Apple Pie Bars

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Enjoy our Gooey Apple Pie Bars – they’re soft, full of yummy caramel, and perfect for fall!

We love baking with apples; add our popular Applesauce Cake or Apple Turnovers to your list for future baking projects.

A stack of apple pie bars showcasing their delicious texture and flavor.

The Best Apple Pie Bars

Apple Pie meets Carmelitas in these incredible Apple Pie Bars, and I’m all for it. These bars are the perfect apple treat; they’re gooey, chewy, and have just the right amount of apple.

They’re unlike any treat I’ve ever had, and I can’t get enough of them! These bars don’t have a distinct caramel layer; instead, the caramel bakes into the apples, creating an ultra-gooey center.

The apples bake up super soft, resulting in an overall chewy, gooey bar. If you love salted caramel, add a sprinkle of sea salt flakes and prepare for a new dessert obsession.

Butter melting in a pan with dry ingredients being added to make the apple pie crumble bars, and apples mixed with lemon, flour, and spices.

Ingredients In This Recipe

CRUST + TOPPING:

  • Unsalted Butter: Adds richness and helps bind the crust and topping, also used in the caramel sauce for texture.
  • Brown Sugar: Provides sweetness and a molasses flavor in these Apple Pie Bars.
  • Flour: Forms the structure of the crust and topping and thickens the apple mixture.
  • Old-Fashioned Oats: Adds chewiness and a nutty flavor.
  • Cinnamon, Salt, and Baking Soda Blend: Enhances flavors, aids in browning and rising, and adds warmth and spice.
  • Vanilla Extract: Enhances flavors in the crust, topping, and caramel.

FILLING:

  • Peeled and Diced Apples: The main component of the filling.
  • Lemon Juice: Prevents browning of apples and adds brightness.
  • Apple Pie Spice: Complements the apple flavor.
  • Caramels: Creates a gooey, sweet layer in the Apple Pie Bars filling.
  • Heavy Cream: Smooths and enriches the caramel sauce.

Caramel and cream being melted and poured over the first layer, followed by adding the delicious topping.

How To Make Apple Pie Bars

  1. Prep: Preheat oven, line a pan with parchment, and melt butter.
  2. Mix Crumble: Combine cooled butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon-salt-baking soda blend, and vanilla. Split in half.
  3. Layer Crust: Press half the crumble mix into the pan.
  4. Prepare Apples: Toss diced apples with lemon juice, apple pie spice, and flour. Spread over crust.
  5. Caramel Sauce: Melt caramels with cream, stir in vanilla, and pour over apples.
  6. Top Layer: Sprinkle remaining crumble on top.
  7. Bake: Bake until edges brown. Cool for an hour.

QUICK TIP

Don’t forget to line the pan with parchment paper; it makes a world of difference for removing Apple Pie Bars (and later on for clean-up)! Leave an overhang of parchment paper so you can pull the bars from the tray onto a counter to cut.

The finished apple pie bars recipe cut and ready to eat, warm with a perfect texture.

STORAGE

Can Apple Pie Bars Be Frozen?

  • Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
  • Refrigerate for longer freshness, up to a week.
  • For freezing, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and then foil; Apple Pie Bars can last up to 3 months. Thaw before serving.

More Apple Desserts

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Apple Pie Bars

5 from 4 votes
Enjoy our Gooey Apple Pie Bars - they're soft, full of yummy caramel, and perfect for fall!
A stack of apple pie bars showcasing their delicious texture and flavor.
Print Recipe

Apple Pie Bars

A stack of apple pie bars showcasing their delicious texture and flavor.
5 from 4 votes
Enjoy our Gooey Apple Pie Bars - they're soft, full of yummy caramel, and perfect for fall!
Course Dessert, Snack, Vegetarian
Cuisine American
Keyword apple pie bars
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 28 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 8 minutes
Servings 16 bars
Chelsea Lords
Calories 593kcal
Cost $5.12

Ingredients

Crust + Topping:

  • 1.5 cups (24 tbsp; 340g) unsalted butter
  • 1.5 cups (216g) light (or dark) brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 2 cups (264g) white, all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups (199g) old-fashioned oats
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling

  • 3.5 cups (406g) peeled and diced apples (I use a mix of Honeycrisp and Granny Smith)
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice (or extra cinnamon)
  • 2 tablespoons white, all-purpose flour
  • 13.5 ounces regular caramels unwrapped (3 bags, 4.51 oz each) (See Note 1)
  • 2 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Optional: sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  • PREP: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13-inch pan with parchment paper and set aside. Melt the 1 and 1/2 cups butter in the microwave and the set aside to cool back to room temperature.
  • CRUMBLE: In a large bowl, mix the melted and cooled butter (if the butter is still warm/hot it will make this crumble mixture greasy and prone to burning), brown sugar, flour, oats, baking soda, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and salt. Divide the mixture in half and press 1 half of it into the prepared 9x13-inch pan.
  • APPLES: Peel and core the apples, and then chop into small (~1/4th inch) pieces. Place the small pieces in a bowl and toss them with the lemon juice. Coat them in the flour and apple pie spice and sprinkle coated apples over top of the (unbaked) bottom crust.
  • CARAMELS: Place the unwrapped the caramels and the heavy cream in a medium-sized pot over medium-low heat. Heat and stir until completely smooth and then set aside to slightly cool and thicken. Do not heat above medium low; be patient while melting or the caramels will get hard. Once smooth and removed from the heat, stir in the 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and set aside. When slightly cooled, drizzle and gently spread caramel evenly on top of the apple layer.
  • TOP LAYER: Crumble and sprinkle the remaining crumble mixture on top of the caramel.
  • BAKE: Bake the bars in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges and the top doesn't look wet or gooey. Remove from the oven and let stand at room temperature for at least an hour to set up. The bars are crumbly and hot straight out of the oven and they harden a bit with a gooey soft center after a few hours (Overall these bars are quite gooey/chewy).
  • STORAGE: Store bars in an airtight container at room temperature. These bars are best used by end of the second day. After that they begin to lose texture and flavor and become mushy. These bars don't freeze/thaw well.

Video

Recipe Notes

Note 1: Caramels: I recommend Werther’s soft(not original) caramels. They generally come in 4.51-ounce bags, so you’ll need three bags for this recipe. Here’s a visual of the bag. Do not use caramel bits; they don't work well in this recipe.

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 1bar | Calories: 593kcal | Carbohydrates: 91g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 284mg | Potassium: 285mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 43g | Vitamin A: 620IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 83mg | Iron: 3mg

We do our best to provide accurate nutritional analysis for our recipes. Our nutritional data is calculated using a third-party algorithm and may vary, based on individual cooking styles, measurements, and ingredient sizes. Please use this information for comparison purposes and consult a health professional for nutrition guidance as needed.

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13 Comments

  1. I have a whole bunch of Granny Smith apples just waiting to be used. These bars look incredible. I love that ooey gooey salted caramel!

  2. I love apple pie, but I bake bars more often — they’re just easier and they feed a crowd more! These look heavenly with all that caramel

  3. These look sooooo yummy! I seriously grabbed my husband so we could drool over these together! Great post and beautiful photos, as per usual!

  4. Ermagherd… look at that caramel! I’m such a sucker for apples and caramel. Want this for lunch right this second!

  5. 5 stars
    I made these for the first time ever last night and they. were. so. good. This recipe is perfect! Everything goes so well with each other! I could eat the entire pan full all by myself! Whew!

    1. Haha!! I think I did eat most of the pan by myself, I couldn’t stop 🙂 So glad you liked these!!

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