custard apple squares.

I had a bunch of apples that I brought back from my apple picking excursion at The Farm at Swan’s Trail. I knew I wanted to use them to make some sort of apple-themed bake but I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to make.

Then, I found this recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Custardy Apple Squares. It sounded delicious so I gathered my tools and ingredients and set out to make these custard squares.

Dorie Greenspan is an American cookbook author. She has published numerous cookbooks with a number that focus on just desserts. Her website is a great read.

This particular recipe for custardy apple squares can also be found on Dorie’s website here. The recipe is fairly simple and does not use a lot of ingredients. I was actually quite perplexed how the squares would actually bake up, considering that only 1/2 cup of flour is called for. But then I realized that this recipe is not supposed to be a cake or brownie texture, but rather apple slices with little layers of custard in between.

It is a quick recipe to mix up. What took me the longest was actually slicing my apples on the mandoline. But even that didn’t take too long and soon I was pulling these apple squares out of the oven.

The tops of my custard apple squares browned a lot more than the example picture in the recipe showed. I left them in the oven for 40 minutes (the recipe calls for them to bake from 40-50 minutes) so I’m not sure if my oven runs hot or that’s just how mine turned out. These squares are definitely all apple. They were a little tough to cut because I was trying to cut through the apple slices but I just sawed away with my knife.

I was a bit disappointed after eating these because I thought the squares had very little flavor. I had left the squares cool for a bit before I ate them so I’m not sure if these are meant to be eaten warm (would that bring out the flavor of the apples more?) however the recipe does state they can be eaten hot or cold. Maybe my apples were not very favorable? I guess I was expecting these to taste more like apple pie filling. Maybe if I make them again I’ll add some cinnamon to the mix.

I will say that the smells from my oven were mouth-watering!