Sour Cream Apple Bars

These Sour Cream Apple Bars are filled with apples, a hint of cinnamon and have an amazing shortbread crust. Served with whipped cream or ice cream, these bars are the most perfect fall dessert!

This is a recipe I found in my grandma's recipe box. The recipe card lacked most of the instructions and just had the ingredients and a few details. I had fun rewriting the recipe and adding in all the details we find in recipes on the internet these days.

I think these Sour Cream Apple Bars taste just like a cinnamon graham cracker. They have the most amazing crust that pairs perfectly with the soft sour cream and apple topping. While you might think these would come out creamy from the sour cream, they actually aren't creamy at all, it's more like an apple pie filling. Adding a big dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream makes this a favorite fall dessert!

Jump to:

• Ingredients Needed
• How to Make Sour Cream Apple Bars
• FAQ
• Using Leftover Ingredients
• Recipe

Ingredients Needed

• Flour
• Brown sugar
• Butter
• Walnuts
• Sour cream
• Cinnamon
• Vanilla
• Baking soda
• Egg
• Apple - I used Kanzi apples and thought they were a perfect choice for these bars, or any apple baking, really!

How to Make Sour Cream Apple Bars

Prepare Your Pan

To begin you will want to preheat your oven to 350° and spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. I also lined mine with parchment paper so I could pull the bars out and cut them easily. You can do this by making a parchment paper sling. To do this use two pieces of parchment paper. One that will fit In the pan lengthwise with some excess hanging over and one that fits in the pan crosswise with excess hanging over. Spray your pan with cooking spray and press your two pieces of parchment into the bottoms and up the sides of your pan.

Prepare the Shortbread Crust

In the bowl of your mixer, you will combine the flour, sugar and butter. Mix at a medium speed until the mixture is crumbly. Then stir in the walnuts.

Measure 2 ¾ cups of the flour mixture into your prepared baking pan. Using your fingers or a measuring cup, press the flour mixture into the bottom of the pan. Set this aside.

Prepare Apple Topping

Add the sour cream, cinnamon, vanilla, baking soda, egg, and salt to the remaining flour mixture in the bowl of your mixer. Mix on low just until it is combined, then stir in the apples.

Pour the apple mixture on top of the pressed flour mixture in the prepared pan. Spread the apple mixture in an even layer with a spoon or spatula.

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Bake in a 350° oven for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean. Let the bars cool completely in the pan.

Once they are cool, cut them into 24 squares and top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

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FAQ

• Should I use a certain kind of apple? Yes! Not all apples are created equally. When baking, you typically want your apple to maintain its shape and not turn to mush. Some great apples for baking are: Kanzi, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, and Pink Lady.
• Do I have to use walnuts? No. If you aren't a walnut fan, hazelnuts, pecans or almonds would work great too!

Using Leftover Ingredients

If you have some sour cream leftover after making these Sour Cream Apple Bars and need to use it up, try one of these recipes:

• Caramel Pecan Sticky Buns
• Double Layer Beef Taco Cups

Recipe