Hello Fall! This buttery and creamy Apple Crumb Bar is a nice way to welcome fall with open arms. For someone who is very picky when it comes to Apple dessert, I can say this Apple Crumb Bar is so far the BEST Apple Crumb Bar. I wouldn’t mind making this anytime of the year, and I hope you’ll feel the same way too once you try it.

I love Summer, but the time has come for me to welcome Fall and embrace the many delicious Fall recipes coming my way and yours too. The first thing that’s comes to my mind when I think about fall are the  many comfort food I love to eat, the likes of soup and pies. Of course it’s food related but I also love the changing colors of the leaves and the cozy feeling when watching Netflix at home. I prefer to focus on the fun side rather than the gloomy rainy days, I’m in Vancouver anyway and rain is what we are known for when it comes to weather. There’s so many Fall recipes I wanted to share, but I want to focus on my favorite and the simple recipes that keeps me cozy on cold rainy days. Simple recipes that will give me more time snuggling and bundled up in my sofa while reading my favorite book, or while working on my blog.

Soup is in our fall menu, I hope you had the chance to read my Fall kick-off post, 15 of my favorite soup guaranteed to keep warm and full. I also have the link at the end of the post, check them out, there could be one or more soup there that you might like. There’s more soup recipe to come your way, but for the meantime have a lot at what I have and start planning to have any of these in your next meal plan. Now let’s talk a little bit more about this Apple Crumb Bars.

The Base Crust

This Apple Crumb Bar uses the same base crust I used for my Blueberry Crumb Bars, Strawberry Crumb Bars, Pina Colada Crumb Bars and Peach Crumb Bars. Why fix something that is perfect as it is? So let’s use that same base, the creamy and buttery shortbread crust. This is a 5 ingredients buttery crust, simple and easy.

For the Apple Filling – Homemade Of Course 🙂

I used my Homemade Apple Filling. The same filling I used for my Apple Turnover and Mini Salted Caramel Apple Tart. They’re both so delicious, you cannot go wrong with any of them. Since we are using an apple filling, we are pre-baking base to get a more stable crust. Cooked apple filling have more moisture and it could make the base soggy if we just spread it on top before baking. Pre-baking also gave a nice texture and “snap” to the base crust.

The filling can be made a head of time, even one week ahead. I normally made more than what I need so that I have few more left for other apple desserts like Apple Turnover or Mini Salted Caramel Apple Tart, you cannot get too much Apple Filling especially during Fall, trust me on that. There are numerous ways that you can use Apple Filling, so go ahead and make a big batch and keep it in your refrigerator for later use. 

The Salted Caramel Sauce – Homemade Again

Now the toppings and Sauce, although optional, I would recommend give it a try as it makes a lot of difference in the taste. The addition of walnuts gave a nice texture and crunch and the drizzle of salted caramel adds creaminess and sweetness, plus a nice touch or caramel flavor. For me, apple and caramel sauce are match made in heaven. I used some chopped walnuts and few spoonful of my Homemade Salted Caramel, it cannot get any perfect than that. Every bite makes me fall in love with Fall. It’s creamy, buttery, sweet and tangy, crunchy with and sweet and salty caramel sauce. Yum! Let me show you how I made it. Let’s get stared! 

Dough Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup granulated Sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon Salt
• 6 tablespoon unsalted Butter, cold
• 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon Powder (or more if you like stronger flavor)

Filling Ingredients:

• 1 cup Cinnamon Apple Filling  (excess liquid drained or reduced)

Note:  Double the recipe for a bigger batch and bake in 8×8-inch pan. Start with the suggested 350F at 35-45 minutes time and adjust baking time as needed.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray with oil and line a 5-inch or  8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Make sure to leave some overhang for easy removal. Set aside.
2. Make the Filling:  Check my Homemade Cinnamon Apple Filling for the recipe. Cook the apple  filling longer until reduced and almost no sauce left. You want the apple filling to have less sauce to avoid making the crust soggy. Cool completely in the refrigerator. It is advisable to make this at least 1 day ahead so that the sauce is totally thick and dry.
3. Make the Crust: In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cut the butter into pieces and add it to the mixture. Using a mixer or a food processor, beat/mix on low-speed until you have coarse crumbs. You can also do it manually using a fork or a pastry cutter although it might take longer.
4. Chill the Crust: Divide the dough crust into 2 potion. Press 3/4 portion into the pan, firmly press it down into an even layer. Put in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes to harden the crust before blind baking (pre-baking) it. Reserve remaining 1/4 portion of the dough mixture for topping, keep refrigerated while you pre-bake the dough crust.
5. Pre-bake the Crust: Take out the chilled crust from the refrigerator. Pre-bake the dough crust at 350°F for about 20 minutes or until the top is set and the edges are lightly golden brown. Take out from the oven and add the filling and toppings.
6. Add the Filling & Toppings: Spread the apple filling mixture over the pre-baked dough pressed into the pan. Remove the remaining 1/4 of the dough crust from the refrigerator and mix the toasted walnuts.  Sprinkle mixture on top of apple filling. Return to the oven and bake at 350°F for 25 – 30 minutes or until lightly golden brown on the top. Check at 20 minutes mark to see if the top are already browning. . Remember that the based crust has been baked already, so you only need to topping to bake. As soon as you it nicely browned and bake, you can remove it from the oven even before the 25 minutes mark.
7. Cool: Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
8. Sauce: Drizzle top with Salted Caramel Sauce – (optional). The I added cream in my Salted Caramel this is why it looked lighter, but the original one is dark in color.

Makes  6 – 8 bars for big batch (8×8 square pan), and 4 bars for small batch (5×5-square pan)

Other Fall Favorites:

• (VIDEO) Cinnamon Glazed Apple Turnover
• Baked Apple with Walnuts
• Mini Caramel Apple Tarts
• (VIDEO) Homemade Apple Filling
• Apple Danish
• Baked Apple Pie Oatmeal
• Apple Pie Hand Pie
• Apple Cinnamon Sweet Roll
• Streusel Apple Muffin
• Caramel Apple Crumb Bars
• Apple and Broccoli Pasta
• Apple Chips
• Bite Size Apple Pie

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