Description
It’s really easy to make, serve & eat apple pie bars. You make a slab pie in a rimmed baking sheet and voila!
Ingredients
Scale
For the crust (see notes for store-bought crust instructions):
- 2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (double my gluten-free crust recipe for gluten-free)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 1 and 1/2 sticks (12 Tbsp.) butter
- about 6–8 Tbsp. ice water
For the apple pie filling:
- 8–9 medium-large apples (I used a blend of Granny Smith and Gala), peeled, cored & sliced
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown or coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup arrowroot powder (or tapioca or corn starch)
- 2 teaspoons apple pie spice
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 lemon, juiced
For the cinnamon vanilla glaze:
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp. milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Place the butter in the freezer 15-30 mins before making the crust. Then, get out a glass or bowl and fill with ice water while you get out the remaining ingredients for your crust to make sure the water is nice and cold.
- If you have a food processor, add the dry crust ingredients (flour, sugar & salt) to the food processor and pulse to combine. If you don’t use a fork or pastry cutter or fork, and add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk together.
- Cube the cold butter and add it to the dry mixture. Incorporate the butter with a food processor, pastry cutter, or fork until pea-sized crumbs form. If you’re using a food processor, just pulse a few times.
- Add the water, 1 tbsp at a time, until dough pulls together. Add more water if needed.
- Shape the dough into a rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 mins (but up to 2 days) before rolling it out.
- When you’re ready to roll the dough out, let the dough come to room temperature for a few minutes on the counter and roll it out into a rectangle that will be large enough to cover the bottom of your baking sheet/dish (I used a 13×18 in rimmed sheet*).
- Lay crust into the sheet/dish and press all the way to the sides. Refrigerate again for about 15-20 minutes before adding the filling.
- Preheat the oven to 425 F while you peel your apples and let the crust chill.
- Mix together the apples, granulated sugar, brown sugar, arrowroot powder or starch, apple pie spice, cinnamon and lemon juice.
- Remove the crust from the fridge and pour the apple filling on top, spreading to the edges. Slide it into the oven for 15 minutes.
- After the 15 minutes is up, reset the temperature to 350F and bake for about 30 additional minutes, or until the apples are soft and the edges of the crust are golden brown.
- Let the pie cool for 3-4 hours before serving. When you’re ready to serve, whisk together the glaze ingredients and drizzle all over the bars.
Notes
- My baking sheet is a 13×18 inch, but really any larger dish or baking sheet with a rim will do. You may need to adjust your cooking time to be a bit longer if you use a smaller baking vessel, but the recipe works just fine.
- If you want to go for store-bought, use 1 and 1/2 crusts (you can use 2 crusts, your crust will be thicker and your bake time will be longer). But I recommend saving the extra dough for decorations for another pie, or make something else with it, like a hand pie, if you go the store-bought route.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: apple, apple pie, pie bar
