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Easy apple squares are made with cinnamon and brown sugar. These delicious cake bars are very moist, thanks to the vegetable oil and the plain Greek yogurt.
The apple squares are super easy and quick to prepare on a busy weeknight! If you're bored with making the same apple recipes, such as apple crisp, crumble, or cobbler, try these little apple squares, and you'd be very happy! These apple cake bars work great as both dessert and breakfast. Talking about breakfast, have you tried these apple cinnamon pancakes with shredded apples? Or, maybe you will enjoy this cozy apple crumb coffee cake?
Apple Squares with Cinnamon and Brown Sugar
In this recipe, I am using a generous amount of apples, tossed together with cinnamon and brown sugar, folded in the cake batter and baked in a 9x9 square pan. These apple cake bars are really just a lot of apple chunks held together by a relatively small amount of cake batter. 🙂 After all, the apple dessert recipes should be all about apples, shouldn't they?
The apple squares are very moist, thanks to the vegetable oil and the plain Greek yogurt.
Other apple desserts
If you love all things apple, you will love these quick and easy apple desserts:
Apple Breakfast recipes
What could be better than enjoying a small slice of something sweet with apples in the morning? Here are my favorite apple breakfast recipes:
- Pumpkin Banana Bread with Apples
- Crepes with Ricotta Cheese and Caramelized Apples
- Apple Cinnamon Pancakes
- Apple Cinnamon Crepes
Easy Apple Squares (Cake Bars)
Ingredients
- 3 apples peeled, cored, and chopped into small square chunks
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×9 square pan.
- In a medium bowl, toss chopped apples with cinnamon and brown sugar.
- In a mixing bowl, combine together 1 and ¼ cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and ⅛ teaspoon salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup of white sugar, vegetable oil, yogurt, and vanilla until very smooth. Add eggs and whisk until smooth.
- Add dry ingredients (flour mixture) into wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Pour half of the batter into the greased pan, top with half of the apples, then pour the remaining half of the batter on top of the apple layer. Top with the remaining half of apples.
- Bake the cake for about 45 minutes or 1 hour - until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
I absolutely adore these apple squares, the light dusting of sugar looks amazing.
Autumn is the season for apple desserts! So don't be sorry, we love them-)) You may post more every day!
Hugs,
Yelena
These are great looking squares
I'd love to eat one any time!!
Made them last night. Even better this morning!! Delicious!!
Thanks, Judy! 🙂 Glad you tried them!
Julia,
My squares were a little dry. I hate yogurt! Is it a necessary ingredient?
I replaced the yogurt with buttermilk and they came out fine!
Love this !! I didn't have plain yogurt so i use heavy whipping cream ... SOOO good !
So glad you liked them! 🙂
Mmmm... Mouthwatering pictures 🙂 I love apple in cakes!!!
Apples in a cake?! Oh yea. 🙂 Looks amazingly delish!
Drool...
PS: Are you not on twitter? I was sharing them and realized that I didn't know your handle and it isn't on your blog. Or I'm dumb and missed it haha.
I am on Twitter but rarely 🙂 And, my twitter handle is not really published anywhere. 🙂
Julia, these might be one of my favorite things you've posted! They look soooo soft, and the powdered sugar on top just does me in!
It's a bummer the way work interferes with cooking fun, isn't it? I'm so in the mood for apple things, so this is just right for me. Good recipe, good post - thanks.
I love desserts that have a fruit in them, it just takes it to the next level. I will have to try these
These look so good Julia! I'm happy to report I have some apples hanging around so these will be on my to-bake list. Pinning! 🙂
Hi,
I also made apple squares last week too... they were a bit different from yours but they came out really good and I will post them soon. Yours look so easy and quick to make and I love apples... I will try your recipe!
Ciao.
Yum! These look delicious! What kind of apples did you use? My favorites are gala but I don't think they would bake up as well as granny smith or something similar.
I used very sweet, yellow with red type of apples 🙂 - I don't remember the name, maybe Gala apples? I also made these with somewhat tart Granny Smith apples - and it came out really good!
What flavor yogurt did you use?
I've used just plain non-fat Greek yogurt. 2% plain will work too. plain vanilla flavored Greek yogurt will work too.