These apple bars are easy to make with a cake mix crust! This is my first of many apple recipes this fall.
One of my favorite things about fall is apple desserts and apple recipes! Every year we spend a day or two at apple orchards in the area. They are already open for the season but we usually wait until later in September and into October to go. A couple of weekends ago, we ate at one of the apple orchard’s restaurants with some friends of ours. I was impressed with their selection of baked treats and am going to try to make some of them. Before, I get started on those recipes, I wanted to try making Apple Bars. My idea was to make more of a cookie bar so I used my recipe for White Chocolate M&M Cookie Bars as the base. Since the apples have a lot of moisture in them the base is softer and less sturdy than the cookie bars base was.
The base of the bars is a spice cake mix, 1 stick of butter and an egg. The second layer is 2 chopped Granny Smith apples coated with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. The third layer is roughly chopped pecans. The final layer is one can of sweetened condensed milk.
Bake the bars for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.
The bars are delicious! If you want to remove them from the pan, allow the bars to cool first.
Or serve them warm, directly from the pan with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of caramel and some chopped pecans.
- 1 spice cake mix
- 1 stick butter softened
- 1 egg
- 2 Granny Smith apples
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans
- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
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Preheat oven to 350°F.
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Mix together cake mix, egg and butter.
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Pat into a parchment lined, greased 9×13″ pan.
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Peel and chop apples.
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Toss with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.
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Sprinkle chopped apples over the cake batter in the pan.
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Top with chopped pecans.
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Drizzle with sweetened condensed milk.
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Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Here’s another fall dessert recipe:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Doughnuts
Hi, I'm Tonia, a lover of food and photography! Fill a gunny sack with delicious ingredients, tie on an apron and let's get cooking!
I can hardly wait to try this mouth watering recipe. Can you freese the bars? Before or after baking?
I would freeze them after baking them. Happy Baking! ~Tonia
Hi! I want to make this recipe for Thanksgiving but I spend the holiday at another house and would have to transport the dessert. How would I approach re-warming the bars when I arrive at the house? I would really like to serve them warm and with ice cream. Thank you!
Hey Madison! Sorry I’ve been away from my computer. Had a grooms dinner last night and baking/cooking for Thanksgiving today. I would just warm them up in the microwave. Start with 30 seconds and check them. Keep heating in 15 second intervals until warm. Enjoy! ~Tonia
Hi i am from France and i dont know what is a spice cake mix. Can i change it for a home made cake mix like a victoria sandwich mix with all spice ( 2 eggs, 100g of sugar, 100 g of butter, 100 g of flour.)
It is a yellow or white cake mix with spices in it. Here is a recipe from my friend Amanda at I Am Baker to try: http://iambaker.net/homemade-spice-cake-mix/ Best of luck! ~Tonia
Hi Tonia, these sound great, I have two questions though: 1. by stick of butter, do you mean a quarter cup stick or a half cup stick? 2. Do you think I can add extra condensed milk? I really want them to by caramel-y. I can’t wait to make these for Thanksgiving, thank you for sharing this.
Hi Ashleigh,
It’s a half cup of butter and I’ve never tried adding extra condensed milk, but I think that it would work. You could also try adding caramel ice cream topping like they do in Oatmeal Carmelita recipes. Happy Baking!
~Tonia
SHUT the Front DOOR OMG These just came out of the Oven and the Smell is Amazing . Can’t wait to share it after dinner
I just took these out of the oven. Made mine in my cast iron skillet lined with parchment paper. Is it me or it seemed to take alittle longer to set?
Looks beautiful though & bought ice cream and of course caramel too!! Can’t wait to try! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Sooooo good! Makes the house smell like thanksgiving!
In the pictures you posted, it looks like the cake is baked before you add the rest of the toppings then bake again. Is that the case or is the cake mix raw when you add the rest of the ingredients?
Hi Jennifer,
The cake mix layer is raw. It is very thick and pressed onto the bottom of the pan. Happy Baking!
