Maple Apple Blondie Recipe — The Sweetness We Pray For

Rosh Hashanah. Fourteen people. The table with the leaf in. The brisket, six hours, perfect. The round challah, golden, sesame-seeded, braided with the particular care of a woman who knows this is the last one — not the last challah, never the last challah, but the last round challah at this table with Marvin in his chair on Rosh Hashanah in the house where we have lived for forty years. I braided it with my hands and I thought of Sylvia's hands and her mother's hands and the hands before, back and back, to the shtetl, to the oven that was shared between families, to the bread that rose in someone else's kitchen because there was only one kitchen, and the bread was communal, and the communion was the point.

Marvin ate the brisket. He ate the challah with honey. He ate the honey cake. He ate everything I put in front of him with the methodical attention of a man who is present to the food even when he is not present to the reason for the food. The eating is his participation. The eating is his prayer. He cannot say the blessings. He cannot lead the seder. He cannot carve the turkey or light the menorah or ask the four questions. But he can eat, and the eating is the connection, and the connection is the chain, and the chain holds even when the link is wearing thin.

Ethan asked the four questions again — eight years old, confident now, the Hebrew strong, the asking no longer tentative but assured, the voice of a boy who has asked this question before and who understands that the asking is the point. Why is this night different? Because it is. Because all nights are different. Because this night, in particular, is the last of its kind, and the next night will be a different kind, and the differentness is the life, and the life is the asking, and the asking never stops.

I said the prayer for the new year — the prayer for sweetness, for health, for the book of life — and I added, silently, the prayer I have been adding for five years: one more year. One more. Please. Even if the one more is in a different building, in a different room, with a different view from the window. One more year. The honey is on the challah. The prayer is in the air. The year begins.

After the brisket was carved and the challah was torn and the honey cake was eaten, I stood in the kitchen and thought: I want one more sweet thing. Not because anyone was still hungry — fourteen people, six hours of brisket, nobody was hungry — but because the prayer asks for sweetness, and I wasn’t done asking. These maple apple blondies are what I made the next morning with the last of the fall apples, the maple syrup dark and serious, the whole kitchen smelling like something worth holding onto for one more year.

Maple Apple Blondie

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups peeled, diced apple (about 2 medium apples)
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prepare. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9x9-inch baking pan with parchment paper and lightly grease the sides.
2. Mix wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, maple syrup, and brown sugar until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla extract, whisking until well combined.
3. Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
4. Bring the batter together. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring just until no dry streaks remain. Do not overmix.
5. Add apples. Gently fold in the diced apples and pecans, if using, distributing them evenly throughout the batter.
6. Bake. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
7. Cool and cut. Allow the blondies to cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes before lifting out by the parchment and slicing into 12 bars. They will firm up as they cool.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 210 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 32g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 110mg