I am not even sure how to describe to you the divine deliciousness that is this stack of apple crisp shortbread bars! You just have to eat it to know it. Since we were out of town for Christmas and the days leading up to our trip were filled with sleepless nights due to a toddler who kept waking up at 4am, and a 7-month old who also woke up at least once a night to eat, and a momma who would go to bed late – like 1am – only to be up at 4am to try to get the toddler to go back to her room and sleep, let me just say that all the usual traditions of Christmas went flying out the proverbial window.
So to recover from that experience, I decided to find some simple recipes to make some things to take to my visiting teachees (friends I visit at least once a month, if not more, to share a gospel message and offer service and friendship in any way I can), and friends. Since I had just gotten home and had not yet unpacked, I scoured my fridge to see what I had in there. A bag of green apples, some carrots, spinach, and other random items. So, I looked up apple recipes – nothing interesting. Apple bars = bingo! Came across this recipe almost instantly. It was created by Sober Julie at www.soberjulie.com, and since I am not a baker, I usually tend to follow the recipes exactly as they are.
This recipe was super easy. You will have almost all the ingredients already in your kitchen cabinets, except for maybe some apples. The whole thing was simple to put together and it looks amazing when ready to eat. Not to mention, you will not stop at just one bar, and wonder how those three bars on your plate just vanished 😉 This will definitely make it into my family cookbook favorites! Please make some and comment here after you have stuffed…er, tasted a morsel or two. 🙂 Without further ado, here is the recipe!
INGREDIENTS
Shortbread Base:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
Apple Filling:
- 3 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Topping:
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup butter – melted or room temp to cut in.
PREPARATION
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F and line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper. Be sure to bring the parchment up the sides as it makes it easier to lift out later.
Shortbread Base:
Place butter into your mixer and turn on high for 5 minutes or until the butter turns white rather than yellow, that’s how you’ll know it’s creamed. Next mix in the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Once combined, add in the flour and stir well. Press the mixture into the parchment lined pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes.
Apple Filling:
In a bowl, combine the apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until the apples are well coated.
Topping:
Mix flour, 3/4 up brown sugar. Cut in the butter and knead together.
Remove the crust from the oven and turn the heat up to 350 degrees F. Sprinkle one half of the Topping over the short bread, then layer the apples on top. You will have multiple layers so try to keep it level. Once this is finished, sprinkle the remainder of the Topping evenly on top and place in the oven to bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool fully before placing in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours. Once it’s set, remove from the baking dish by lifting out the parchment paper and cut into 16 squares.
Please come back to this post and comment once you’ve tried this recipe!
