Gluten-free apple pie bars with a delicious oat streusel topping and drizzled with vegan salted caramel sauce. These gooey apple pie bars are filled with warm, cozy spices, and easily made vegan for the best fall dessert!
All I have to say is WOW! These apple pie bars are delicious! Take all the delicious flavors of a buttery, sweet, and cinnamon-spiced pie, and then make it a whole lot easier to make! These are the perfect treat to make if you have extra apples laying around. Plus, they are drizzled with an easy vegan caramel sauce that’s going to blow your mind!
Ingredients in apple pie bars
These incredibly easy apple pie bars are made gluten-free, vegan, and egg-free for a treat everyone can enjoy! Here’s what you’ll need:
- Apples- of course, the star of the show! Now, you can use any apple you would like here. If you desire a less sweet treat, use granny smiths or a more tart apple.
- Almond flour- The shortbread cookie base is made from a mix of almond and oat flour. It’s a healthy way to make a gluten-free and higher protein crust!
- Coconut cream- In order to make the salted caramel layer you will use coconut cream as the base.
- Brown sugar– The brown sugar adds a lovely, deep, molasses flavor. However, if you would like to make these apple pie bars refined sugar-free, you can use coconut sugar. Please note the caramel will be darker and not as sticky, and the streusel topping will be less crumbly!
- Vanilla- Do yourself a favor and get the good stuff! Real vanilla is just so much better than the imitation and adds the perfect flavor.
- Old fashion oats + Oat flour- I put these together because you can easily make oat flour from your old fashion oats by blending them into a fine powder. This will save you lots of money, plus it’s so simple!
- Pecans- Unsalted pecans add a wonderful texture to these pie bars.
- Cornstarch- This helps thicken the salted caramel sauce. If you would like you can substitute with arrowroot flour.
- Vegan Butter- My favorite butter for pies and bars is earth balance. Feel free to use any butter you choose.
How to make gluten-free oat flour
I can’t believe it took me so long to realize I could make oat flour homemade! Trust me you will save so much money if you make it yourself too. All you need to do is get some gluten-free oats and blend them on high in the blender until the oats turn into a fine powder. *Pro-tip- Make sure to measure the oat flour after to make sure it’s the right amount before adding it to the recipe!
How to make vegan salted caramel sauce
This coconut milk-based vegan salted caramel sauce is so good we like to keep a batch in the fridge for dipping apples in or drizzling on top of ice cream. To make it all you do is slowly bring coconut milk, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt to a slow boil. Then reduce the heat and add the cornstarch to thicken the caramel. Continue to stir for 2 minutes and then allow the caramel to cool. As it cools it will continue to thicken into the dreamiest salted caramel sauce!
Can I make these bars refined sugar-free?
Yes! Swapping out the brown sugar with coconut sugar will change the color and consistency a bit but the crumble on top will still be totally delicious!
Can I freeze apple pie bars?
Oh yes! In fact, we love eating them cold! Once they have completely cooled pop them in a freezer-safe container and these fall dessert bars will stay fresh for 4 months! Which you know what that means? Apple pie bars with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream anytime YOU want!
More fall desserts you’ll love:
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Gluten Free Apple Pie Bars
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 12
- Total Time: 32 minutes
- Yield: 8 bars 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
A gluten-free shortbread crust filled with cinnamon-spiced apples and drizzled with gooey vegan caramel sauce. These gluten-free apple pie bars are the perfect fall treat!
Ingredients
Vegan Salted Caramel Sauce:
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 3/4 brown sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch *
Gluten-free Shortbread Crust:
- 1 cup of almond flour
- 1/2 cup of oat flour
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
Apple Pie Filling:
- 3 cups chopped apples
- 1/2 tbsp. cinnamon
- 1 tbsp. butter
- 2 tbsp. brown sugar
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
Vegan Salted Caramel Sauce:
- You’ll want to make the caramel sauce first so it can sit up and get extra gooey! To do that simply bring coconut milk, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and a pinch of salt to a simmer. Stirring continuously until the sugar is dissolved.
- Continue to simmer and medium heat for about 5 minutes.
- Then remove from heat and sift in corn starch or arrowroot flour stirring well until there are no chunks.
- Then set the salted caramel sauce aside and allow it to firm up while you make the rest of the apple pie bars.
Gluten-free Shortbread Crust:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, melt butter, add 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and vanilla to the butter.
- Then add almond flour, oat flour, salt, and baking soda.
- Combine until it forms a sticky dough.
- Press the dough down firmly into the lined baking pan.
- Bake the crust for 10 minutes.
Apple Pie Filling:
- While the crust is baking, chop the apples into small pieces.
- Then in a pan, melt 1 tbsp. of butter and add in 2 tbsp. of brown sugar.
- Add the sliced apples and chopped pecans to the pan and sprinkle with cinnamon. Stir to coat with the butter mixture and cook until the apples are tender- about 8 minutes.
Building the Apple Pie Bars:
- Remove the shortbread crust from the oven after 10 minutes. Then add the cinnamon apples and pecans mixture on top.
- Last, pour the salted caramel over the entire bar.
- Bake the bars again for an additional 3 minutes.
- Remove the bars from the oven, chill, and slice.
Notes
* you can use arrowroot or cornstarch to thicken the vegan caramel sauce.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 250
Keywords: gluten-free, almond flour, shortbread, caramel, salted caramel, apple pie, easy pie recipe
Hi there, I’m not gluten free and would prefer to not incur the expense of buying almond flour for just this recipe. Could I use regular flour in place of that without making any changes or are there other adjustments I would need to do in order to use regular flour? Thank you!
Hello Jennifer,
Thanks for reaching out! I haven’t made this with regular flour before but, if I did I would reduce the flour amount by 2 or 3 tablespoons. If the dough is really dry still, add a little more liquid until you are able to work with it! Hope that helps!