Looking for a simple and delicious apple dessert? These apple shortbread bars are the perfect treat for any occasion. With a buttery shortbread crust and sweet apple filling, they are sure to be a hit with your family and friends.
This recipe is for all those who love apple pie but don't want the hassle of making one 🙂 These apple bars are my yearly go to apple dessert that I make starting in the Fall and continue making them all Winter.
They are so easy, with a shortbread crust and crumble topping being the same dough, making it so easy and the flavors are amazing.
If you love crisp buttery shortbread and cinnamon apples, this is for you.
What You Need And Substitutions
- Unsalted Butter
- All Purpose Flour
- Fresh Apples: I love making these with granny smith or honey crisp apples.
- Granulated Sugar
- Kosher salt. If you are using regular table salt, that is fine but make sure to half the amount in the recipe.
- Vanilla Extract: A good quality extract here.
- Ground cinnamon: You can also add a little nutmeg for a classic combo with the cinnamon.
- Lemon juice: This helps brighten the flavors of the apple filling.
How To Make Apple Shortbread Bars
- Make your apple mixture. The first thing you want to do is make that delicious apple filling. Slice the apples thin and add those along with cinnamon, sugar, vanilla and lemon to a large bowl and mix well. Then set aside.
- Cream sugar and butter. You mix the butter and sugar together. You want to make sure you mix it well so it becomes a nice creamy texture like in the picture below.
- Now mix your dry ingredients in. Mix the flour and creamed butter until it just starts to form a dough. It may seem like the dough is not coming together but be patient and keep that mixer going. It will begin to come together all at once.
- Prepare pan: Line your baking pan with parchment paper going both ways down the pan to make easy lifting handles when the bars are done baking.
- Divide dough and refrigerate half. Once you have a dough, you divide it in half. This recipe is really easy. There is one dough for the top and the bottom. The dough on the bottom is pressed into the pan which makes a crust. The dough on top will be crumbled later on to make the crumb.
- Add the Apples: When the shortbread crust comes out of the oven, let it cool for a bit then scoop out the apples from the bowl with a slotted spoon and spread them over the crust.
- Now add crumble topping Now you can grab the other half of the dough that you reserved and begin to grab large pieces of the dough and crumble it over the top. I like to leave some space between some of the crumble pieces to let the apples show through a little. The crumble will not spread.
- Bake until golden brown. Now you bake it until golden brown on the top.
Recipe Faqs
How to tell if shortbread bars are done baking?
You will know when the shortbread bars are done baking when they get a nice golden brown color on top.
Should apple bars be refrigerated?
You can leave these bars out for the first day but it is a good idea to refrigerate them after that to keep them fresh.
What apples are best for baking?
For the best apples that hold up during baking, choose granny smith, honey crisp or even golden delicious apples.
Tips
- Making these for a large group: If you have enough pans in your house, these are really easy to make in large quantities. You can just double, triple or quadruple the recipe to do this. This is one of my favorite food gifts to give in the Winter months for the holidays and teacher appreciation days.
- Use a different fruit: This recipe works well with pears, berries or any fruit that you love to eat. So make this for any season.
- Using apple pie filling or caramelized apples: You can use store bought apple pie filling or caramelized apples that are cooked already but expect the apple filling to be softer than if using fresh apples.
- Freezing and storing: These bars refrigerate well for up to one week in the fridge covered. For events, I prefer to make them the day before and bring them to room temperature about 2 hours before I serve them to let the bars soften a bit. I don't like freezing them since I find it changes the texture.
More Apple Desserts You Will Love!
Easy Apple Shortbread Bars Recipe
Looking for a simple and delicious apple dessert These apple shortbread bars are the perfect treat for any occasion. With a buttery shortbread crust and sweet apple filling, they are sure to be a hit with your family and friends.
Servings: 18 bars
Equipment
- 9x13 pan
- hand mixer or stand mixer
- parchment paper
Ingredients
Apple Center
- 3 Large granny smith or honey crisp apples skins removed and thinly sliced
- 4 tablespoon Granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Shortbread Bars
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 12 oz apple filling see above for recipe
- ½ cup light brown sugar firmly packed
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Prepare your pan by lining both side with parchment paper making sure the parchment paper overlaps the dish by about 2 inches. This makes easy lifting handles later.
Apple Filling
- Add your sliced apples, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice to a large bowl and mix well then set aside.3 Large granny smith or honey crisp apples, 4 tablespoon Granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 ½ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
Shortbread Bars
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
- Line your 9x13-inch pan with parchment paper so your shortbread comes out easy after baking.
- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, combine the butter sugar (brown and white) and beat until smooth.1 ½ cups unsalted butter, ½ cup light brown sugar, ½ cup granulated white sugar
- Next, add your vanilla and salt and mix that in.1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon salt
- Now, add your all purpose flour into the butter mixture and mix on low-speed until the mixture starts to form a ball (about 2-3 minutes) .3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- Divide your dough in half.
- Press one half of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan to form the bottom crust. If there are any areas that need patching, grab some shortbread dough from the half that you just divided and use that to patch up the bottom crust to make sure there is crust all the way to the corner of the pan.
- Now cover and wrap the other half and place in the refrigerator until later.
- Bake the crust until it is just beginning to turn light brown, around 20 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.
- With a slotted spoon (you don't want any extra juices that formed from letting them sit), scoop out the apple filling and distribute it evenly over the top of the shortbread crust.12 oz apple filling
- Now, take your reserved half of the shortbread out of the refrigerator and crumble the dough over the apples to make your crumble topping, being careful to not have really large pieces.
- Return the pan to the oven and continue baking for another 30-35 minutes until the crumble topping turns golden in color.
- Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, gently lift out the bars by the parchment paper and place on the wire rack and allow to fully cool (about 1 hour).
- Once cooled, your can slice up your apple bars and serve!
Notes
Storing: These shortbread bars store well in the fridge. Just allow them to cool fully then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to one week.
The shortbread firms up in the fridge so if you want the bars a little softer, bring them to room temperature before serving.
Freezing: I prefer to not freeze the baked shortbread bars since the filling can affect the shortbread. If I want to make these ahead of time I make the shortbread dough and freeze that and then thaw the dough in the fridge overnight. You can also make and freeze the filling ahead of time the same way.
Nutrition
Calories: 299kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 142mg | Potassium: 49mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 17g | Vitamin A: 478IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 16mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutrition Values are estimates only.
See full nutrition disclaimer hereTried the Recipe? We Would Love To Hear From You In The Comments Below!
Meg says
Thank you for sharing this recipe