Mennonite Monday - Apple Pastry

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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My father-in-law asked for apple bars all harvest and I finally made them during the last week of harvest. The recipe is on page 53 of the yellow cookbook. This is a recipe that my grandma has made for years, but I am not exactly at her standard yet. I was very pleased with the way my apple bars turned out, but we had my grandma's apple bars at Thanksgiving and I was reminded that they are some improvements I can make to recipe for next time.

Apple Pastry

Dough:
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cup shortening
3 Tbl. water

Filling:
6-8 medium apples
2 Tbl. flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbl. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Cut Shortening into flour and salt

It looks like this when it is all mixed together

Add water and eggs and mix

chill the dough

Roll out half of the dough into a 15 X 10" pan.

Mix together filling ingredients and put over dough. I decided to slice my apples and leave the peeling on to save time. While the bars tasted good, I noticed that my grandma peeled and chopped her apples, which were much better.

Roll out the rest of the dough for top dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until lightly browned.

Drizzle with powdered sugar frosting while hot.