Healthy Caramel Apple Pie Bars
These apple pie bars are a delicious fall dessert made with real ingredients. They're made with a blend of oat and almond flour, fresh apples, cinnamon, maple syrup, and more. A perfect healthy treat made gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free!
Equipment
- 8x8 or 2 quart baking dish
Ingredients
For Crust:
- 1 cup oat flour
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/3 cup ghee, melted or vegan butter
- 1/4 cup organic maple syrup
For Filling:
- 4 medium-sized honey crisp apples peeled and diced
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 2 tbsp organic maple syrup
- 1½ tbsp coconut oil
For Crumble Topping:
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- 1 cup whole oats
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- a pinch of salt
- 6 tbsp ghee, room temperature or vegan butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
For Crust:
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium-sized bowl, combine almond flour, oat flour, maple syrup, and melted ghee until a dough forms.
- Line an 8x8 baking dish with a strip of parchment paper. This step is important to be able to remove the bars once finished. Add the dough to the lined baking dish. Using clean hands, gently press the dough until it's evenly spread, covering the whole dish.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven after 10 minutes and set aside.
For Filling:
- Peel and dice apples into small pieces. In a skillet pan, add a few tablespoons of water and let the apples soften on medium-high heat for about 7 minutes.
- While the apples soften, make the caramel sauce. In a small saucepan on low heat, add maple syrup, almond butter, and coconut oil- stirring occasionally. After about 2 minutes, a silky caramel sauce should form.
- Drain any remaining water from the softened apples and add the caramel sauce on top, leaving about 2 tablespoons aside for drizzling. Combine the apples with the caramel sauce until fully coated.
- Next, add the apple filling on top of the crust.
For Crumble Topping:
- In a medium sized bowl, combine whole oats, oat flour, coconut sugar, salt, and cinnamon with a large spoon. Add the ghee (room temperature) and vanilla extract and combine until a crumble forms. It may take some extra mixing until all the ingredients stick to the ghee.
- With clean hands, crumble the topping on top of the apple filling to finish the third layer.
- Add the pan back to the hot oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Once mostly cooled, remove the bars from the dish using the parchment paper sides.
- Drizzle with the extra caramel sauce and cut into bars. Enjoy warm or cooled!
Notes
Serve warm or cooled. Store covered in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Serving: 1barCalories: 330kcal
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