Apple Crumble Bars

Here's a twist on a traditional concept for those of you who love apple pie, but want to shake it up a bit.  By cooking the apples on the stove prior to baking, they take on a very nice caramel flavor. 


Dough
-1 cup butter (2 sticks)
-1/2 cup sugar
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-3 cup flour

-For dough, combine all dough ingredients until it has a crumbly texture, divide dough in two and press half of it into a greased 9x13 pan (or whatever you have around that size) and set the other half aside. 

Filling
-9ish apples, pink lady or granny smith work well
-1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
-1 cup brown sugar
-1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
-1 tbs cinnamon (or however much you like)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Peel, core and cut apples into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices.  Combine apples slices with other filling ingredients in a pot over medium heat on the stove (may seem like a lot of apples at first, but they reduce down quite a bit).  On medium heat, mix apples and sauce until some of the liquid has evaporated and the sauce becomes caramel-ly (although still somewhat liquid-y) and apples cook through, about 20 minutes.
 


Pour apple mixture into prepared pan with the pressed dough and spread evenly.  Take remaining dough and spread over the apples (if you take hand-fulls of the dough and squeeze it in your hand, you can form larger "chucks" to place on the apples...just a suggestion for a more crumbly top).  Bake for about 40 minutes until it's bubbling throughout and has turned golden brown on top.

Serve with  some vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!