Apple Pie Oatmeal Bars
Apple Pie Oatmeal Bars are super easy to make and great to have on hand. Grab an apple oat bar as a yummy breakfast option or a midday snack!
Apple pie is without a doubt one of my favorite classic desserts. I also love oatmeal in baked goods. Whenever two of my favorites have a collaboration, like cake mix cookies or apple oatmeal bars, I can’t help but get excited! Needless to say, these Apple Pie Oatmeal Bars are the best of both worlds for pie and breakfast bar enthusiasts alike.
APPLE PIE OATMEAL BARS
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Apple oat bars are satisfying, easy to make, and taste like your favorite dessert masquerading as breakfast! My kids love having apple pie bars with oatmeal available to grab as they head out the door for school. It’s a relief knowing that on days when we are running a little late in the morning, that they won’t be heading out the door hungry.
APPLE AND OAT BAR INGREDIENTS
Apples- You can choose from lots of different apples for this apple pie filling! My favorites are Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, or Jazz apples. Any of these varieties hold up great in a pie filling so if you happen to have a favorite, just go with it.
Butter- I always use unsalted butter when baking, but if all you have on hand is salted you can use it. I do recommend cutting out the added salt in the pie filling and oatmeal bar recipes to avoid the apple pie filling oatmeal bars being too salty.
Brown Sugar- Typically, I keep light brown sugar on hand which is what I use in this recipe. Dark brown sugar works the same, but the bars may have a stronger molasses flavor.
Oats- Old-fashioned rolled oats work best in this apple oat bar recipe. Definitely avoid steel-cut oats as they won’t provide the same texture as they are less processed.
HOW TO MAKE APPLE PIE OAT BARS
APPLE PIE FILLING:
- Combine all of the apple pie filling ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan and place it over medium heat.
- Stir the ingredients and allow them to cook until the apples are softened and the sauce is thick.
- Remove from the heat and set aside.
OATMEAL BARS:
- First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Then grease a 9-inch x 13-inch baking pan or dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- After that, grab a mixing bowl and whisk together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.
- Next, use a fork or pastry cutter to work the butter into the dry ingredients until they are well combined. It should have a crumbly texture and stick together when squeezed between your fingertips.
- Take half of the oat mixture and press it evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Now spread the apple pie mixture evenly over the bottom layer of the oat mixture.
- Lastly, use the remaining oat mixture to sprinkle an even layer over the top of the apple pie filling.
- Place the apple crisp bars with oats into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.
- Finally, remove from the oven and allow the bars to cool before cutting them into squares to serve.
TRY THESE OTHER EASY BREAKFAST RECIPES
- Spinach Egg and Cheese Breakfast Bites
- Ham and Cheese Stuffed Biscuits
- Granola Breakfast Cookies
- Apple Cider Muffins
- Air Fryer Donuts
- More BREAKFAST recipes…
TOOLS USED TO MAKE THIS APPLE OAT BARS RECIPE
Baking Dish: 9 x 13 baking dishes are a pretty standard requirement for lots of recipes. It never hurts to have more than one. I personally own a few!
Mixing Bowls: Stackable, storable, and easy to clean! These bowls are my favorite!
Pastry Cutter: This unique kitchen tool, also known as a dough blender, is worth the room it may take up in your kitchen drawer!
*This post originally posted on 08/17/2014.
Apple Pie Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
Apple Pie Filling
- 2 cups apples cored, peeled, and chopped
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¼ cup light brown sugar firmly packed
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons water
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Oatmeal Bars
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups rolled oats
- 1 cup brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 14 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into pieces
Instructions
Apple Pie Filling
- Combine the apples, butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, water, and salt in a medium saucepan and place it over medium heat.
- Stir and allow to cook until apples are softened and sauce is thick, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let cool whil you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Oatmeal Bars
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- Whisk together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Using a fork or pastry cutter, add in the butter and work until well combined. The mixture should have a crumbly texture and sticks together when pinched between your finger tips.
- Press half of the oat mixture into an even layer in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
- Spread the apple pie mixture over the oat mixture and spread evenly in the pan.
- Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture evenly on top of the apples.
