Ina Garten’s Apple Pie Bars Are the Best Sweet Treat To Kick off Fall With

Although some of us may still be in the midst of a heatwave, believe it or not, fall is just around the corner. And Ina Garten has the perfect recipe to get you in the fall spirit. Her Apple Pie Bars are deconstructed bites of apple pie that you can take with you on the go and they’re so delicious and fall-appropriate that you’ll feel the urge to put on your flannel shirt no matter how hot it still is.

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Garten starts by making a fairly traditional shortbread dough by first creaming together butter, sugar (both granulated and light brown), and vanilla extract, and then mixing the wet ingredients with sifted flour and salt. Half of this mixture is then pressed into a baking pan, cooled, and then baked for about 20 minutes while you make your filling.

Garten likes to use a mixture of Granny Smith apples and Golden Delicious apples in her filling to give the bars a nice balance between tart and sweet. She slices the apples thinly and then tosses them with a bit of lemon juice to keep them from browning. Then, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg are added before the entire mixture goes into a pot of melted butter and simmers for about 15 minutes until the apples are tender.

The apple mixture is then spooned onto the cooled shortbread crust and the other half of the crust is mixed with chopped walnuts and a bit of cinnamon to create a crumble topping.

Bake the bars until the crumble topping is golden brown and let them cool before cutting them into 12 squares. Enjoy them for dessert or have one with your pumpkin spice latte in the morning!

“These look SO yummy!! Perfect fall recipe!” one person commented on the Barefoot Contessa clip shared on Food Network’s Instagram. “They are soooooo good,” another person who has tried them wrote, with another adding, “They are the best!”

Grab the full recipe for Ina Garten’s Apple Pie Bars here and officially kick off fall!

Before you go, check out the gallery below: