Having quite a few apples that needed to be used I thought I would make some apple pie bars, with a very short pastry and a lovely apple filling with a hint of cinnamon.
The recipe is very simple and could be used to just make an apple pie, though with a cut down volume of ingredients. For mine I wanted to make bars that could be eaten cold, or warm.
The whole thing doesn’t actually take too much effort and you just have to wait for it to cool down completely before removing from the pan to cut into bars.
Mine turned out very well, though slightly more crumbly than I was expecting. Still that isn’t a problem as I quite like that texture. The bars certainly tasted very good indeed. In fact I ate three within a very short space of time.
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
- 500g(4 cups) plain flour
- 100g(3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) icing sugar
- 250g(2 sticks + 1 1/2 tbsp) softened unsalted butter
- 2 medium eggs(large in USA)
- 30-45 ml of milk, if required to bring the dough together.
- 1 tsp baking powder
For the filling:
- 1kg(2.2 lbs) apples, peeled and grated
- 1 37g packet of vanilla pudding(or 37g custard powder, or packet of vanilla blancmange or Angel Delight)
- 100g(1/2 cup) caster sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Method:
- Grease and line a roasting tray about 35cm x 25cm(14 x 10 inches) with parchment paper.
- Place all the ingredients, except the milk, into a large bowl and mix together(I used a hand mixer) until it all comes together into a dough.
- Add milk a little at a time if the dough isn’t clumping and coming together.
- Use a hand a knead the dough a little to ensure everything is worked in well.
- Divide the dough into two rectangles, about an 1inch thick and wrap in plastic wrap, then chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F
- In a bowl mix the grated apple, pudding mix, caster sugar and cinnamon together until all is well combined, then set aside.
- Flour the work surface and place one rectangle of dough on it, then flour that too.
- Roll the dough out to a rectangle larger than the base of your pan, so that you can line the side to give you some dough to fold on top of the apples.
- Place the dough on the base of the pan and patch if necessary, pressing the excess against the side of the tin.
- Spread the apple mixture evenly over the dough and then fold the sides over the edge of the apples.
- Roll out the second piece of dough large enough to cover the surface of the apples and the pastry edge.
- Place the dough on top of the apples and press down slightly.
- Fork the dough all over, not going too deep, in case apple juice come up through holes.
- Bake in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes until the dough is cooked and has begun to colour a little.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before carefully removing from the pan.
- Cut into bars of the size you prefer.