Autumn is my favorite season of the year. Not just for the crisp, clean air and crunchy fallen leaves, but also for the apple desserts. My first apple dessert this fall was the "Apple Pie Streusel Bars" from Sally's Baking Addiction.
These bars have a shortbread crust made from melted butter, sugar, vanilla, salt, and flour. I pressed the crust into a parchment-lined pan and followed the recipe directions to bake it for 15 minutes at 300 degrees. Undercooked crusts are a particular pet peeve of mine and the crust didn't look sufficiently done, so I put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. (The bars pictured in the cookbook and in the photos included with the online version of the recipe both show a crust that looks a little pasty and raw, so I figured that some extra baking time couldn't hurt). The crust shrank a bit so that there was a small gap between the crust and the sides of the pan all the way around, but I was happy with its golden color.
The recipe says you should layer the apple filling on top of the warm crust, so I didn't wait for the crust to cool. The filling is a mixture of peeled and sliced apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg. The recipe in the cookbook calls for "2 large Granny Smith apples" with no weight specified. I was using Macoun apples that were relatively small. I was also doubling the recipe to bake it in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan, so I used seven apples that had a trimmed weight of 870 grams. It looked like too much apple, but the recipe warns that "It will look like there are too many apple slices, so layer them tightly and press them down to fit." I did the best I could to arrange the apples in compact layers and then sprinkled on a streusel made from old-fashioned oats, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and cold butter.
After I baked the bars and let them cool to room temperature, I put them in the fridge. They were easy to cut while cold. And I was surprised that even after doubling the baking time for the crust, it was still pale in the middle -- but it was at least cooked through. These bars were so delicious. I loved the thick layers of apples and the generous amount of hearty, buttery, cinnamon streusel topping. The apples were tender but retained a pleasantly firm texture. The online version of the recipe pairs these bars with a salted caramel sauce, which I'm sure is quite tasty -- but these bars didn't need anything else, so I was perfectly happy with my plain, un-sauced bars. These bars are a great way to evoke the essence of an apple pie, with much less work.
Recipe: "Apple Pie Streusel Bars" from Sally's Baking Addiction by Sally McKenney, available here.
These bars have a shortbread crust made from melted butter, sugar, vanilla, salt, and flour. I pressed the crust into a parchment-lined pan and followed the recipe directions to bake it for 15 minutes at 300 degrees. Undercooked crusts are a particular pet peeve of mine and the crust didn't look sufficiently done, so I put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. (The bars pictured in the cookbook and in the photos included with the online version of the recipe both show a crust that looks a little pasty and raw, so I figured that some extra baking time couldn't hurt). The crust shrank a bit so that there was a small gap between the crust and the sides of the pan all the way around, but I was happy with its golden color.
The recipe says you should layer the apple filling on top of the warm crust, so I didn't wait for the crust to cool. The filling is a mixture of peeled and sliced apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg. The recipe in the cookbook calls for "2 large Granny Smith apples" with no weight specified. I was using Macoun apples that were relatively small. I was also doubling the recipe to bake it in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan, so I used seven apples that had a trimmed weight of 870 grams. It looked like too much apple, but the recipe warns that "It will look like there are too many apple slices, so layer them tightly and press them down to fit." I did the best I could to arrange the apples in compact layers and then sprinkled on a streusel made from old-fashioned oats, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and cold butter.
Recipe: "Apple Pie Streusel Bars" from Sally's Baking Addiction by Sally McKenney, available here.
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