Made with a shortbread crust, spiced apple filling, streusel topping, and homemade salted caramel, apple pie bars are just as delicious as apple pie, but much simpler to make. You’ll love this fun twist on a classic dessert!
Without a doubt, apple pie is my favorite dessert. I love the combination of sweet and tart spiced apples with the buttery, flaky pie crust. It’s cozy, comforting, and simply irresistible. I have the recipe memorized and make it year-round, not just at Thanksgiving. Today’s recipe is the bar version of my salted caramel apple pie (the first apple pie recipe I ever shared on my website!). While I love the pie making process, sometimes we don’t have hours to prepare a dessert, which is where apple pie BARS come in. No traditional pie crust, but same delicious flavors.
It’s why I’ve created bar versions of some of the most popular pies on my site, such as pumpkin pie bars, cherry pie bars, and blueberry pie bars.
3 Layers to Love
- Shortbread Crust: The buttery shortbread crust is just like my favorite pie crust recipe, only easier. It’s simply perfect as the base layer for all your favorite bar desserts. I actually use the same shortbread crust in my recipe for raspberry streusel bars and double the recipe for my lemon bars. It comes together quickly—no waiting for pie dough to chill.
- Apple Pie Filling: No canned filling here. You only need 5 ingredients to make your own apple pie filling and it tastes incredible!
- Streusel Topping: Instead of a top layer of pie crust like you see on traditional apple pies, we’re topping these apple pie bars with streusel. It’s a scaled up version of the topping on our caramel apple cheesecake pie. Lots of streusel because the more streusel the better. 🙂
Best Apples for Apple Pie Bars
Whenever I make apple pie bars, apple pie, or even apple cake, I always use 2 different kinds of apples for more depth of flavor. (One sweet variety, one tart variety.)
Here are some I suggest:
- Sweet apples I love: Jazz, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Gala, Fuji, and Cortland
- Tart apples I love: Granny Smith, Braeburn, Jonathan, and Pacific Rose
For a detailed list of my favorite apple varieties and when to use each, you can visit my post The Best Apples for Baking.
Overview: How to Make Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars
Homemade apple pie bars are incredibly simple to make. There’s just a few steps before you have a delicious fall dessert on your hands!
- Make the shortbread crust. Press the mixture into the bottom of an 8×8 inch pan.
- Bake the shortbread crust for 15 minutes.
- Make the apple pie filling.
- Make the streusel topping. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs.
- Layer the apple pie filling evenly on top of the crust. It will look like there are too many apple slices, so layer them tightly and press them down to fit.
- Sprinkle on the streusel topping.
- Bake. These bars take about 30-35 minutes, or until the streusel is golden brown.
- Chill the bars. Allow them to cool for at least 20 minutes at room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (or overnight).
- Cut into bars and drizzle with salted caramel.
Salted Caramel Topping
A generous drizzle of salted caramel takes these incredible apple pie bars to a whole new level. Have you ever made salted caramel before? You must. My recipe for homemade salted caramel is liquid gold and dangerously good. Besides these apple pie bars, it’s delicious on ice cream, pancakes, with apple slices, and more—find 50 ways to eat salted caramel here.
Be warned: Once you start, you won’t be able to stop. I make a batch of salted caramel almost every week and see no problem with this!
One bite of these sweet and salty apple pie bars and you’ll wonder why you haven’t made them sooner!
More Apple Desserts
- Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake
- Apple Bundt Cake
- Caramel Apples
- Apple Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting
- Brown Butter Apple Blondies
- Apple Turnovers
- Apple Pie
Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes
- Yield: 12-16 bars
- Category: Bars
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Baking apple pie as bars is so much easier!
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
Apple Filling
- 2 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced (1/4 inch thick)*
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Streusel
- 1/2 cup (43g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 1/3 cup (70g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup (31g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp; 56g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- homemade salted caramel or store-bought caramel sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F (149°C). Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper leaving enough overhang on all sides. Set aside.
- Make the crust: Stir the melted butter, granulated 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 and then remove from the oven. (As the crust bakes, you can prepare the filling and streusel.)
- Make the apple filling: Combine the sliced apples, flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a large bowl until all of the apples are evenly coated. Set aside.
- 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.
- Turn the oven up to 350°F (177°C). 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 30–35 minutes or until the streusel is golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes at room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (or overnight). Lift the foil or parchment out of the pan using the overhang on the sides and cut into bars. I usually cut them into 16 smaller bars, but you can cut them into 12 larger bars. Once cut, drizzle some salted caramel sauce on top of each. These apple pie bars can be enjoyed warm, at room temperature, or even cold.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: The bars will stay fresh in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 days. You can freeze the bars for up to 3 months. Then, thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving and drizzling with caramel.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 8-inch Square Baking Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Rubber Spatula or Wooden Spoon | Pastry Blender
- Apples: I like to use two different kinds of apples for a more complex flavor. I typically use 1 tart apple variety such as Granny Smith, and 1 sweeter apple variety such as Pink Lady. You’ll end up with about 3-4 cups. A little more or less is OK, based on your preference of filling.
