THE BEST APPLE PIE BARS

By peridot728

These are the best apple pie bars you’ll sink your teeth into this fall. These apple pie bars contain a buttery, flaky double-crust, with a cinnamony apple filling. The most irresistible salted caramel is drizzled over the dessert for a delicious finale.

Ingredients

• For Double Crust:
• Author: Chew Out Loud
• Yield: 16-20
• 2 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2/3 cup salted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
• 1-2 TB ice cold water
• For Filling:
• 6 cups thinly sliced Granny Smith apples (peeled and cored)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 Recipe for Salted Caramel Sauce (below)
• Optional Easy Icing:
• 1 cup powdered sugar, mixed with 2 TB milk

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350F with rack on lower middle position. Grease a 9×13 pan and set aside.

Make the Dough: In a large bowl, combine all ingredients for dough except for the butter. Stir to combine well. Use clean hands or a pastry cutter to work in the cold pieces of butter, until dough comes together to form a ball (small bits of visible butter in the dough is good.) If is too dry, add 1-2 TB of ice cold water to dough so that it forms a ball.

Divide dough into 1 smaller half and 1 larger half. Wrap up smaller half and place in fridge. Lightly flour a large working surface and roll out the larger half as evenly as you can, to fit the bottom and up the sides of a 9×13 pan. Press dough into bottom and sides of pan.

Make the filling: combine the apple slices with sugar and cinnamon, tossing to incorporate. Evenly spread filling on top of bottom crust in pan. Roll out the smaller half of dough the same way as before, trying to roll it out as evenly and thinly as possible to fit the rectangular pan. Place top crust over the apple slices. Seal the bottom and top crust together by pinching the together edges all around. It’s ok if it’s not perfect; just try to seal it together as much as you can. Make 1″ long slits across top crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake 50-60 minutes or until top crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Let cool completely on wire rack, uncovered. When dessert is cool, drizzle with desired amount of salted caramel sauce. Save the rest of the sauce for future use. If desired, make icing and drizzle over top. Slice into squares and serve.

***HOMEMADE SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE (4-INGREDIENT)
1 cup granulated sugar
6 TB unsalted butter, sliced into 1-inch pieces and softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp flaky sea salt
In a heavy saucepan, place sugar in an even layer. Heat sugar over medium-high heat, whisking frequently. Once it starts melting, whisk continuously as it cooks until all the clumps are melted down.
Turn heat to medium. Insert candy thermometer into the melted sugar and continue stirring until liquid turns red-brown in color. The minute your thermometer reaches 350F, carefully add all the butter — caramel may bubble up, so be careful.
Continue to whisk until fully melted. Once mixture is smooth, immediately, remove pan from heat. Carefully pour in the cream and whisk until a smooth thick sauce forms. Whisk in the flaky salt. Let sauce cool to almost-room temp before drizzling over dessert. Store leftover sauce in airtight glass container in fridge for future use.
NOTES
If you can’t find flaky sea salt, you can use coarse kosher salt in a pinch.
Caramel sauce can be kept in an airtight glass jar in fridge for up to a month. Great for gift-giving, too.
Chilled caramel sauce may need slight reheating in microwave before drizzling.

HOW TO MAKE THE BEST APPLE PIE BARS

My favorite baking apples for this recipe are granny smith. Granny apples have the tartness to offset the sweetness of the caramel topping. Granny smith apples also hold their shape well during baking.
The dough will be just enough for rolling into a double-crust for a 9×13 baking pan. You’ll need to roll it out evenly and thinly, for there to be enough coverage.
Be sure your butter is cold and cut into small cubes or thin slices; that will help with incorporating the butter into the dough, while still leaving some pea-sized bits of butter intact (see above image.)
The salted caramel drizzle can be made several days ahead of time. I usually have a container of it in my fridge, ready to warm up and use. Homemade salted caramel is simply unparalleled. Nothing store bought comes close.
The recipe includes a simple white icing, mainly for prettying up the apple dessert. Feel free to omit this if you’re short on time or you’d like to use less sugar overall.
That said, don’t skip the salted caramel. ?

NOTES:
Apple pie bars can keep for up to 2 days at moderate room temp, covered.
Make the caramel days ahead of time; it keeps very well in airtight container in fridge.