We made these caramel apple bars over the weekend during a small getaway in rural Wisconsin.
It was a crisp autumn weekend filled with sunshine, fall foliage, and temperatures in the mid-50s to low 60s — perfect Badger football and apple-cider weather. These bars were part of the weekend menu and were an immediate hit with the kids and their dads.
Saturday morning we and four youngsters harvested apples from the single Honeycrisp tree in our yard. One of the boys joked that our family had an entire orchard that season, all thanks to that one tree.
By that afternoon, a few of the apples were already bubbling away into homemade apple butter in the slow cooker, filling the cottage with cozy fall aromas — a lovely scent to fall asleep to or wake up with.
On a quick trip to the nearby grocery store, one of the boys insisted we make caramel apples. We tossed a bag of caramels into the cart and, by Sunday morning, transformed that idea into these caramel apple bars.
Not exactly the stick-on-a-stick caramel apples they expected, but there were zero complaints. These bars are soft, chewy, and packed with autumn flavor. If you have extra apples sitting around, make a batch of these sweet bars and enjoy a little taste of the season. Happy fall. — Dan
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Caramel Apple Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 cups coarsely chopped apples
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 bag, 14 oz. caramels
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400°F.
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In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and shortening with a fork.
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Stir in 1 3/4 cups flour, the oats, salt, and baking soda.
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Reserve 2 cups of this oat mixture for topping.
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Melt the caramels over low heat in a small sauté pan, stirring occasionally.
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Press the remaining oat mixture into an ungreased 13×9-inch baking dish.
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Toss the chopped apples with 3 tablespoons flour in a small bowl, then spread over the crust in the pan.
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Pour the melted caramel evenly over the apples, then sprinkle with the reserved oat mixture and press lightly.
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Bake for 30 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the apples are tender.
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Cut while warm and store covered in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximation.
Additional Info
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