by Alyssa RiversThis website may contain affiliate links and advertising so that we can provide recipes to you. Read my privacy policy.
Delicious crumb bars with a creamy sour cream and apple center!
With rain and cooler temperatures here in Utah, I can feel that fall is just around the corner. Fall is my favorite season. I love how the leaves change. I love the cooler sweater temperatures. And I especially love fall baking!
Apple and pumpkin are my favorite things to bake with. I would bake year round with them if I could. When I woke up this morning I wanted to bake a treat that had apples in it. I immediately wanted to bake my favorite recipe for crumb bars. These things are amazing. The sweet sour cream center is delicious and is my favorite part! Everything that I love about apple pie is in these bars. And my house smelled amazing like apple pie while they were baking! If you love apple pie, you will these delicious bars!
Apple Pie Sour Cream Crumb Bars
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1/2 cup butter melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Filling:
- 2 Granny Smith Apples chopped into small pieces
- 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 and prepare an 8×8 square pan by lining with parchment paper and spraying with cooking spray.
- Make the crust by whisking together in a medium bowl the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the melted butter. The dough will be crumbly but make sure all of the butter is incorporated.
- Reserve ¾ cup of the crust and press the remaining into the bottom of your 8×8 prepared baking pan.
- For the sour cream filling, mix together in a large bowl the sour cream, sugar, 1 Tbsp flour, egg, and vanilla. Pour over the crust in your 8×8 pan.
- In a medium sized bowl combine cinnamon and nutmeg. Coat the apples with the mixture and sprinkle apples evenly over sour cream mixture.
- Sprinkle your reserved ¾ cup crust over the top and bake for 25-28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely and serve into squares. Store in the refrigerator up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Serves: 8
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.
Can you increase the apples to 4?
Can these bars bbe frozen after baking?
I wouldn’t increase the number of apples unless you double the recipe! And yes, they can be frozen! Place them in an airtight container and they should last a couple of months in the freezer. Thaw them in the refrigerator overnight.
Can you swap the fruit and not modify the recipe? For instance, I have a ton of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries that’d I’d love to use..?
I haven’t tried it that way but that sounds delicious!! I think that is a great idea! I hope you love it and it turns out great for you! Let me know what you think! XOXO
These sound yummy; I just put a batch in the oven, but your recipe is a little unclear. You call for 1/4 c. sugar, and you say to mix sour cream with sugar, then mix apples with sugar. Your comment clarifies that it is 1/4 for the apples. I also assumed it was 1/4 for the sour cream, etc. I think it will turn out fine, but others might freak out without the clarity. Can’t wait to try them!
I do need to fix that! Thank you!
How much sugar goes into the chopped apples and spices mixture?
1/4 cup.
These look delish and I’m making them right now! I just have one question. In the ingredients for the filling it calls for 1/4 c sugar but in the directions it says to mix sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg and then later to mix sour cream and sugar, etc. how much sugar goes with the cinnamon and how much goes with the sour cream? Thanks!
Sorry just seeing this! I remembered that I didn’t add sugar to the apple coating. I have fixed that. Hope they turned out ok! 🙂
Great recipe, Alyssa. I assume that an additional 1/4 cup of sugar is needed for Step 5, since Step 4 would use the 1/4 cup listed in the ingredients listing. Anyway… I’m on my way to the kitchen to see if I can do your recipe the justice it deserves. 😀
Sorry I fixed this. I didn’t use sugar in the cinnamon coating on the apples.
I’m making this now and I added 1/2 c brown sugar for crust, 1/4 c white sugar for sour cream filling, and see that the apple layer needs sugar-but I don’t see how much. Help!
I just guessed and used 1/2 c of sugar for the apple layer and the sweetness was fine. However, mine were a lot darker colored than your picture and the cinnamon taste overwhelmed the sour cream layer (although I had to sub plain greek yogurt), could you have meant 2 teaspoons instead? My husband and kids didn’t mind and I thought they were tasty.
Is the 2 tablespoons of cinnamon supposed to be teaspoons? I made these and everyone loved them but said there was a bit too much cinnamon.
Im so sorry! Yes two teaspoons. Thanks for catching that!
How much sugar goes into the cinnamon mixture? And what type? Thanks
,
The amount of cinnamon was a little too much for me, so I scaled it back.
I am so sorry! It was supposed to be teaspoons.
I thought these looked and sounded delish so I decided to give them a try. I got half-way through and found myself a bit confused. The list of filling ingredients calls for 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, but then the recipe says to combine the sugar twice – once with the sour cream mixture and again with the apples. Do I add sugar twice (how much each time) or just at one of those steps (and if so, when)? I took a guess and will have to see how they come out in half-an-hour, but I’m curious how you usually make them. Maybe putting the ingredients in the order they are used would be helpful. Thanks!
I am so sorry! That was my mistake. I have fixed it.
We haven’t experienced the cooler temperatures here yet, except for a few days a week or two ago. Totally loving these bars and pinned them to make later!
Looks fantastic! I would love it if you joined and contribute your awesome posts at my link party at City of Creative Dreams, starts on Fridays 😀 Hope to see you there at City of Creative Dreams Link Party.
Yes! I am totally going to make these tonight! Love this recipe.
In step 4 AND step 5, the directions read to “add sugar to sour cream mixture” and “add sugar to cinnamon, etc” but the ingredients ONLY call for 1/4 cup of sugar and it does NOT read that it needs to be divided. Is there more sugar that needs to be added to the list of ingredients???
Im sorry! I fixed it. There shouldn’t have been sugar added to the cinnamon and nutmeg. Only to the sour cream mixture.
It’s always 72° + around here in San Diego, but I could easily go for these right now! I love how this is layered and the topping looks excellent. Beautiful!
I’m already in autumn baking mode, the weather here in the UK is on the turn and I can’t wait for full blown autumn. These bars looks delicious, I adore baking with apples.
These look amazing. Gonna have to make real soon.