Apple Crisp Shortbread Bars

Our annual apple picking adventure is in the books! Now what to do with all those apples… we love eating them plain and made some homemade applesauce (“the best ever” according to Eloise). This Apple Crisp Shortbread is a little more involved but is so delicious, it’s not overly sweet, so the apple taste really shines through. 

 

Apple Crisp Shortbread Bars

Ingredients 

Shortbread Base:

• ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Apple Filling:

• 4 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Topping:

• ½ cup all purpose flour
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup butter - melted or room temp to cut in.

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F and line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper. Be sure to bring the parchment up the sides as it makes it easier to lift out later.
2. 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.
3. Apple Filling: In a bowl, combine the apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until the apples are well coated.
4. Topping: Mix flour, ¾ up brown sugar. Cut in the butter and knead together.
5. 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.
6. 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.