Caramel Apple Bars

Like Tarte Tatin apples baked in a buttery, almond-shortbread crust with crumble topping

Hello hello everyone!

It’s officially been fall for a month, but the weather is only now feeling like it in San Francisco, with apples and pears hitting the markets as a seasonal reminder. I’ve had tarte Tatin on my mind and have been thinking of post the method at some point. For as simple a dessert as it is, and with very few ingredients, it’s also a very particular caramelizing process to get just right—like a perfectly made omelette where success is almost entirely down to technique.

I’ve also had bars on my mind lately, and as we’re coming into the season of parties and food gifts, I thought it a good time to make something like these. The apples are cooked in a simple caramel that is made with dry sugar cooked in a pan until deeply caramelized—just like making Tarte Tatin—and a little butter is added along with peeled, sliced apples, lemon juice, and zest. The apples exude a lot of juice at first which combines with the caramel, and it reduces and re-absorbs to create soft, deeply flavored cooked fruit.

If the amount of sugar looks like a lot at first, the sweetness cooks away as it turns amber and it ends up being perfectly balanced with the apples and lemon juice. As the bars chill, the pectin in the apples firms the filling and they slice beautifully. I also like that you don’t have to mix any starch into the fruit as a thickener (like for pie). Pears would be divine in this recipe, too.

If you missed the Seeded Oat-Apple Bread I posted on Wednesday from guest-chef Nicolaus Balla, that recipe uses skin-on apples that are roasted, puréed, and mixed with rolled oats, chia seeds, flax, psyllium, hemp hearts, and sunflower and pumpkin seeds to create a bread that is similar in style to a Danish whole grain loaf—slices thinly, goes with everything, and your digestion will love it—but is made in a fraction of the time and requires no leavening agent or fermentation time.

On the the Caramel Apple Bars!

Tools you may need:

• Apple corer/slicer: I like this all-metal corer/slicer

• Quarter sheet pan: I’ve been trying out this one from Nordic Ware and really like it

• Vegetable/fruit peeler, hands down my favorite is this Kuhn Rikon

• Powdered sugar shaker: I like having powdered sugar at the ready instead of setting it up each time I need one. This one has a lid, so it is ready to go and comes in a two-pack (I’d use the other for cocoa)

From top: cooked apples; smoothing out crust; baked crust topped with apples. Center row: topped with crumble mixture; baked crumble. Bottom: chilled and sliced bars; plated bars