Old fashioned Apple Pie Bars (Croatian Apple Pie)
Apple pie bars are a true autumn dessert that is baked a lot in Croatia. This recipe comes from my grandmother's old cookbook which is already falling apart and has yellow pages, so we definitely can call this pie - Old fashioned.
Servings: 15
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 2 eggs
- 150 grams butter (5.3 oz, 2/3 cup) room temperature
- 150 grams granulated sugar 3/4 cup
- 350 gall-purpose flour (2 1/2,12.3 oz)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- lemon juice and zest from 1/2 lemon
Apple filling:
- 5-6 large apples peeled and grated
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons sugar + more if you have a sweet tooth
- icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180 °C).
Crust:
- In a bowl of a stand mixer whisk eggs with sugar until pale and fluffy. Change wire whip with a dough hook, add butter, flour, baking powder, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and zest. Mix until dough becomes crumbly. Transfer the dough on a lightly floured surface, and knead with your hands until you get a smooth, non-sticky dough. Wrap in plastic and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Apples:
- Peel and grate apples.
- Add cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
Assemble:
- Divide the dough in half. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a floured surface.
- Press one half of the dough into the bottom of the greased 9x13 inch baking pan.
- With your hands spread apple filling above bottom dough ( IMPORTANT: squeeze half of the liquid from the apples, before you assemble the filling, in contrary, the pie will be mushy).
- Cover with top crust. ( see ** Note).
- Bake for about 45 minutes or until the crust is pale golden. Let it cool for 30-45 minutes, sprinkle with icing sugar, cut into squares and serve.
Notes
** The other half of the dough, I like to grate over the apple filling, and press lightly with hands to cover any holes, just to get that "ragged" look ( like on my photos)
***In Croatia, we are using grams and milliliter. Every recipe has a measuring in cups, grams (milliliter), and ounces. I own cups and spoons measure utensils and I try to be exact when I convert weight into cups, but there is a slight possibility of deviation from the exact amount. Due to differences in measurement, I recommend that you use a kitchen scale if you have one.
Tried this recipe?Tag @mihaela_biteitquick on Instagram! I would love to see what you've baked!