- Place into the oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove the baking dihs from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack in the pan. (If you can wait that long.) Then cut into 12 squares and serve. Store any leftovers in an air-tight container.
Nutrition
I just made these and they’re sooo good! For those of you who like the bars thicker, I’d recommend using a smaller baking dish. But I found the 9×13 to work fine as well. These are so sweet and flavorful, it’s hard to not eat the whole tray yourself!
This recipe turned out delicious! I used an 8×8 pan to make the bars thicker, plus I pressed the oatmeal crust down into the pan to make it more solid and less of an apple crumble. I put the bars in the fridge to harden before I cut it up, and it all held together well.
Just made it smells delicious just wait8ng to cool.,
In the directions you mention baking soda, but in the ingredients you list baking powder. Which is it?
Made this recipe for a party. Everyone loved it. I also added ghiradelli caramel to the top. Next time I will use 3 cups of apples, as two cups didn’t give enought coverage on the crust.
It wasn’t gross by any means, but let’s all just call this what it is – glorified apple crisp. I personally had enough crust and crumble, but not nearly enough apples. You need at least 4 cups of apples for this, so double that part. If I were to make this again, which I probably won’t, I would have cut my apples way smaller. I cut mine bite sized, they need to be half that size. My sauce thickened wayyyy before my apples softened, so I would probably soften my apples first, then make the sauce. Overall it was an ok recipe but I wouldn’t recommend it or bake it again.
These were great! Will make them again! Read the reviews first and made these changes; Used my 9”X9” Waring Pro pan (instead of a 13”X9”) and the crust and apples fit perfectly, used softened butter to make it easier to combine the crust (used my hands instead of a pastry cutter), used 3/4c Quick Oats & 3/4c Old Fash. Oats hoping the crust would hold together in a bar shape, I used 4 sm/md sized apples that equates to two heaping cups that perfectly made one layer in my 9”X9” pan. I allowed to cool for about 30min’s and tried to cut a bar out but it fell apart. I then put in the refrigerator to completely cool and they successfully came out as a bar! I would actually put this while warm on ice cream! When we want it in a bar we will cool it. Loved this recipe!
i waited for my mom to taste it before commenting as i wanted to make sure she loved it as well i reallyy enjoyed this though it came out more like an apple crumble than actual bars however thats how i prefer it i really liked this recipe it was fun to make just wanna note that the fork butter thing i skipped over out of just laziness and melted the butter to mix in with my hands instead it worked out perfectly fine to me at least this tastes so goof with some vanilla icecream too
Overall, this recipe is okay. The bars taste okay, but came out thinner than expected. I barely had enough of the dough mixture to cover the bottom of a 9×13 pan. I would recommend doubling up on the recipe as others have recommended
I made this recipe today for my husband and they came out perfect!!!! They have a little crumble but they don’t just fall apart they are bars and very good,easy to make. I melted the butter and mixed it in the flour,oatmeal mix and everything went well. I would also say I would use more apples next time but aside from that everything was as promised..
So yummy! I ended up having to double the mount of apple mixture for it to coat an entire layer of the pan. It kinda crumbled, I def wouldn’t cut it all and expect it to stay in a bar shape. But it tastes great either way and I’ll have to make again so I can put some vanilla bean ice cream on top!
I must have done something wrong, but they did not stay like bars, the oat mixture was really dry since the butter was just cut in pieces, and the taste was really bad. I’m not sure why but won’t be making these agin. Which is a bummer cause they looked so good
Hi there I seen that there is butter written twice for this recipe
Idk what I did wrong but everything fell apart they did not stay in bars but rather just crumbled apart
Very tasty! I found the method of cutting butter into an oat mixture a unnecessarily difficult task. I find softening & mixing in to be more user friendly without compromising texture or flavor. Thank you for a delicious recipe! The hubs was delighted!
Hey there, I made this recipe last week, and I came back and decided to comment because I will be making these again. They are delicious! I did use salted butter because I think it makes any crumble taste better. Anyhow, thank you so much for a great recipe. Even my son, who claims to hate apples, loved these 🙂
I just made this, it is very very good!! This recipe will be a keeper
That’s so great! I’m glad to hear you liked them, thank you.