- Larger Batch: Recipe can easily be doubled and baked in a 9×13-inch pan. Pre-bake the crust for 18 minutes, then extend the bake time in step 5 to about 45-55 minutes.
Keywords: apple pie bars, salted caramel apple pie bars
Can I use frozen apples from my freezer?
Hi Claire, We haven’t tested this with frozen apples. Fresh fruit is best, but for best results with frozen, thaw the fruit first. Blot dry as much as you can before using in the filling. Let us know if you give it a try!
This is my favorite autumn recipe to carry into work to spoil my colleagues. One of them bursts into tears at the site of it, she loves it so much. I stumbled across an AMAZING caramel tweak this morning. I made the bars last night and only made the caramel for the topping this morning. The heavy cream I thought was in my fridge turned out to be imaginary, so I ended up using flavored coffee creamer. I figured if it came out badly, I would just bring the treats in without the caramel topping. I used International Delight Vanilla Canoli Creme Latte flavored creamer and OMG!!! It turned out so delicious, I cannot wait to try making other flavored caramels with other creamer flavors! I don’t make caramel often enough to find out whether it affected the consistency badly. I bet pumpkin pie spice creamer would be spectacular with this recipe.
★★★★★
These were sooooo good. Added pecans in with the apple mixture, then added a few pecans in the streusel mixture. We ate the bars within 20 minutes of taking them out of the oven….there was no way that my kids were going to wait. We just drizzled store-bought caramel sauce on top and served with vanilla ice cream.
★★★★★
These are even better than apple pie!!
Husband, coworker and friend approved.
Thanks for a perfect recipe!
★★★★★
Oh my goodness, these are incredible!!
★★★★★
Overall, this recipe was pretty good. The apple layer was delicious. I felt like the crust was way too greasy and could be lightened up. The crumble layer was good. I did not make the homemade caramel. Overall, with some tinkering it could be very good.
★★★
Can I add salt to a store bought bottle of Gharedelli (sp) sauce & warm it in a sauce pan?
Hi Patsy, we haven’t tested a store bought caramel in these bars so can’t offer any advice. Let us know if you try it!
Hi I know that this might be the lazy way to do it but do you know if apple pie filling works as well in this recipe? I have everything else on hand aside from the apples so was hoping that would be a similar consistency! Thank you
★★★★★
Hi Adele, we haven’t tested this recipe with canned apple pie filling, but it should work. It may end up being quite sweet.
This is a major winner!!! Just made these over the weekend for a family gathering and took a risk on a new recipe. So glad I did! I made the 9X13 according to the recipe using granny smith and honeycrisp apples. I was concerned the par baking of the crust wasn’t enough (it looked very oily still), but I had faith and it yields a really solid and delicious bottom crust for the exquisitely delicious top layers. I was also worried it would be a little too sweet with the caramel too (also a FAB recipe on it’s own!), but it was perfect. I did two little additions to the apple filling part using some of my recent King Arthur purchases – added a TBSP of the Instant ClearGel to help set the apple layer and subbed on TBSP of the sugar for Boiled Cider to intensify the apple flavor. Delicous!!!
★★★★★
These are delicious and fairly easy to make. My only issue was the crust did not look done after 15 min in a 300 degree oven. They were still soft and doughy even after baking the bars for 35 min. I made 3 pans of these bars and the last two pans, I just baked the crust at 350 vs 300 for 15 min and had a much better product. Very tasy!
★★★★
Another great recipe 🙂 I made this with some modifications – since I used Gala apples as filling, I slightly reduced the sugar as they are a sweeter variety. And I’m not a huge fan of the streusel topping, to be honest, so I sprinkled the bars with demerara sugar and chopped roasted hazelnuts, and it was delicious (even without caramel…. which I was just too lazy to make, haha). They were great even after freezing and thawing too. A perfect fall recipe!
★★★★★
These apple pie bars were fantastic. Quick question. I assume you take the shortbread crust out of the oven after 15 minutes. However after the step bout making the streusel, the instructions say “remove the crust from the oven”. Was I supposed to leave the crust in the oven past the 15 minutes (I didn’t). I’m confused
★★★★★
Hi, I’m excited to try this recipe. My question is I have caramel chips, can I incorporate these in one of the layers? My thought was placing in between the apples and streusel.
Hi Lily, you can definitely give it a try. Keep in mind that baking chips contain stabilizers that often prevent them from melting fully, so they may not melt into a layer of caramel. But, they’d still be a delicious addition nonetheless!
