Deconstructed Apple Pie Bars

Deconstructed Apple Pie Bars

The other day I came home and there were so many apples that were peeled, cored, and quartered just sitting in a giant mixing bowl. My mom had bought too many and decided she was going to convert them all into applesauce. I’ve definitely outgrown the days of mushy applesauce, so I wasn’t too thrilled at the prospect. I did, however, really want some apple pie. But, it was 9 PM, so I wasn’t going to have a decently chilled pie crust. And let’s be real, making a good pie is so hard.

I’m not really sure how this all came to be, but I started with a brown butter shortbread crust, added some apples for an apple filling, and then decided that it wasn’t really a filling if there wasn’t a topper, so I added a crumble from what is usually a crumble coffee cake. And that is how this combination really came to be, but really, as one of my coworkers said

what could be bad?

So call it what you may, apple pie bars, deconstructed apple pie, or Julia-just-didn’t-feel-like-making-pie-crust apple pie, but the results are amazing.

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Ingredients

Brown butter shortbread crust

• 227g (1 cup) salted butter, melted and browned

• 100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 265g (2 cups + 2 tbsp) all-purpose flour

Faux apple pie filling

• 4 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into 3-4 mm slices

• 50g (4 tbsp) granulated sugar

• 32g (4 tbsp) all-purpose flour

• 2 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp corn starch

• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Coffee cake crumble topping

• 112g (1/2 cup) butter, melted and browned

• 156g (1 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour

• 105g (1/2 cup) light brown sugar

• 3/4 tsp cinnamon

Salted butterscotch sauce

• 210g (1 cup) light brown sugar

• 60 ml (1/4 cup) milk

• 28g (1/4 cup) butter, cold

• 1 tsp pink himalayan salt

Items

• saucepan for browning the butter

• saucepan for making the salted butterscotch sauce

• 9”x13” glass baking tray

• parchment paper

Instructions

Preparing

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Line the baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
   I find that measuring to the ends where the “handles” of the pyrex tray is is usually accurate. I leave a bit of an overhang by folding the parchment paper at the corners of the tray. This helps with lifting the finished bars out, since I have found that baking it without the parchment paper makes it very difficult to cut then remove the bars.

Brown the butter

1. Place butter in the saucepan.

2. Turn on the heat to medium-high.

3. Swirl the pan. Place the pan back on the heat. And repeat over and over again
   After the butter completely melts, it starts to bubble and boil. Over time it starts to foam, and this is usually when the butter starts browning. Be careful not to let it burn or get burnt. Stop when the butter turns an amber color.

4. Transfer the browned butter into a heat-resistant mixing bowl.

Make the brown butter shortbread crust

1. When the melted butter has cooled, add all the other ingredients into the bowl.

2. Stir until everything is evenly combined.

3. Dump out the mixture into the lined baking tray.

4. Use fingers and press the mixture to form an even crust.

5. Blind bake for 18 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.

Make the faux apple pie filling

1. Combine all the ingredients in a shallow bowl or tray and mix until all apple slices are evenly coated.

Make the coffee cake crumble

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl until the mixture just starts to come together and clumps form.

Make the salted butterscotch sauce

Full disclaimer: I’m not a caramel expert, and I may have eyeballed these amounts and winged making this sauce. According to Google, melted (although really, it’s “decomposed” as my science-loving coworkers have told me) granulated white sugar makes caramel while melted granulated brown sugar makes butterscotch? Supposedly, you should not stir so as to avoid introducing water from the air to the mixture to avoid sugar crystallization and a grainy sauce? Anyways, here’s what I did:

1. Threw all the ingredients in the saucepan over medium heat and occasionally half-swirled the mixture until it started boiling.

2. Pondered when a good stopping point was as things went from brown to slightly more amber on the sides.

3. Stopped after 5 minutes and transferred to a heat-resistant mason jar.

Putting everything together

1. Layer the apple slices onto the hot, baked shortbread crust.

2. Evenly distribute the coffee cake crumble over the top.

3. Bake for 35 minutes until the coffee crumble starts to turn a golden brown.

4. Allow the bars to cool to room temperature before sticking them in the refrigerator to cool for at least 2 hours or overnight.

5. Wipe the knife clean between each cut.

6. Serve with butterscotch sauce on the side.

Best enjoyed microwaved for about 15 seconds with some salted butterscotch sauce.

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