These easy Caramel Apple Bars are loaded with apples, caramel and brown sugar crumble. Try a warm square with vanilla ice cream for a delicious fall dessert!
With apple and pumpkin season right around the corner, you won’t want to miss the chance to make these delicious caramel apple bars!
Just a few days ago, I was in the grocery store picking up dinner and heard one of my kids ask me if I could make apple pie. While I wouldn’t normally turn that request down, I wasn’t in any mood for making pie crust…
I decided to just wander around the produce aisle – because, why not? I picked up some Granny Smith apples and decided that this apple pie request would need to be honored…
But perhaps a tiny bit differently – with bars instead of pie.
Caramel Apple Bars
One thing led to another and before you know it, a jar of caramel syrup ended up in my cart along with a bunch of other yummies… I knew at that moment, that these bars were in the works.
How could I resist?
Once we got back home, I whipped up these gooey, delicious bars with apples, brown sugar crumb topping, and that yummy jar of caramel. They turned out incredibly sweet and perfect served warm with a huge dollop of ice cream. Yum and yum!
Thankfully, I shared half the pan with a wonderful neighbor, as it would have been very very dangerous to keep them in my kitchen for much longer.
Trust me when I say you will need to make these yummy, gooey caramel apple bars with a big scoop of ice cream. You will wonder why you never made them earlier!
Tips for making Caramel Apple Bars
- Make sure your butter is cold when you combine it with the flour, oats, brown sugar and baking soda.
- Press half of the crumbly mixture in a greased 9×13 pan.
- Dice or slice the apples and place on top of the crumble. I like to dice, but for a prettier effect you can slice the apples very thin.
- Drizzle the caramel mixture over the top of the apples. If you don’t want to unwrap caramels, then grab a jar of caramel sauce from the store.
- Spread the rest of the crumbly oat mixture over the top of the bars and bake for 45 minutes.
Resist the urge to devour the entire pan of Caramel Apple Bars in one sitting!
More desserts you might like:
Did you make this recipe? Make sure you rate the recipe, and then leave a comment to let me know how it turned out!
Caramel Apple Bars
Ingredients
Bars:
- 3/4 C butter cold, cut into cubes
- 1 C packed brown sugar
- 1.75 C all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 C rolled oats
Filling
- 4 C granny smith apples peeled and cored
- 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 24 wrapped caramels unwrapped and set aside, or see alternative in notes
- 3 Tbsp butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Spray a 9x13 baking pan and set aside.
- Add the butter, sugar, flour, baking soda and rolled oats to your mixer and mix on medium until the butter has been cut into the mixture. The mixture should be crumbly.
- Spread half of the oatmeal mixture on the bottom of the 9x13 pan and press down gently.
- Slice or dice the apples and then toss with flour and cinnamon. Spread evenly over the crust.
- Add the caramels and butter to a microwave safe bowl and microwave on half power in 30 sec bursts until smooth.
- Or, to make it easy, use a jar of caramel sauce. Spread the caramel over the apples in the pan as evenly as you can.
- Sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture over the top of the apples and caramel.
- Bake for 45 min or until the topping is golden brown.
- Cool completely before slicing.
