Apple Bars

Easy as (and better than) pie, Apple Pie Bars include an apple filling with a hint of cinnamon and a buttery, flaky crust topped with a drizzle of glaze.

Fall is for apple bars! This is a cherished, family recipe that my cousin-in-law Becci shared with me a few years back. Her mom Linda has been baking these bars forever and they’ve been a big hit in their family through the years. After making them several times now, I can attest they are so good—proving family recipes are the best recipes.

Just when I was looking for some fall recipes to launch me into prime baking season, these beautiful apple bars showed up and all is right with the world.

Fulfilling my craving for apple pie with the informality of a bar (oh my,  I love bars!), this recipe requires time and a bit of patience—in a good way. From preparing the crust to the peeling and slicing the apples, I found the process of making these bars to be somewhat calming and satisfying and just what I needed to snap me into fall cooking-and-baking mode.

I need to credit my cousin-in-law Becci for introducing me to this recipe for Apple Bars. She had shared a picture of these bars on Facebook after scoring a batch after a trip to see her mom. I remembered how much her family loves these bars, one of her mom Linda’s specialties, and I reached out to Becci for the recipe. I found out these bars, like many family-favorite recipes, bring back memories as sweet as the bars themselves.

“My mom has been baking these bars for as long as I can remember,” said Becci. “She made them for family reunions when my grandma Jewett and her brothers were alive. We would meet at a park on a Sunday in August with all of my cousins, my mom’s cousins and their parents. There were three generations eating and playing volleyball.”

Where did this recipe come from?

Linda thinks she has been making Apple Bars for more than 30 years and recalls when she first brought them to a family reunion many years ago. She says that her mother was the “pie queen” and the rest of her family were big pie eaters so it was a bit of a gamble to bring these bars instead of traditional pie.

“Mom was skeptical that a bar could be as tasty as pie but she loved them, as well as the rest of the family, so I was ‘burdened’ with always providing the apple bars,” said Linda.

Tips for A+ Apple Bars:

• Linda’s favorite apples to use are Haralson, Granny Smith or any tart green apple but she notes, “fresh is best!” Compared with store-bought apples, fresh-picked are far superior in her opinion.
• Becci says the cornflakes are very important because they keep the crust from getting soggy. I once substituted Frosted Flakes and they turned out “grrrreat!”
• The recipe calls for shortening, and Linda prefers butter-flavored Crisco.
• When rolling out the crust: Linda says, “the crust mixture should be on the moist side instead of dry so rolling out in flour won’t make it too dry. The less handling the better!”
• Linda uses a 10 x 15 pan as do a couple of other recipes I found for similar bars. I don’t have a 10 x 15 pan so I used my trusty, vintage 9 x 13 cake pan.
• Last, but not least, to make things a little easier on myself, I have been known to use store-bought pie crust!

Labor of Love

I’ve made these apple bars many times this fall and can’t wait to make them again. It’s the special recipes like this one—the beloved dishes that are tied back to a particular friend or family member and are a true labor of love—that I am happy to make room for in my recipe box.