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There’s a couple of great things great about this recipe. It tastes like apple pie 🙂 and you can triple the recipe and bake it in a 15×17 inch pan and have enough to serve a mob at your holiday table. And don’t forget … topped with ice cream and a drizzle of bourbon caramel sauce and you have a perfectly delicious grown-up dessert. My traveling husband loved it and deemed it the most delicious Apple Pie Bars with Bourbon Caramel Sauce he’s ever had!
A simple short bread crust creates a nice simple layer on the bottom.
Fresh sliced Granny Smith apples are cooked down with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to make a sweet, tender fruit layer.
If you’re serving adults, it won’t hurt to add a glug, swig, or splash of bourbon at this point too.
Topped with a mixture of toasted walnuts, oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon and butter it’s ready to bake! This recipe may be made a few days in advanced so it saves time too. Store the bars in a airtight container at room temperature up to four days.
The Bourbon Caramel Sauce can also be made a few days ahead making this dessert perfect for your holiday table.
Apple Pie Bars
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
40 mins
Total Time
40 mins
Apple pie in bar form!
Course: Dessert
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- dash kosher salt
For the apple filling:
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin
- 1 tablespoon bourbon, optional
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- dash nutmeg
- 1/3 cup water as needed
For the topping:
- 1/4 cup walnuts, toasted & rough chopped
- 1 cup quick cooking oats
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 heaping teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 heaping teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 11x7-inch (or 9x9-inch) baking pan with parchment paper. Beat the butter and sugar at medium speed of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in the flour and salt until a soft dough forms. Press the dough into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the dough is set but not brown.
- In a large skillet melt the butter and brown sugar. Add the apples and cook, stirring occasionally, over medium high heat until softened. Stir the water, cinnamon and nutmeg into the apple mixture and cook another 5 minutes or until the apples are caramelized, tender and the liquid is absorbed.
- Set aside to cool while preparing the topping.
- In a medium mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, soda and salt. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the butter until the mixture resemble coarse meal. Stir in the walnuts and press the topping into clumps.
- Spread the apples over the crust and sprinkle with the topping. Press the topping down into the apples to make an even layer. Bake about 40 minutes or until the topping is golden brown. Cool completely then cut into 2-inch bars.
Recipe Notes
recipe adapted from Food and Wine.
Triple the recipe and bake in a 15x17-inch pan.
Bourbon Caramel Sauce
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
20 mins
Luscious and rich with a nice smooth bourbon flavor
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon bourbon
- 1/2 teaspoon Fleur De Sel salt
Instructions
- Combine the sugar and water in a medium sauce pan. Heat over medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer. Swirl the pan but do not scrape the sides. Continue cooking until the caramel becomes a deep brown amber color. Remove from the heat and add the cream. Whisk taking care not to scrape the sides of the pan. Add the bourbon and salt and whisk until smooth. Cool and store in an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Recipe Notes
( Bourbon Caramel Sauce adapted from Williams-Sonoma)
We enjoyed a long three day weekend and actually did something we hardly ever do – we went to a movie! We watch movies at home but rarely go out to the theater. We saw Gravity in 3D IMAX and I must admit, I hardly took a deep breath the entire movie. It is seriously intense and suspenseful – wow. If felt exhausted when we left the theater. I need to get out more – haha.
I didn’t want the day to get by without wishing my son Patrick and his wife Callie – a very Happy 1st Anniversary! I can’t believe they’ve been married a year already. It was a gorgeous wedding and she was a stunning bride. Such fun!
Have a great week! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Tricia
Hi..looks amazing! Thinking about making for Thanksgiving!
Are you referring to a 15 x 17 jelly roll pan?
Gina
Cambria , ca
Hi Gina! No I think that particular glass pan is 11×7 but you could use a 9×9-inch pan with the same results. Sorry – I’ll add the information to my recipe. You could double and make it in an 11×14-inch pan too. Thanks for the great question. Hope you love these as much as we do. Thanks!
Oh..Thanks for responding so quickly:)
I do have this Williams and Sonoma 9 x 13 pan?
Think it would work or maybe invest in a glass pan?
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/usa-pan-traditional-finish-9-inch-by-13-inch-cake-pan/?pkey=ccake-pans%7Cclassic-cake-pans&&ccake-pans|classic-cake-pans#viewLargerHeroOverlay
Gina
Thats perfect Gina – just double the recipe and I think it will be great. The bars may be a bit thicker but that’s not a bad thing. Here’s a link to the original recipe from Food and Wine. Enjoy! http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/apple-pie-bars
Many thanks! Enjoy the holidays.
Gina
Thanks, you too!
I would be licking the plate, Tricia 🙂
HI Tricia, like the apple pie bars, Look to me amazing and delicious. Surely like to try it. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe. Keep sharing.
HI Tricia, love the apple pie bars – they look so good I could probably eat the entire batch! The wedding photos are so beautiful too!
Oh, Tricia. I think you have knocked it out of the park! Everything about this says delectable and those wedding pics say delightful! And I think I would have a hard time at the movie though it sounds really good. I cry at the drop of a hat anymore!
Such smiling, happy wedding photos! I love the bubbles. 🙂 Wouldn't it be wonderful if every day could be as joyful, hopeful, love-filled and carefree as a wedding day?<br />These apple bars are so much easier than dealing with pie crust! The flavors sound great (those little extra splash-glug swigs can't hurt) and the ability to make-ahead puts this on my holiday baking list. Thanks,
This looks very good, especially with the sauce running down the side.
i love eating hand held desserts that combine all the flavors of the classic/original. What I love about your bars the most is that all the different textures are still there in the bar same as the pie! Love it!
Mmmmm….looks so good! I can't wait to try the bourbon caramel sauce. 🙂
Wow, this is an amazing dessert, my mouth started watering as soon as I saw the first picture and kept on more and more as I read. It sounds like the perfect dessert for autumn and that bourbon caramel sauce is certainly the crowning glory Tricia. Love seeing those wedding pictures and that beaming couple, hope they had a wonderful anniversary and many more to come!
I'm sighing over your entire series of photos. Seriously, I could pour that sauce over everything! What a spectacular dessert. I love the wedding photos too, happy anniversary to them both!
This is a winning dessert all around! Thanks so my for sharing the recipe. Great wedding photos:)
What a stunner! The caramel sauce and ice cream…my G, who could ever resist it! I seriously can't!
Happy Anniversary to Patrick and Callie!! wow, a year has passed quickly! <br /><br />Apples, shortbread, bourbon, caramel and ice cream… couldn't go wrong!! And, you make it so beautiful!! blessings ~ tanna
This dessert is stunning and that bourbon caramel sauce just takes it over the top! It is definitely restaurant-worthy and impressive on any holiday table. <br />Congrats to your son on his first anniversary! And about 'Gravity'…a friend of mine saw it and said she cried all through and after the movie! I am not a movie buff and I'll be staying clear away…I don't think my