Brown Butter Apple Pie Bars
Brown butter adds nutty flavor to the crust and crumble topping in these apple pie bars, with a sweet and tart apple filling spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
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Ingredients
Apple Filling
- 3 lbs Honey Crisp apples about 6 large apples
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
Crust & Topping
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, divided
- ⅓ cup light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp baking powder
Maple Icing (optional)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp maple extract
- 1-2 tbsp cream
Instructions
Apple Filling
- Peel and core the apples, then chop into 1/2 inch pieces. Place in a saucepan.
- Add the lemon juice, sugar, brown sugar, flour and spices, and toss the apples to coat in the mixture.
- Bring the apples to a simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently. Reduce to medium low, and simmer, stirring frequently, for about 15 minutes, until the liquid is thick and syrupy and the apples have begun to soften.
- Set aside to cool slightly.
Crust & Topping
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper, or spray with non-stick baking spray.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, swirling the pan occasionally, until nutty brown solids form on the bottom of the pan. This should take about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour (reserving 1/4 cup of flour for later) with the brown sugar, salt and baking powder.
- As soon as the butter is browned, use a spatula to scrape the bottom of the pan to scrape up all the browned bits. Pour the hot butter over the flour mixture. Stir with a spoon to form it into a soft dough.
- Scoop 3/4 of the dough (reserving 1/4 of the dough for the crumb topping) into the prepared baking pan, and use your hands to press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Take the reserved 1/4 cup of flour and add it to the remaining 1/4 dough. (You may not need to use the entire 1/4 cup of flour - I usually start with 2 tbsp, then add a little more if the topping seems too moist.) Use a fork or pastry cutter to work the flour into the dough until you have a crumbly topping. Set aside.
- After the crust bakes for 15 minutes, take the pan out of the oven. Pour the apple filling over the hot crust, then sprinkle the apples with the crumb topping. Bake for another 30 minutes, until the filling is bubbling and the topping is golden brown.
- Cool completely before cutting into squares.
- Just like with apple pie, the apple filling in these bars will take a while (4-6 hours) to set and cool, before you can cut squares. If you don't mind them warm and messy, there's no need to wait that long, and you can just use a spoon to scoop up a serving to serve warm with ice cream.
Maple Icing (optional)
- Before serving, combine the icing ingredients in a bowl and stir vigorously with a spoon until smooth, adding more or less milk depending on how thick you want your icing to be.
- Immediately drizzle the icing over the bars. It will set in about 10 minutes.
Notes
Leftover apples bars should be stored in an airtight container, and will be good for up to three days.
For apple butter bars, replace the homemade apple filling with 1 1/2 cups prepared apple butter.
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