~Tonia
Thank you so much! I have two potlucks this week…any guesses as to what I’m making?
Ooh my goodness I love baking things that make my house smell like Thanksgiving. I can’t wait to put mine in the oven. 😃
could you substitute something non-dairy for the condensed milk do you think?
Hi Barbara,
The sweetened condensed milk caramelizes and really holds everything together. I think that you could use melted, non-dairy caramels instead.
Happy Baking!
~Tonia
This recipe looks and sounds SO good I am afraid I will be committing a crime if I make it. But, hey, I think it’s worth the jail time!
😉
The spice cake mix you just add a stick of butter and a egg. That is all. Then you put on thr layer . Just want to know if that is right. Thank You Pat
Hi Pat,
Yes, the bottom layer is just a spice cake mix, a stick of softened butter and an egg. Happy Baking!
~Tonia
AWESOME!!! & EASY!
Definitely will do again!!!
Got it! Thanks for the quick reply, have a great day:)
By the way, what is spice cake mix?
It is a cake mix flavor from Betty Crocker: http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/supermoist-cakes/spice
As a substitute for the spice cake, You can add 1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or 1 teaspoon cinnamon + your choice of any or all 1/4 teaspoon each nutmeg, ginger, allspice cloves) to butter cake mix.
OMG! I’m sitting here looking for an apple recipe to make for thanksgiving, I usually make an apple pie, pecan pie, and a pumpkin pie. This year I’m looking for something new. When I saw your Carmel Apple Pecan Bars, I knew this is it! This is a great combo for two of my pies, and I love anything with sweetened condensed milk. Thanks so much for sharing, happy thanksgiving 🙂
Great idea! I should make some of these to bring to our Thanksgiving too. Have a wonderful week! ~Tonia
Love this recipe. Thank you, Tonia.
Tonia, every recipe that you e-mail to us is to die for. They are all so AWESOME. Thank you so very much.
Thanks Anna! I have so much fun doing all the baking and cooking!
If you haven’t made these yet you need to. They are to die for!!
YUM!! I love fall and these bars sound like the perfect fall treat. My mouth is watering just looking at your pictures!
These bars look just incredible Tonia! I am SO happy it’s apple season!!
Tonia, these sound so special!! I will definitely be trying them, I love apple recipes 😉
Ok, I’m definitely making a special trip to the store just so I can make this. Yum!
Thanks Anita! It will be worth it. I served this dessert to some company last weekend and they wanted the recipe from me.
Apple bars really caught my eye. Looks delicious. Thank you.
Thanks for stopping by Liz!
I need this right away! ok, and the donuts too!
LOL! Happy baking! Thanks Stephanie!
You seriously made my heart skip a bit I think!! Yummy!!!!!
LOL! Thanks Kelsey!
I love this recipe, I entantan apples and I love your blog! I hope also to have translated. Here I’m following you!
Thanks Eva! I’m so happy to have you as a follower!
Thanks Tonia! I was thinking about making some apple recipes and this sounds perfect! I love sweetened condensed milk recipes, and using the spice cake mix is well, genius!! Thanks so much!
Well, thank you Jenna! 🙂
Oh Tonia! These are too much. My favourite flavours. I’m pinning!
Anne xx
Thanks Anne! There is so much goodness in one bar!
So beautiful, Tonia! My husband feels I should stay up and make this, even though it’s going on 10 pm. We just discovered it and it looks so delicious! Yum!
LOL! Maybe you should! Thank Glenda!
I need this now 🙂
It looks amazing! I’ll make it soon…
Thanks for sharing
Thanks Andrea! I wish I could send you some!
Yum! I am loving all the apple goodness this year. I am working on apple recipe for a week of apple treats and something very similar to this was on my list 🙂 Great minds think alike!!! I love that you put ice cream on them too!
I can’t wait to check them out! Thanks Jocelyn!
These look so good! We are hoping to head out for some apple picking this weekend and now I know the perfect thing to make with our bounty. 🙂
Thanks Shannah! Have fun this weekend!