With a buttery crumble crust and sweet apple filling, these homemade apple crumble bars are soft, chewy, and absolutely delightful any time of the year.
The best apple crumble bars
These are pretty much guaranteed to disappear at parties!
Imagine all the deliciousness of traditional hot apple crumble, conveniently packed into a bar, with cinnamon apples pressed between a shortbread crust and crumble topping.
If you are looking for a simple and delightful seasonal dessert that isn’t pumpkin, be sure to give these classic baked apple crumble bars a try.
Also make these Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’ve now done raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, peach, and cherry pie versions of the recipe, but apple might just be my favorite flavor.
There is just something so cozy and comforting about the apple cinnamon combination paired with the rich crust and topping.
It’s a perfect dessert, not just for the Fall season, but also for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July, or any time you are craving apple pie!
Readers also love this Brownie in a Mug
Apple crumble bar ingredients
For the recipe, you will need flour, ground cinnamon, baking powder, salt, sweetener, a fat source, cornstarch or arrowroot, and diced apple.
The bars work with white all purpose flour or with spelt flour or oat flour for healthy whole grain apple bars. I have not tried the bars with whole wheat flour and do not recommend using coconut flour or almond flour.
If you do not wish to use refined sugar, feel free to swap it out for an equal amount of unrefined coconut sugar, date sugar, or sugar free granulated erythritol or xylitol.
To sweeten the apples, you can use pure maple syrup, honey, agave, or any other all purpose liquid or granulated sweetener.
As a fun flavor variation, you can also stir in a handful of shredded coconut, finely chopped walnuts, or raisins with the diced apples.
The pastry crust can be made with butter, coconut oil, or even softened almond butter. For low fat apple crumble bars, replace three tablespoons of the fat with milk of choice.
As mentioned earlier, some or all of the apples can easily be swapped out for blackberries, cherries, blueberries, peaches, mango, or other fruit of choice.
Apple crumble bar recipe video
Watch the step by step video above.
Caramel apple crumble bars
If you are feeling really decadent, sprinkle a layer of finely chopped salted caramels on top of the apple layer before adding the crumble topping.
While these salted caramel apple bars might not be the healthiest option, they are a melt-in-your-mouth decadent autumn treat to enjoy in moderation and are always super popular at parties.
Update: Try this full recipe for Caramel Apple Bars
How to make apple crumble bars
Gather the ingredients, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line an eight inch square baking pan with parchment paper, or grease it well. Then set this pan aside.
In a large mixing bowl, stir the cinnamon, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Stir in the butter or oil and optional milk of choice. Also add a fourth teaspoon of salt if using oil or unsalted butter.
Press about two thirds of this pastry dough very firmly into the bottom of the prepared baking pan to form a pie crust. Reserve the remaining dough.
Toss the peeled and diced apples with the cornstarch and liquid sweetener. Spread this easy apple pie filling evenly over the crust.
Sprinkle the reserved dough on top, and press this crumb topping down firmly.
Place the pan on the oven’s center rack. Bake for 50 minutes. Let cool before slicing, during which time the bars will firm up.
Storing the apple bars
Leftovers can be covered and stored on the counter overnight, with a small opening to allow moisture to escape and thus prevent against gummy bars.
After a day, refrigerate the apple crumble bars in an airtight container for freshness.
Or freeze the bars, with a layer of parchment paper in between each bar so they do not stick together. Thaw frozen bars before serving.
This recipe makes about twenty to twenty five apple crumble slices. I cut them into twenty five apple squares for the pictures.
The bars were adapted from my Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
Is the recipe vegan, gluten free, or keto?
For vegan apple crumble bars, simply choose a plant based butter spread or go with the coconut oil or almond butter. The bars are already naturally egg free.
Use certified gluten free oat flour to make gluten free apple crumble bars. I have not tried all purpose gluten free flour here, but please feel free to experiment!
While this recipe is not low carb or keto friendly, I do have many other keto dessert options, including Keto Cookies, Keto Cake, and Keto Cheesecake.
Apple Crumble Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour (spelt, white, or oat)
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup sugar or coconut sugar
- 3/4 cup butter or coconut oil or almond butter
- 3 tbsp milk of choice or additional butter
- 3 1/4 cup diced apple (2 large or 3 medium)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup or sweetener of choice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Stir the first five ingredients together, then cut in the butter or stir in the oil. (Also add an additional 1/4 tsp salt if using oil or unsalted butter.) Press about 2/3 of the dough firmly into the bottom of an 8×8 pan lined with parchment paper. Toss the apples with the cornstarch and liquid sweetener, then spread this over the crust. Sprinkle remaining dough evenly over everything, and press down. Bake 50 minutes, then let cool before slicing into bars.The coconut oil version of the apple crumble bars (which is shown in the photos) will be more crumbly, so I recommend chilling the bars before cutting for cleaner slices.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Apple Dessert Recipes
Overnight Oats (including an apple cinnamon version)
Mmmmm, apples!! I love Braeburns best and I grate one into my bowl of oats every morning and top it off with cinnamon- i have a bit of a cinnamon addiction going on at the moment! I know what you mean about mushy apples (I always have to press the apples when i buy them to check) ‘mashed potato’ apple (as i call it) is just wrong!
Liberty or Jonathon’s for eating and Jonagold for baking. We have a nice organic place we pick them at as a family. In fact, I didn’t bake at ALL with the apples this year…out of two half-bushels! We ATE them all fresh!
These look fantabulous! Our favorite apples are Honeycrisps, with Pink Ladies as a close second.Gonna be cooking class for my 9 year old son tomorrow… Thanx!
Pink Ladys are the ABSOLUTE BEST apples! I absolutely love them! If those are not available, I like Jazz, Fuji, or Honeycrisp. I also only like apples cold… Your bars look cinnamon-y and delicious! I agree with you about Red Delicious- which is ironically what restaurants and stores always carry. Maybe most people (besides foodies) are not particular about their apples?
The bars look great. I’ve had fun making baked apple bars this fall too with just about any apple combo…I use whatever was on sale and whatever apples I have on hand…up to a point.
I agree, Red Delicious apples are my least-favorites; and Gala & Fujis top my list of ones I like because they are crisp. I hate mushy apples!
Pink Lady’s are my fav apple too – such an amazing flavour (I only discovered these once I moved to Australia, as they don’t grow in New Zealand) Wow, these bars looks so delicious, I’m totally going to give these a whirl 🙂
I just found your blog and although I am not vegan, we eat whole, natural foods, so I am always on the hunt for a good & healthier dessert. I totally agree with your statement that you don’t want people to say “This is good… for a healthy dessert.” I want them to say, “This is good. Period.” My question is about sugar. Have you ever tried any recipe’s with sucanat, and if so, would you grind it first since the crystals are bigger than processed brown sugar? I can’t wait to try your recipe’s!!
Aww I’m so glad you found me! And it’s so funny you’d mention Sucanat, because I *just* tried it for the first time last week. Now I am hooked! It’s soooo good… I love the gingerbread flavor.
So far I’ve only tried it in one recipe, but I am planning to use it A LOT in the future, so my future recipes (maybe starting in the next few weeks) will definitely include Sucanat.
yum! I’ll be making these:) My favorite kind of apple would probably be honey crisp or pink lady. Both so good!
Those look really yummy. And pink lady apples have to be my favorites.
Also, the commenting thing looks really funny. It looks like I’m you Katie. If the comment looks like myself instead of you then just disregard this.
-Aja from writingandrecovering.wordpress.com
Hi Katie,
Just letting you know that I’m sending you the Versatile Blogger award. I just found and really enjoy your site. I can’t wait to try some recipes!
You can pick up the button, if you’d like to pass it on, at my site. 🙂
Aww Kristin, thank you so much! That really means a lot to me.
I’ll definitely check out your site :).
These look amazing and I’m bookmarking to try soon.
My favorite apples are mutsu – I love to use them for baking because they are firm and hold up well like Granny Smith but not as tart.
yesss!! I had everything to make these except the apples, but then my man came home with a MASSIVE box of apples 😀 😀 !! hot apple crumble bars it is 🙂
…also, Pink Ladies are my faves, too 😉 they’re all gone from here for the year, though 🙁 *le sigh*
yum! I love apple desserts, well I just love apples period!
my favorites are Ambrosia.. not all that common in stores I don’t think, but they’re soo good.. juicy and just sweet enough.. kind of like a Honeycrisp, but better! if you ask me anyway 🙂
Apples in 1st place: pink lady, 2nd: honeycrisp, 3rd: jonathon
I’ve been waiting for these!
These look so delicious!! I want to try it 🙂
Chocolate-covered apples are very good, too. it is like caramel apples, but with chocolate! I had one once at the Chocolate mountain (I think is the store name) and it was a bit too sweet, but still good!
My favorite apples are Honey Crisp!