The Honey Bourbon Caramel Apple Bars is a outstanding Apple Bar recipe that tastes like caramel apple pie. This bar has a buttery shortbread crust, layered with tart and sweet apples. Then the apple bars are topped with oatmeal streusel and drizzled with honey bourbon caramel.
Choosing the right apples:
Finding the right apples is crucial in building a great flavor profile for the Honey Bourbon Caramel Apple Bars. To build the right flavors is using a combination of sweet apple and tart apples.
Pick a good sweet Apple that bakes well and holds its shape. Good choices are Braeburn, Honeycrisp, Gala and Johnagolds, they are sweet crisp and also hold up well when baking. Braeburn and Johagolds are often on sale at good price point, making good choices to use.
Choosing great tart apple that bakes well is the Granny Smith Apples. These apples are readily on available and often on sale at a good price point. Granny Smith Apples are quite tart with hint of sweetness. There green skinned apple with white green crisp flesh offers a good contrast to sweet apples.
Perfect Apple Filling:
How to achieve the filling for Honey Bourbon Caramel Apple Bars by using the sweet apples like Gala Apples and tart Granny Smith Apples. These apples need to be peeled and cored, then sliced thin less then quarter inch thick. Keeping the Apple slices thin and evenly cut insures an even baked bar. Then tossing the apples with, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, until we’ll coated. Then then adding an extra secret ingredient boost Butterscotch Chips. All these steps take time and effort, but well worth the work involved.
The crumb topping:
There is nothing like fresh crumb topping on Honey Bourbon Caramel Apple Bars. This simple mixture of all purpose flour, old fashion rolled oats, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon rubbed together. Working the crumb mixture in a mixing bowl, by rubbing with fingers until crumbly textures. Doing this step by hand allows you to feel texture and not overwork the crumb topping.
An alternate technique is to use a supermarket shortcut, replacing most of the crumb topping with half box of yellow cake mix and butter. Again recommend rubbing the crumb topping mixture by hand with fingers. This method gives a more commercial taste, but still taste excellent.
Making the base for bars:
The Honey Bourbon Caramel Apple Bars needs a good solid base for bars. A simple shortbread crust is perfect choice, that tender can withstand the moisture of Apple filling. The shortbread mixture is simple to make, using melted butter, sugar, flour, vanilla and salt. This mixture is simply combined together in bowl until dough is formed. Then pressing dough evenly on prepared baking pan that is lined with parchment paper. Note for easy removal of the Honey Bourbon Caramel Apple Bars cut parchment paper a inch longer then top of the baking pan.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees convection or 350 degrees conventional oven. Then bake the shortbread crust base for 10 to 15 minutes keeping eye on color of crust. The shortbread crust should be a very light golden brown. Remove crust cool for few minutes before building Honey Bourbon Caramel Apple Bars.
How to make Honey Bourbon Caramel:
Honey Bourbon Caramels recipe.
Homemade caramel is the best, make a good size batch and kept the unused batch in the refrigerator for month or can be frozen for year. Depending on size batch of Bars a batch of Honey Bourbon Caramel will make 4 to 6 recipes of bars. It takes time and good ingredients to make a great caramel, but they are so good.
To make these caramels put can of sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt in heavy duty 8 quart pot. Cooking over medium high heat stirring constantly until the caramel reaches 240 degrees. This takes a good 20 minutes depending on humidity and cooking range. Remove caramel pan from heat and add, vanilla extract and good ounce or more of Honey Bourbon Whiskey. Stirring well until all alcohol is evaporated and mixed into caramel. The smell of honey bourbon caramel is so good that you be tempted to try right away, but don’t this caramel is molten hot burn mouth.
Using the Honey Bourbon Caramel just warm enough to drizzle all over the baked crumb apple bars. This drizzling of caramel over the Apple Crumble Bar outstanding flavor boost and great garnish. These Honey Bourbon Apple Bars are so good you will be tempted to eat more than one bar. Bring back fond memories of Moms homemade apple pie. Enjoy
- 3/4 Cup unsalted butter Melted
- 1/2 Cup sugar
- 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 Teaspoon salt
- 2 Cup all-purpose flour
- 4 Medium granny smith apple Cored and peeled and sliced
- 5 Medium Braeburn Apple Cored and peeled and sliced
- 4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg
- 1 Cup Butterscotch Chips
- 1 Cup Old Fashion Rolled Oats
- 2/3 Cup brown sugar
- 1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 Cup unsalted butter Cut into small chunks
- 8 Ounces Honey Bourbon Caramel Melted
- Spray a 9 by 13 inch pan with food spray. Then line the pan with parchment paper. Leaving enough parchment paper over edges of the pan to help remove the bars from the pan.
- Put the flour, sugar, salt, vanilla and melted butter in mixing bowl. To make the shortbread crust.
- Mix the the shortbread mixture with spatula until combined into dough.
- Distribute the shortbread dough evenly over bottom of the lined pan. Pressing dough down to get even coverage. Be patient it’s just enough dough to barely cover the bottom of the pan. Then bake in 325 degrees oven for 10 to 15 minutes until the shortbread crust is light brown color. Remove and cool on a wire rack.
- Wash, core and peel the apples. Then cut apples in half lengthwise for easy slices. Slice apples thin less then 1/4 inch thick.
- Place the sliced apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and butterscotch chips into large mixing bowl. To make the apple bar filling.
- Combine the Apple bar filling mixture until all the apples are coated well. Set aside for assembly.
- Place the old fashioned oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and chunks of butter into mixing bowl. To make the Streusel crumb topping.
- Working the streusel mixture with your clean sanitized fingers, until resembling clumpy dough. Do not overwork and turn streusel into a sticky paste.
- Assemble the apple bars by first placing apple filling evenly over the cooled shortbread crust. Then sprinkling the streusel topping evenly over apple filling. Next bake in 350 degrees oven for 60 to 65 minutes until apple’s filling is tender and the filling is bubbling. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
- Make Honey Bourbon Caramel to 240 degrees temperature. Drizzle about 8 ounces of the caramel over cooled apple bars. If reheating the Honey Bourbon Caramel chunks in skillet over medium heat until smooth pourable caramel. Cool Honey Bourbon Caramel Apple Bars overnight in refrigerator covered tightly.
- Cut the Honey Bourbon Caramel Apple Bars 3 by 8. Place onto a plate serving at room temperature or slightly warmed in the microwave. For simple service.
- Alternatively serve Honey Bourbon Caramel Apple Bars with scoop of ice cream, honey bourbon caramel sauce drizzling and chocolate fudge sauce drizzling and Granny Smith Apple slices garnish.
Super market shortcuts:
1. Purchase caramels and melt in skillet over low heat add heavy cream to thin out stiff caramel then add ounce of honey Bourbon whiskey. Stirring until soft portable consistency. Use for caramel drizzle over apple bars and plate garnish.
2. Purchase refrigerator sugar cookies dough, use this cookie dough to make bottom crust for Apple Bars.
3. Purchase sliced frozen apples, cut Apple slices into thinner slice while partly frozen, in place of the fresh apple slices.
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