Browned Butter Dutch Apple Pie Bars

Dutch apple pie made easy. Gooey, caramelized apple pie filling surrounded by browned butter crumble topping. All the best parts of a Dutch apple pie without the hassle of an actual pie.

The story

I’ve had a few days to organize my thoughts, and I think this TED Talk explains it best. It’s called “The Danger of a Single Story” by an incredible Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and it’s GOOD. I even started using it in my class last year, and we talked about how she builds credibility by admitting to holding single stories for others in her own life.

I really believe we need to end our desire to believe single stories about others. It creates a society where we need someone to hate, we need someone to blame, we need someone to push down so we can stand on top of them.

And we’re generally unaware of this mentality. It’s why we gossip, why we’re fiercely competitive, why we gravitate toward us-versus-them situations, why we think we can end a problem of systemic hatred by redirecting our hatred elsewhere.

I’m not saying that much of this anger isn’t merited. I find myself angry every day as I learn more about how deeply racism really is ingrained into our society. But when we think the solution is to name call or trash talk, we’re not better, we’re just different.

We’re feeding into a new single story. And that’s dangerous.

So, along with evaluating classically American things, I decided to re-envision apple pie. (Btw, my phone ALWAYS autocorrects apple to Apple. 🙄) Apple pie is finicky and risky. And soooo time consuming. Make the dough. Chill the dough. Roll the dough. Shape the edges and pray it doesn’t look psychotic when it’s baked. Cook the filling (maybe, depending on the recipe). Bake the pie. Hope and pray some more that the crust is perfectly baked AND that the filling doesn’t run everywhere when you slice it.

Pie is exhausting.

But pie bars are great! These came out a tad gooey and crumbly, but all I had to do was cut and serve gently and it was fine! No crying over doughy centers or runny filling. Just deliciousness.

How to make this recipe

Brown the butter. In a small saucepan (or deep, small sauté pan), heat cut up butter over medium heat. Stir frequently. It will steam then bubble then foam. Once it foams, stir constantly so you don’t burn it. If it begins to overflow, remove from heat and stir until foam subsided. Keep cooking until brown and nutty in aroma. (This tutorial is my favorite on browning butter.) Set aside to cool.

While it cools, peel, core, and chop apples. Place them in a medium saucepan with all of the other filling ingredients (minus bourbon, if using). Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until butter melts, then occasionally after that.

While the filling cooks, make the crumble, being sure to still stir the filling from time to time. Add oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt to a food processor.

Pulse for 20-30 seconds, until oats are mostly ground.

Pour flour-oat mixture into a mixing bowl and add browned butter. Stir until no dry mixture is visible. It will be crumbly, but will come together when you press into it. (You could also do this in the food processor, but I ran out of room in my teeny processor.)

Line an 8x8 pan with foil. Very lightly spray with baking spray or grease with butter.

Sprinkle roughly 2/3 the crumble evenly in your prepared pan. I prefer sprinkling it before pressing it in so I get it evenly spread around.

Press gently and evenly, adding more if you see any gaps.

By this point, the filling should be thick and the apples soft. Add a splash or two of bourbon, if desired (a splash of vanilla would be a good substitute). Adding it at the end ensures the flavor still comes through—but the alcohol will bake off in the oven.

Spread filling evenly over dough.

Sprinkle remaining dough evenly over filling, squeezing some pieces together to get various sized bits.

Tent loosely with foil.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake 5-10 minutes more, until top is lightly browned and you can see the filling in the middle begin to bubble slightly.

Let cook completely in pan. Cut, serve, and enjoy!

Tips for this recipe

Pulse until oats are ground

You can see in my photos that some of the oats are nearly whole. It caused my bars to be a bit crumbly. I suggest pulsing a bit longer than you think is necessary to get a sturdy crust, about 20-30 seconds.

Sub 3/4 cup flour for oats

I went back and forth on using oats, since not all Dutch apple pies use them. I went with them because I had extra that didn’t fit in our Oxo container and I got the idea to grind them, making them less overt in the bars. If you don’t have any, don’t want to use them, or don’t have a food processor or blender, feel free to use all flour. However, you’ll want to use 3/4 cup flour to replace the oats, or 1 3/4 cup total flour.

Use old-fashioned oats

Quick cook or instant oats have been processed and will not cook the same as old fashioned. They tend to fall apart and often make recipes gummy unless originally called for. However, I haven’t baked with them in years (because Costco sells the old-fashioned kind—I ain’t got room for multiple types of oats!), so if you feel confident subbing quick oats, give it a try and let me know how it goes!

Sub softened butter if you’re crunched for time or don’t like browned butter

I really wanted to try something different, and I love the slightly nutty, caramel flavor of browned butter. However, softened butter would be fine, too.

You will only need 6 ounces or 12 tablespoons plain butter, though. The recipe uses 7.5 ounces or 15 tablespoons because you lose roughly 20% of the butter in the browning process.

Dice apples fairly small

Mine were about 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch. I had little choice, as I’d cut and frozen them a few weeks ago after our recent trip to Apple Hill. But, I found the size to be just a tad large and think next time I’ll make smaller dices.

You might also like:

• Vanilla Cherry Pie Bars

• Oatmeal Cookie Berry Bars

• Grandma’s Spiced Apple Cake

• Browned Butter Cinnamon Cake

• All-Butter Pie Crust

Browned Butter Dutch Apple Pie Bars

• prep time: 30 minutes
• cook time: 40-45 minutes
• total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes, plus 1-2 hours cooling time

Servings: 12-16

Ingredients:

For the Dutch Crumble Crust:

• 6 ounces browned salted butter (start with 7.5 ounces or 15 tablespoons salted butter—it reduces by about 20% in the browning process)
• 1 cup old-fashioned whole oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ to 1 cup packed brown sugar, to taste
• 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon, to taste
• few pinches fine sea salt (if using unsalted butter, increase to ¼ teaspoon sea salt or ½ teaspoon table salt)

For the Apple Pie Filling:

• 3-4 cups peeled, cored, and diced apples (see note), about 4-5 medium apples
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice, or juice of about half a lemon
• ⅓ cup packed brown sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon, to taste
• 1 tablespoon butter
• pinch of sea salt (increase to ⅛ teaspoon if using unsalted butter)
• splash or two of bourbon (or vanilla extract), optional

Instructions:

1. Brown the butter by cutting it into pieces and placing in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently. It will eventually steam, then bubble, then foam. Once it foams, stir constantly. It’s done when you have a nice medium brown color (last golden) and a nutty aroma, about 8-10 minutes total. If it begins to foam over or may be done but you can’t see the bottom through the foam, remove from heat and stir until the foam subsides. Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.
2. While the butter cools, make the filling. Peel, core, and chop the apples into ¼ inch pieces. You could also slice them thinly, but I’m lazy. Place apples along with lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan. Reserve bourbon for after filling cooks. Cook over medium, stirring constantly until butter melts and has coated the apples (or they’ll burn). At this point you can move on to the crumble crust, but be sure to stir filling occasionally. Turn down temperature if filling begins to boil.
3. At this point, you can preheat the oven to 350 and line an 8x8 baking pan with foil. Very lightly grease just the sides and corners with either baking spray or butter.
4. While filling cooks, make the crumble crust. Place oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a food processor or blender. Pulse until oats are mostly ground, about 20-30 seconds. Transfer to a small mixing bowl and add browned butter. Stir until all dry ingredients are incorporated. It should come together when pressed against the side of the bowl but will go back to crumbly when you stir it. Don’t forget to stir the filling a couple times as you do this!
5. Sprinkle about ⅔ of the crumble crust evenly into the pan. Using your fingers or a spatula or even the back of a spoon, press gently into the pan. Add more dough if there are holes in the crust.
6. At this point, the filling should be done. The apples should be somewhat soft but not soggy and the sauce should be thick. Pour evenly over crust, using a rubber spatula to get all the yummy sauce out of the pan. Sprinkle remaining crumble crust on top, squeezing some to make some larger pieces.
7. Tent loosely with foil (see photo) and bake for 30 minutes. At 30 minutes, the edges of the filling should be bubbly. Remove foil and bake another 5-10 minutes, until crumble crust is has browned some and you start to see some of the filling in the middle begin to bubble.
8. Let cool completely in pan, 1-2 hours. Lift out by the foil and carefully peel it away from the sides. Cut and enjoy with some vanilla ice cream!

Enjoy! Store leftovers in an airtight container. They will last at room temperature 3-4 days or in the fridge for a week.