HI Sally,
I made the doubled version in a 9″ x 13″ pan and at 18 minutes, the shortbread crust still looked very wet and undercooked. I put it back in the oven 2-3 more times, for 2-3 minutes each time. When I saw a tiny bit of browning along the edge, I removed it and continued with the recipe. I haven’t tasted them yet so am not sure. Just wondering if that very undercooked stage of shortbread is what was wanted or did I do the correct thing in putting it back for an additional 7-8 minutes until I saw browning? BTW, my oven is at correct temperature according to thermostat and oven thermometer.
★★★★★
Hi Geoffrey, how was the crust after the complete baking time? It’s okay if it looks slightly undercooked after that pre-bake time, since it will go back in with the apple and streusel topping and bake for quite a while longer. However, if you like a crispier crust, adding a few additional minutes is perfectly fine. Hope you enjoyed these!
Due to the caramel, do these need to be refrigerated? They look delicious, btw!
Hi Julie, The bars will stay fresh in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 days.
Could this recipe work if you made it single serves in a muffin pan rather than bars?
Hi Kimberly! You should be able to bake them individually in a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Let us know how it goes!
Outstanding recipe. Made a batch today and they were delicious. This is now my go to recipe for apple bars. Didn’t change a thing in the recipe. YUMMY.
★★★★★
I am making these for my brother in law who loves apple pies but he like the apples quite soft. Will the baking time accomplish that texture or do I need to saute the apples a bit before baking?
Hi Shari, The apples will be soft but will still have some texture. If you want them to be extra soft you can slice them a bit thinner and/or slightly pre-cook them first.
These are AMAZING. I don’t think I need to ever make an apple pie again. They freeze beautifully so I can make an extra batch, cut up into squares, wrap individually, and then pop one out when I need a treat. So yummy!
★★★★★
I love the crust and the topping, which I made extra. 🙂 I just wish I had used more apples. This is the first recipe I used with my first home grown apples. They are great raw, but must lose some flavor in the baking.
★★★★★
These are one of the best deserts that I make. I make a big pan 9 x 13. Cut into
bars and freeze. Always have on hand. Just leave out and defrost a few hours before
serving with caramel and vanilla ice cream. Amazing! Thank you Sally.
★★★★★
First time making them bringing them to a barbecue at a friends house will let y know thank y
Absolute perfection! I’ve never made bars or even shortbread but I so loved making this recipe. They turned out amazing!
★★★★★
You must hate this type of question BUT I made your blueberry lemon tart and was gorgeous! Can I make this in a tart pan?
Hi Carol! We haven’t tested that with this recipe, but it should work great!
A keeper!
I subbed EVCO for the butter for my flatmate who is vegan, used GF flour and skipped the oats for myself and left out a container of butterscotch caramel I had leftover from another recipe for people to drizzle on their bars and it came out amazing. I loved mixing the two kinds of apples. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. I look forward to making it again with real butter for the buttery flavour which I personally miss and prefer.
★★★★★
Delicious! Easy and much quicker way to get my apple pie fix without making the whole pie. Keeping this recipe for sure!
★★★★★
Thank you! I will give it a try soon.
★★★★★
This was SUCH a great recipe! I was able to make it vegan by using vegan butter and organic sugar. I also added pecans to the streusel topping. I even made a vegan caramel sauce but actually think it’s not necessary and I think in the future I’ll make the bars without the sauce at all… the topping is so rich and delicious on its own, it doesn’t need anything additional. Thanks for this terrific dessert!
★★★★★
Hi Sally, I was wondering if I can add Pecans ? I love walnuts in apple pie / cakes
Hi Irina! We haven’t tested it but chopped pecans in place of the oats in the crumble topping should work! Let us know if you try anything
I make this recipe all the time! I use whatever fruit is in season and it’s always a hit. Friends are constantly asking me when I’m making more!! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
★★★★★
Absolutely fantastic!
★★★★★
I Love Love Love these apple pie bars and recommend them often to my friends!!! I particularly like how buttery and EASY the shortbread crust is. I use it for any bar I make. It is the best. Would you have any idea how to modify the crust to make a roll and slice shortbread cookie? I’ve seen other roll and slice cookies on your site but not a plain shortbread roll and slice. I think it would make a ridiculously fabulous cookie. (I’m going to try your other shortbread cookie in the meantime). Thank you
★★★★★
The bars would have been delicious…had it been for the lack of a helpful Hint to use nonstick spray on the parchment paper. The paper stuck on the bottom of the bars. Cooked into them I should say. I was supposed to drop them off at the fire house for our local firefighters. Now they are in the trash…I’m very disappointed and fustrated. I’ll go elsewhere for my recipes to ensure proper directions.
★
Hi Vanessa! Parchment paper should be non stick. Do you think it’s possible you used wax paper instead?
Lmao so for a simple technical error, you give the whole recipe one star and write off the website all together…?