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Apple Bar

I'm not sure how many years ago I tasted this apple bar at my friend Lorna's house but since then I've been rolling out pans of it every fall.

The crust is very thin. You need to have the right sized pan in order for it to be right. I have a heavy good quality 10X15 inch pan which I cut a piece of parchment paper to lay at the bottom. This isn't really necessary but it protects the pan a bit when you slice up the bar.
I use a food processor to make the dough, but you can use a pastry blender and get a bit of a workout in the process. I also use a apple slicer for the apples.
Apple Bar
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 egg yolks
  • milk 
  • 1 cup crushed corn flakes or bran flakes 
  • apples (at least 4 large apples and up to 6 depending on the size)
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon  (optional)
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 cup icing sugar
  • 3 tablespoons hot water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  1. Preheat your oven to 375 F. 
  2. Beat the egg yolks in a measuring cup and add milk to measure 2/3 cup liquid.
  3. Put flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and cut in butter until it is like oatmeal.
  4. Add the yolk and milk mixture and stir with a fork.
  5. Put onto the counter and knead it into a ball and then flatten and wrap in plastic and put it in the refrigerator.
  6. Peel and slice enough apples to fill the pan. 
  7. Divide the pastry in half.
  8. Roll out the first piece large enough to fit in the cookie sheet with all sides hanging over the edge an inch
  9. Sprinkle your crushed cornflakes on the crust. 
  10. Arrange the apples on top and sprinkle with the sugar.
  11. Roll out the second piece of pastry and lay it on top.
  12. Press the edges together and roll them up and then press with fork tines to seal.
  13. Beat the egg whites until stiff. 
  14. Spread over the pastry as even as you can.
  15. Bake the bar until golden brown about 40 minutes.
  16. Mix the icing sugar, water and vanilla until smooth and drizzle over the hot pastry.
  17. Serve when still slightly warm or cool.

21 comments:

  1. Oh yummy and just the right timing..'apple season'. This looks very good, Lovella. Thanks for sharing..

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  2. I will be making this one for sure - any apple desserts go well around here.

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  3. Rolling out dough is always my least favorite thing to do. I am not good at it. Will I get better with practice?

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  4. rachel. . this one rolls easier than most, and yes you will get better at it. Do you have a bench scraper? I love those, they can tease the dough off the counter without tearing it. . . make sure the dough is well chilled and you should do fine.

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  5. I think I need to get one of those...thanks for the tip!

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  6. Perfect timing for this recipe! Our apple tree is ready to be picked. I'm pretty sure my old apple bar recipe is going to be retired......

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  7. We have enjoyed this (almost exact) recipe for many years! I like to call it apple strudel. I've frozen the ready to bake strudel and popped it (frozen) into the oven the day I need it. This is a great recipe! Yes, and not so hard to roll out.

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  8. cornflakes? Wow...who would have thot! Yum....oh no....rolling pastry again? Sigh...Okay...what is that scrapper thing you always recommend? Can you post it in a picture once? A bench scraper?

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  9. This is a favorite at our place! My bar pan is somewhat larger, so I use a larger pastry recipe and find it much easier to get the pastry to fit the pan.

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  10. SO Oh...good. And they freeze well.
    Pulled some out of my freezer yesterday for a delightful afternoon snack, only once the barns were cleaned.

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  11. I made some yesterday and it was as delicious and easy as Lovella told me :)
    I had to omit the corn/bran flakes as I didn't have any and it turned out just fine.

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  12. YUM,YUM....will need to bake this one.....

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  13. Wow!!! This looks soooo yummy. Definitely i'm going to try this.

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  14. I made this on the 24th for dessert and it turned out perfectly. The dough is so easy to work with and rolls very thin. I used my own apple pie filling recipe and it worked wonderfully. Thank you for the recipe.
    Jackie

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  15. Dear Lovella,

    I really liked this ALOT. It almost reminded of me of the apple crisp. It took quite a bit of effort, but was sooo worth it.

    I hope though to make this several more times in the next few weeks as to perfect it.

    Just wanted to thank you for this recipe.

    Kind regards.

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  16. Oh my I have made this it is so wonderful!! I really like your blog and have made quite a few recipes and everyone of them are delious. I also love the bread for the journey thank you so much for the wonderful blog all you girls are so nice>

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  17. I tried this and it was such a huge success, that now that sour cherries are on, I tried it with cherries. I made the cherry pie filling and put that in. My husband has asked that I make sure I freeze some cherries, so we can have this year round. Thanks for the recipe.

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  18. Oh goodness I will try with cherries! This apple bar is heavenly! I find the dough roll out beautifully and i am in no way a good pie dougher!

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  19. Lovella, I made these this week as the MGCC cook book suggest with the rhubarb; although I did add some strawberries--absolutely delicious! Marlene

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  20. addicting and very yummy

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