Salted Caramel Apple Bars

https://siftwithkima.com/

biscuits

These Salted Caramel Apple Bars are made with brown butter and have layers of salted caramel and apple pie filling that make these bars so gooey and rich!

Placeholder image

Servings

16 Servings

Prep time

15 Minutes

Cooking Time

45 Minutes

Calories

--- Kcal

Ingredients

Crust and topping

  • 11 tablespoon (155g) unsalted butter
  • ¾ cup (150g) brown sugar, packed light or dark
  • 1 large egg room temperature
  • 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup (95g) quick oats
  • 1 cup (120g) all purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Salted Caramel Apple Filling

  • 2 cups diced apples about 2 apples (I used honeycrisp)
  • ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ cup caramel sauce see recipe

Directions

  1. Caramel sauce: Make at least an hour ahead.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) and a line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.

For the Brown Butter

  1. Melt butter in a medium sauce pan on medium heat. Stir the butter to make sure it melts evenly. Once the butter is completely melted, it will start to foam up. Continue stirring the butter. As it cooks, it will start to change into a deeper color. This could take 6-8 minutes.
  2. You’ll start to notice a nutty aroma and the butter will begin to have brown specs at the bottom of the pan. The entire process of browning butter from start to finish should not take more than 10 minutes on medium heat.
  3. Once butter is browned, pour it into a heat proof bowl and set it aside to cool for about 5 or 10 minutes.

Crust and Topping

  1. Wet Ingredients: In a medium bowl, add (slightly cooled) brown butter and brown sugar and mix using a spatula. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix.
  2. Dry Ingredients: Add the flour, quick oats, salt, and baking powder and mix.
  3. Spread in pan: Place ⅔ of the dough into the bottom of an 8x8 pan and spread it out completely.
  4. First bake: Bake for 13 minutes, then allow to cool while prepping apples.
  5. Prep Apples: Dice the apples, then mix together with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and flour.
  6. Layer: Add the apples to the baked crust, then drizzle the caramel sauce on top.
  7. Add remaining dough: Take the remaining dough and add it to the top of the caramel. Just flatten each piece a little with your fingers and place them all around. It won’t cover the entire pan, but that’s ok.
  8. Second bake: Place back in the oven for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden brown and the caramel is bubbly.
  9. Cool: Remove from the oven and cool for at least 2 hours before slicing and enjoying.
  10. Top with sea salt, vanilla ice cream, and caramel sauce.