DELICIOUS APPLE CRUMBLE BARS

By efriend

Note: These bars will freeze very well after baking. Just ensure you wrap with plastic wrap and freeze only when completely cooled. Simply allow to defrost in the fridge when you wish to serve them.

Ingredients

• 11 1/2 oz /325 g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup / 200 g sugar
• 3 1/2 cups / 430 g all-purpose / plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 apples, peeled. I use Granny Smiths
• 1/2 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 8 oz or 225 g Cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C and grease a 8 × 8-inch pan all over, including the sides.

The base and topping:

2. Add the flour, salt, butter and sugar in a mixer and pulse until ROUGH LARGE crumbs. Remove HALF of the mixture and set that aside, then pulse the remaining half until FINE crumbs.

NB: You want to have large crumbs for the topping so it will have a nice crumbly texture.
3 . Add the FINE crumb mixture to the pan and press down, make it firm and then place in the oven for 30 minutes.
4. Peel and cube the apples into chunks and squeeze the lemon juice over and sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of sugar and the ground cinnamon. Coat the chunks well.

5. In a separate bowl, add the cream cheese and using a fork, give it a little whisk to loosen it, then add it to the apple chunks and coat. Set aside.

6. When the base is ready from the oven, remove and spread the apple mixture all over, and then roughly spread the remaining crumb topping over the apples. Try and leave the topping so it is a bit uneven and bumpy so you get nice crispy bits!
Return to the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

7. Once ready, remove from the oven and allow to completely cool. Then cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours. Overnight is even better. This will make slicing very easy and the filling will firm up nicely.
Slice and serve with a dollop of whipped cream, ice cream or simply on its own with a nice cup of coffee.