about a half inch or so.
Dollop the apple butter onto the bottom layer of dough and spread evenly with the back of a spoon.

Place the ginger snaps in a quart size zipper bag and crush to a medium-fine crumb. Add the ground cinnamon to the crushed cookies in the bag, close the bag and mix. Pour the cookie/cinnamon mixture into a bowl with the remaining unused half of the cookie dough. Mix with your hands until the cookie crumbs appear to be evenly distributed throughout.

Pinch off small pieces of the dough and place on top of the apple butter until it's entirely covered.
Bake for 35 minutes, then remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

During the baking period, make the glaze.

Press the powdered sugar through a strainer into a medium bowl to minimize lumps. Add the apple butter and water. Whisk vigorously until smooth and pour into a sandwich size zip lock bag.

While bars are cooling, snip a very small portion of a bottom corner of the bag of glaze and drizzle ribbons of glaze over the entire surface.
After the bars have cooled in the pan for ten minutes and the glaze has been drizzled on, lightly sprinkle white sanding sugar (not regular sugar) over the entire surface.

Cut in half, then cut each half into equal size bars. Each half makes 12 bars for a total of 24 bars, or more if you choose to cut smaller ones.
Store in an air tight container at room temperature.

The center is moist, the cookie layers are buttery and hold up very well. Easy to slice, easy to serve! That's just the sort of thing I need for my upcoming event. Next, have to decide what else is on the dessert menu for our family get-together. 'Scuse me while I go have one of these with a cuppa coffee!