Name: Apple Crumble Bars With Rye Flour
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 80 min
Ingredients: 3 cups apples (peeled, chopped, cut into ½-inch (1-¼ cm) pieces); 1 teaspoon lemon juice; ¼ cup brown sugar (tightly packed); 2 tablespoons rye flour; 1 tablespoon sugar; 2 teaspoons cinnamon (ground); ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 cups rye flour; ½ cup brown sugar (tightly packed); ⅛ teaspoon salt; ½ cup butter (melted, slightly cooled)

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Made with basic ingredients, these apple crumble bars have the same hearty rye flour mixture for both the crust and crumble topping!

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 1

Total Time: 1 20

Nine apple crumble bars on a thin plastic cutting board alongside a small knife and some Red Prince apples.

This post was sponsored by Red Prince Apples, however all views and opinions are my own.

Last year I made a tasty apple loaf cake featuring Red Prince apples, and this year I made apple crumble bars with a nutty rye flour crust and topping! There’s something so comforting about apple desserts baked with butter and cinnamon. Mid-winter apple desserts are even better with crisp, tangy Red Prince apples.

Grown in my home province of Nova Scotia, as well as Ontario and Quebec, Red Prince apples are harvested in the fall like any other apple. The difference is, Red Prince apples are kept in cold-storage, and left to mature like wine in a cellar, until their release each January. The storage process enhances natural sugars and acids in the apples, resulting in a tangy, sweet taste, and crunchy bite.

Even more interesting is, new for 2021, Red Prince apples are now sold in truly sustainable film bags. The bags will naturally biodegrade, 5 to 15% in the first 30 days, and are estimated to finish degradation in five years compared to a normal plastic bag cycle of 1,000 years. You can find out more information about the biodegradable film bags, as well as where to purchase Red prince apples, at redprinceapple.ca.

Three plates of individual servings of crumble bars.

Ingredients

For The Red Prince Apple Filling

For The Rye Flour Crust

Ingredients to make the rye flour topping for this recipe.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Preheat the oven and line a square baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the chopped Red Prince apples and lemon juice.

A hand using a rubber spatula to stir chopped apples in a large glass bowl.

Add the brown sugar, rye flour, white sugar, cinnamon, and salt to the apples and continue to stir until everything is well combined. Set aside.

A bowl of unmixed chopped apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, rye flour, and salt.

A hand using a rubber spatula to mix chopped apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, rye flour, and salt together in a large glass bowl.

A bowl of chopped apples mixed with cinnamon and brown sugar.

Add the rye flour, brown sugar, and salt for the crust/topping to another bowl. You can whisk these ingredients together, however, I use my hands to mix, in order to break up any larger clumps of brown sugar.

A bowl of unmixed rye flour, brown sugar, and salt.

Hands rubbing together dry crumble topping ingredients.

Pour the melted butter into the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir everything together with a fork or rubber spatula to start.

A bowl of dry ingredients and melted butter, unmixed.

A hand using a for to stir melted butter into a bowl of dry ingredients.

To finish, set down the fork and rub the rye flour and butter together between your fingers and thumbs to fully combine.

Hands rubbing melted butter into dry crumble topping ingredients.

Scoop out approximately 1 cup (120g) of rye flour crumble from the bowl and set it aside. The amount doesn’t have to be exact. You just want enough for a good layer of crumble topping.

Hands scooping crumble topping out of a large bowl into a smaller bowl.

Dump the rest of the rye flour mixture into the prepared baking dish. Use your fingers to spread the flour evenly across the bottom of the dish, then use your hands to press and compact the layer down as the bottom crust.

A hand pressing rye flour crust into a square baking dish lined with parchment paper.

Top the crust with the Red Prince apple mixture. Use a rubber spatula or fork to spread the apples out into an even layer.

A hand using a rubber spatula to pat chopped apples evenly into a square baking dish.

Scatter the remaining 1 cup of rye flour mixture (which was set aside) evenly over the top of the apples.

A hand sprinkling crumble topping over chopped apples in a square baking dish.

Place the baking dish in the preheated oven and bake the apple crumble bars for 55 to 60 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the fruit is bubbling. Cool completely before slicing and serving.

Close up overhead of a pan of baked crumble bars.

Notes & Tips

I used both weight and volume measures to test these apple crumble bars. Three cups (450g) of chopped apples turned out to be approximately five to six Red Prince apples.

Apple crumble bars will keep on the counter at room temperature, stored in a container with a lid, for two days. I, however, prefer to keep them in the refrigerator. Stored in the fridge the bars will keep for up to one week.

These bars freeze well. I like to wrap the apple crumble bars individually, gently but tightly with foil, to store in the freezer. To thaw, simply leave the bars out for 30 to 60 minutes at room temperature, or warm them in a microwave or toaster oven until heated through.

Apple crumble bars are also delicious served warm topped with whipped cream or ice cream.

Substitutions

We love the rich nutty flavour of rye flour, however, regular all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, or spelt flour can be substituted.

Try replacing half of the cinnamon with cardamom. Homemade chai spice is also a great addition to this recipe.

Use a good quality dairy-free butter, or solid coconut oil (that’s been melted like the butter called for in the recipe), if you’d like to make vegan apple crumble bars.