Maple Apple Bars

Maple Apple Bars are delicious and super easy to make with brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, and Granny Smith Apple chunks.

Homemade Apple Bars are an easy, shareable Dessert perfect for a potluck, bake sale, or to enjoy over the holidays. You can also try a few other delicious apple bar recipes like Caramel Apple Bars and Apple Crumb Bars.

Homemade Apple Bars are super easy to make and ready in just 40 minutes. All you have to do is combine the easy brown sugar and maple batter. Then chop medium apples, and fold them into the mixture. Pour the batter into the baking tin, and pop it in the oven for 30 minutes. From start to finish the recipe is completely fool-proof and the end result is absolutely delicious.

The baked apples and maple syrup in a buttery dessert recipe make a comforting and rich combination. They’re perfect for a seasonal, holiday treat, but you can also enjoy them all throughout the fall and winter.

Maple Apple Bars taste amazing on their own but they can be made into an extra special dessert when served up with a scoop of creamy Vanilla Ice Cream. You can even sprinkle a little cinnamon over the ice cream or drizzle on some Caramel Sauce to finish the decadent apple recipe.

If you don’t want something as heavy as ice cream, but still want a creamy topping for your Apple Bars, you can use Whipped Cream. No worries if you don’t have store-bought whipped cream either! It’s easy to make your own with heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in just a few minutes.

More Apple Desserts

Caramel Apple Cobbler

Caramel Apple Crumb Cheesecake

Rustic Apple Galette (Pie Tart)

Apple Pie Muffins

FAQs About Maple Apple Bars

Key Ingredients in Maple Apple Bars

• Fresh Apples: The tart apple flavor in Granny Smith Apples becomes slightly sweeter when you bake them. However, they still maintain their shape well and have a wonderful balance of tart and sweet, which makes them perfect for dessert. If you want to use a different type of apple, Honeycrisp, Winesap, and Braeburn are a few other good options.
• Brown Sugar: For the most part, these Apple Bars are sweetened with brown sugar. It’s important to use sugar instead of just maple syrup because it has a slightly more mild flavor and gives the bars a nice chewy texture without adding too much liquid.
• Maple: Then you just need to add a bit of maple to bring that rich, dark, buttery sweet flavor to the bars. Mix ½ cup of maple syrup for the most amazing, balanced, and complex flavor in the Maple Apple Bars.

How to Make Maple Apple Bars

• Prep Time: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then prep a 9×13 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
• Batter: Add the brown sugar, melted unsalted butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and eggs to a large mixing bowl. Then whisk the wet ingredients until well combined into a smooth mixture. Add the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt next. Then mix the flour into the blondie batter until just combined. Make sure not to overmix the dry ingredients or the bars will turn out stiff. Simply mix until the dough forms and there aren’t any flour streaks. Fold in the chunks of apple to finish the batter.
• Cook Time: Transfer batter into the prepared baking dish. Then spread the apple mixture into an even layer. Put it in the oven for a 30-minute baking time until the Maple Apple Bars are rich golden brown. Then let the warm blondies cool before slicing and serving.

Can Maple Apple Bars be made ahead?

These bars taste delicious served fresh, but they will continue to be delicious for days! Making these bars ahead would be a no-brainer if you’ve got a busy week and you’d like some sweet treats to grab when the craving strikes. You can also make the bars a day or two ahead if you won’t have much time to make them on the day you’d like to serve them. Another idea is to make these at the beginning of the week and eat these bars as a sweet breakfast treat throughout the week to replace your regular muffin or pastry.

Variations on Maple Apple Bars

• Seasonings: To add a little extra flavor to the Apple Bars, you can mix in some of your favorite spices. Warm spices like ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, and a pinch of ground cloves would taste wonderful.
• Caramel Apple Pie Bars: Instead of maple, you can add some extra sweetness to the bars with caramel sauce. You might find the combination of maple and caramel too rich, so if you’re adding caramel sauce then replace the maple in the batter with granulated sugar. Then combine the batter and bake as usual. Once the Apple Bars are finished you can drizzle Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce over the top, and let it all cool before serving.
• Streusel Topping: For a delicious addition of flavor and crunchy texture, you can add a brown sugar streusel topping to the bars before baking. To make the topping combine ½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup white sugar, ½ cup white flour, 1 ½ tsp cinnamon, and ⅛ tsp salt in a mixing bowl. Then add ¼ cup cold butter cut into small pieces. Use a fork or pastry cutter to combine into coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the brown sugar topping over the Apple Bar Batter and bake to golden perfection.
• Nut Bars: Along with the apples, you can add some chopped nuts to give the Maple Apple Bars a crunchy texture. Toasted almonds, walnuts, or pecans would work wonderfully in this recipe. 

More Bar Recipes

Caramel Chocolate Bars

Apricot Shortbread Bars

Caramel Nut Crumb Bars

Strawberry Bars

How to Store

• Serve: Maple Apple Bars can stay good at room temperature for up to 1 week covered in aluminum foil or plastic wrap.
• Store: Make sure to give the bars enough chill time before you cover them or put them in an airtight container. Then they can stay good in the fridge for 2 weeks.
• Freeze: To freeze the bars, cut the chilled dessert into squares. Then Place them in a freezer bag with parchment paper between each layer. They’ll stay good for up to 3 months.