Earlier in October, we went apple picking and picked a whopping 70 pounds of apples. Since I was on rotation, I made a few batches of my slow cooker applesauce, some apple crisp, and that was about it. Thankfully, we have this mildly terrifying little cellar room in our basement that is the perfect place for keeping apples nice and cool, so I haven’t had to worry about our huge haul of apples going bad. Storing my apples in there has now made me slightly less terrified of someone shutting me in there, so that’s a plus, too! 😉
I decided I had to make a few apple recipes before I could even touch anything chocolate (which is what I really want), so I started out with trying out a gluten free apple pie bar. I previously made these berry bars, and I really liked the “crust” of them, so I took pretty much took that recipe and made it with apples, eliminating the coconut. I still used the coconut oil, which definitely lends a light coconut flavor to the recipe. If you’re not a fan of coconut, I definitely recommend using butter, and then it’ll taste a whole lot more like pie, as well!
The crust is made with coconut and almond flours, definitely two of my favorite healthier gluten free flours. Because there’s no gluten to build up a whole lot of structure, the crust is a little bit more crumbly than your standard pie, but not overly so. I think it tastes a whole lot better – there’s actual flavor! A good dose of cinnamon doesn’t hurt, either.
I used sweeter apples, so I didn’t put any sugar in the apple layer – depending on the apples you use, you may need to add a little bit. I prefer it to be less sweet so I can easily have this for breakfast, because who doesn’t love being able to have “pie” for breakfast?!
What are your favorite apple recipes? I could definitely use some ideas for the rest of my apple haul!
- 1 1/2 cups almond meal (I use Trader Joe's)
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup coconut oil (or butter)
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 Tbsp molasses
- 1/4 tsp liquid stevia (or another 1/4 cup honey)
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups apples, sliced OR chopped* (2-3 medium apples)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp demerara (or brown sugar), optional
- cinnamon and demerara sugar, for sprinkling, optional
Line a 9x9 inch pan with parchment paper, and preheat the oven to 350ºF.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with a hand held mixer), beat the coconut oil, honey, molasses, liquid stevia, eggs, and vanilla together, until creamy. Slowly stir in the flour mixture until well combined and a dough forms.
Divide the dough in half and press one half into the bottom of the parchment lined pan evenly.
Stir the cinnamon and sugar for the filling together in a small bowl (if using the sugar). Set aside.
Layer the sliced apples evenly across the pressed crust, and sprinkle with a little of the cinnamon sugar. Continue layering and sprinkling with cinnamon sugar until you have used all of your apples (I did 3 layers).
*If you are using chopped apples, spread them evenly over the crust, and sprinkle with all of the cinnamon sugar.
Sprinkle the remaining half the dough overtop the apples in chunks, and then press down to seal the dough together overtop the apples (this does not need to be perfect!). Sprinkle the dough with extra cinnamon and sugar if you would like.
Bake at 350ºF for 20-25 minutes, until the crust is golden. Allow to cool in the pan completely before cutting into squares.
Store in an airtight container.
https://cookingalamel.com/2014/11/apple-pie-bars-gluten-free.html