Danish Pastry Apple Pie Bars

These apple pie bars start with homemade danish pastry with loads of apples baked inside. The almond glaze is a must on these apple pie bars. This is one of the best apple recipes to make for a weekend brunch or dessert.

One thing we always look forward to in the fall is apple picking. Thankfully, we never had to go far to pick apples, since my mom and dad have several apple trees in their yard.

This year, my parents had a bumper crop of apples.  They picked as many as they wanted and still had 8 bushels to pass on to us.

We made apple butter and Upside Down Apple Pie, and lots of applesauce. One of our favorite recipes to make with apples are these Danish Pastry Apple Pie Bars. We found the recipe on Allrecipes and family and friends have been requesting them since.

Why you’ll love this recipe:

• An apple slab pie, which is all the fun of apple pie in a rectangular, 9×13 baking pan.
• Great to take to a potluck or family dinner when you need more than just 8 slices of a pie.
• Homemade pastry crust and loaded full of fresh apples.
• A simple almond glaze that takes the flavor over the top.

What are the best apples for baking?

You’ll see that these apple pie bars are stuffed full of apples.

Granny Smith, Honeycrisp and Jonathan, all great apples for baking are commonly found in grocery stores. Braeburn and Winesap are delicious too.

We used 10 large apples to pile in the homemade crust. If your apples are smaller, the apple pie bars will still be good, but they’ll be thinner. More apples = thicker bars. The weight of the apples after I peeled and cored them was about 2 ½ pounds.

Do you have to peel the apples for pie bars?

You don’t have to, but I highly recommend it. I don’t like the texture of baked apple skins in my pies, cakes and breads, so I always peel the apples.

Here’s a little tip: The best invention ever is an Apple Pie Peeler/Corer. It makes working with apples a breeze.

How to Make Apple Pie Bars

• In a stand mixer bowl, combine flour and salt. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the cold butter until the mixture becomes coarse crumbs. Snap the butter between your fingers if needed to combine the flour and butter. It’s ok if there are little chunks of butter. That’s what will make your pastry flaky.

• In a separate cup, beat the egg yolk, reserving the egg white until later. Stir the cold water into the yolk. Gradually add the egg mixture to the flour mixture until dough comes together to form a ball.
• On a floured pastry mat, roll out half of the dough large enough to cover the bottom and sides of an ungreased 9×13 inch pan. Place the dough in the pan.

• Sprinkle the crushed cornflakes over the bottom of the dough in the pan. 
• Arrange apple slices over the top of the cornflakes. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon over the apples. 
• Roll out the second half of the dough to cover the entire pan with a little dough hanging over the edge. Lay the dough over the filling and pinch the edges of the two crusts together. 
• Whisk the reserved egg white until foamy and brush onto the top crust with a pastry brush.
• Bake the bars for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown on top.

How to Thicken Apple Pie Bars

These bars have the unique addition of crushed cornflakes (you can also use oatmeal) over the bottom crusts. This helps some of the moisture from the apples to be soaked up, making the bars easier to slice and stay in a square. I was a little leery of doing this at first, but trust me…you won’t taste the cornflakes and it really helps the pie bars serve nicely.

Apple Pie Glaze

And definitely don’t skip the almond glaze over the top. It’s a traditional powdered sugar glaze with milk and almond extract. You can use vanilla extract if you’d like.  It is the perfect finish to these homemade apple pie bars.

Apple Pie Bars

4.56 from 56 votes

Homemade danish pastry with loads of apples baked inside. The almond glaze is a must on these apple pie bars.

Servings 15

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

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Ingredients

 

US Customary – Metric

For the pastry:

• 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour (488 grams)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (8 grams)
• 1 1/2 cups cold unsalted butter (cubed)
• 1 large egg (separated)
• 3/4 cup cold water

For the filling:

• 1 cup crushed cornflakes (70 grams)
• 10 apples (peeled, cored and sliced) (2 ½ pounds after peeled and cored)
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar (156 grams)
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the glaze:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon 2% milk
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 375º Fahrenheit. 
• In a stand mixer bowl, combine flour and salt. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the cold butter until the mixture becomes coarse crumbs. Snap the butter between your fingers if needed to combine the flour and butter. It's ok if there are little chunks of butter. That's what will make your pastry flaky.
• In a separate cup, beat the egg yolk, reserving the egg white until later. Stir the cold water into the yolk. Gradually add the egg mixture to the flour mixture until dough comes together to form a ball.
• On a floured pastry mat, roll out half of the dough large enough to cover the bottom and sides of an ungreased 9×13 inch pan. Place the dough in the pan.
• Sprinkle the crushed cornflakes over the bottom of the dough in the pan. 
• Arrange apple slices over the top of the cornflakes. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon over the apples. 
• Roll out the second half of the dough to cover the entire pan with a little dough hanging over the edge. Lay the dough over the filling and pinch the edges of the two crusts together. 
• Whisk the reserved egg white until foamy and brush onto the top crust with a pastry brush.
• Bake the bars for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown on top.
• To make the almond glaze, whisk the powdered sugar, milk and almond extract until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the warm apple pie bars.
• Serve with ice cream if desired.
• Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Video

Notes

Recipe from Allrecipes.com

The calories shown are based on the recipe being cut into 15 bars, with 1 serving being 1 bar. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. The information in the nutrition box are calculated through a program and there is room for error. If you need an accurate count, I recommend running the ingredients through your favorite nutrition calculator.**

Nutrition

Calories: 406kcal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 61mg | Sodium: 415mg | Potassium: 176mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 685IU | Vitamin C: 5.9mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 2.2mg

Author Julie Clark

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Calories 406

Keyword apple dessert, apple recipes, apple slab pie

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