Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars

Wolf River apples are well suited to baked goods that are meant to be dry rather than juicy so Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars are the perfect apple-cation for them. I tend to tone down the amount of sugar in most of the things I bake so I considered skipping the salted caramel sauce, but my daughter and son-in-law insisted that they would sacrifice themselves and eat all the sauce if I didn’t want any. So I reduced the sugar in the crust, filling and streusel a bit and added more apples, just to make myself feel better, and made the sauce. Although there were offers to finish off the sauce on toast, over ice cream, or just with a spoon, in the end we decided just to make another batch of the Apple Pie Bars.

Ingredients:

Shortbread Crust

  • 1/2 cup butter, melted

  • 1/4 cup sugar

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  • 1/4 tsp salt

  • 1 cup white or whole wheat flour

Apple Filling

  • 5-6 large apples, thinly sliced ( if you use Wolf River you won’t need as many apples)

  • 2 Tbs flour

  • 1 Tbs sugar

  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Streusel

  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

  • 1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar

  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

  • 1/4 cup flour

  • 1/4 cup butter, cold and cubed

  • homemade salted caramel sauce (find the recipe online here)

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line the bottom and sides of a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang on all sides. Set aside.

  2. Make the crust: Stir the melted butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the flour, and stir until everything is combined. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes while you prepare the filling and streusel.

  3. Make the apple filling: Combine the sliced apples, flour, sugar, and spices together in a large bowl. Mix until all of the apples are evenly coated. Set aside.

  4. Make the streusel: Whisk the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour together in a medium bowl. Cut in the chilled butter with a pastry blender or two forks (or even with your hands) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.

  5. Remove the crust from the oven, and turn the oven up to 350°F. Evenly layer the apples on top of the warm crust. It will look like there are too many apple slices, so layer them tightly and press them down to fit. Sprinkle the apple layer with streusel and bake for 45–55 minutes or until the streusel is golden brown and the apples are tender but not mushy.

  6. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes at room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Lift the parchment out of the pan using the overhang on the sides, and cut into bars. You can drizzle some salted caramel sauce on top of each or let everyone add their own caramel sauce at the table. These apple pie bars can be enjoyed warm, at room temperature, or even cold.