These Sake Strawberry-Apple Bars are just delicious! An easy recipe for bars filled with a sweet and juicy strawberry-apple filling and topped with a crunchy crumble.
Juicy strawberries with sweet apples get even better with a little sake. A moist and juicy filling topped with a salty pretzel-oat crust makes it difficult to eat just one bar!
I know I've mentioned that apple desserts are my favorite kind of desserts; a very close tie with Nutella desserts
I remember eating apple crumbles when I was little. My little brother and I would return from a long day at school to the comforting smells of apple and cinnamon baking. My mom would make crumbles and bars as often as she would make us cookies.
There wouldn't be any lectures about not making a mess while we ate a crumble because a crumble is well, a crumbly affair to say the least. Her crumbles and bars were not made with sake...that's my crazy idea!
When I was studying at University, I was surrounded by students from all over the world. One very good friend of mine was Masaki Yoshida from Japan. We met each other in one of our International Business classes. All Masaki wanted to be was American. He loved basketball, rap music, and drove a Nissan 300 ZX. Masaki was a part of our group of friends that was mostly students from South America and Italy.
This is a crumble that is even more appealing because of the shortbread crust and the salty pretzel topping. There are oats mixed in with the butter and pretzel…it is slightly healthy. I find sake at Publix in the nice sushi section.
This is a crumble that is even more appealing because of the shortbread crust and the salty pretzel topping. There are oats mixed in with the butter and pretzel…it is slightly healthy.
Sake is smooth baked into the apples and strawberries. I recommend you try it. If you don't have sake, you could use lemon or orange juice.
I love to add strawberry or apricot jam to my fruit fillings for pies or crumbles. If you don't have strawberry jam, you can use any other flavored jam. This is very similar to my recipe.
What ingredients are in these easy to make bars?
Crust:
- unsalted butter, softened
- sugar
- all-purpose flour
- sea salt
Filling:
- granny smith apples (or your favorite baking apples)peeled, cored, and cut into ½" pieces
- strawberries
- lemon
- cinnamon
- ground ginger
- sea salt
- strawberry jam
- cornstarch
- sake (or orange juice)
Crumb Topping:
- salted pretzels
- all-purpose flour
- light brown sugar
- granulated sugar
- quick cooking oats
- butter
How to make these crumble bars
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 8x8 inch baking pan. In a medium sized bowl, add the apple pieces, cinnamon, ground ginger, and lemon juice. Let it sit while you prepare the crust. In a medium bowl, beat the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Beat in the flour until a soft dough is formed. Remove the dough and place it into your prepared pan. Press firmly onto the bottom and sides of the pan.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. You will have to refrain from eating this sugar cookie crust! Yum!
While the crust is baking, prepare the apple-strawberry mixture. In a medium sauce pan, sauté the apples in medium-low heat for about 3 minutes (until they lose their crispiness). Add the strawberries and the strawberry jam. Add in the sake combined with the 2 teaspoons of cornstarch.
Let it thicken and set the pan aside to cool while you prepare the crumb topping.
Crumb Topping:
In a medium bowl, stir together the crushed pretzels, oats, flour, both sugars, and oats. With a pastry cutter (or your fingers) cut in the butter pieces until the mixture has a crumbly mixture with the crumbs the size of blueberries.
After the filling cools, spread evenly on top of the crust.
Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the apple-strawberry filling.
Bake about 35-40 minutes or until the the topping is golden brown. Cool the bars completely in the pan on top of the rack, then place them in the refrigerator to chill before cutting.
You can store the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator if you don't gobble them all up as soon as you bake them.
Some other desserts to try:
- Fresh Strawberry Bundt Cake
- Strawberry Crumble Bars
- Vegan Strawberry Banana Bread
- Strawberry Panna Cotta
Sake Strawberry-Apple Bars
Ingredients
- For the Crust:
- 1 stick unsalted butter softened
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- dash of sea salt
- For the filling:
- 5 large granny smith apples or your favorite baking applespeeled, cored, and cut into ½ inch pieces
- ½ cup strawberries cut into chunks
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 4 tablespoons strawberry jam
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ¼ cup sake or orange juice
- For the Crumb Topping:
- 1 cup crushed salted pretzels
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup quick cooking oats
- 1 stick chilled butter cut into pieces
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 8x8 inch baking pan. In a medium sized bowl, add the apple pieces, cinnamon, ground ginger, and lemon juice. Let it sit while you prepare the crust.
- Prep the crust: In a medium bowl, beat the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Beat in the flour until a soft dough is formed. Remove the dough and place it into your prepared pan. Press firmly onto the bottom and sides of the pan.
- Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. You will have to refrain from eating this sugar cookie crust! Yum!
- Prep the filling: While the crust is baking, prepare the apple-strawberry mixture. In a medium sauce pan, sauté the apples in medium-low heat for about 3 minutes (until they lose their crispiness). Add the strawberries and the strawberry jam. Add in the sake combined with the 2 teaspoons of cornstarch. Let it thicken and set the pan aside to cool while you prepare the crumb topping.
- Prep the Crumb Topping:
- In a medium bowl, stir together the crushed pretzels, oats, flour, both sugars, and oats. With a pastry cutter (or your fingers) cut in the butter pieces until the mixture has a crumbly mixture with the crumbs the size of
- blueberries.
- After the filling cools, spread evenly on top of the crust.
- Bake about 35-40 minutes or until the the topping is golden brown. Cool the bars completely in the pan on top of the rack, then place them in the refrigerator to chill before cutting.
- You can store the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator if you don’t gobble them all up as soon as you bake them.
Nutrition Disclaimer
Please keep in mind that the nutritional information presented below is an approximation and may vary depending on the exact ingredients used.
Oh how I love hearing about your sweet friend from college. When I was in college, I was an ESL teacher to international college students from Japan. It was truly one of the best experiences.
What a great idea to combine apples and strawberries in a bar! And I just love the pretzels in the topping, so creative. 🙂
Yummies! I had warm sake for the first time last summer and it's sooo good. This is a great recipe and I too am sending well wishes to you and our friends in Japan.
Your bars look s good. My son doesn't like cake or chocolate, so I make apple crisp every year for his birthday. Love the pretzels in the crumb topping.
This really looks fantastic..awesome combo!
Hope your friend is alright! It is sad what mother nature can do!
I'm intrigued by the sake in this...what a great idea! Gorgeous bars. Love the combo of strawberry-apple (and that your friend drove a 300Z!).
I love crumb toppings and strawberries 🙂 This look fantastic! One of my husband's students at the flight school he works at is from Japan. He too wants to be American and introduce my husband to sushi...too funny! I hope your friend is alright...
I love crumb toppings and strawberry desserts 🙂 This looks fantastic! One of my husband's students (at a flight school) is from Japan and wants very badly to be American and introduce him to sushi...too funny!
These sound amazing! I love the addition of the Sake, it must make the bars extra good :)!
My daughter LOVES apple crisps/crumbles. In fact, that is her "birthday cake" (and she's 19!) Thanks for a variation I'm going to try and see if it passes muster with her. 🙂
I'm with you on the apple desserts, Lora, so I know I'd love your beautiful bars. Hope that your friend, Masaki, is OK...
Mmm....Sake....looks absolutely divine! Love the 'good old days' story about you and Masaki, I do hope he and his family are safe, as with many others who have and friends and family in Japan, we hope to hear from them. The bars are so yummy looking!
Thanks for the shout out, darling! These look incredible!
If there is sake in it, it must taste heavenly!
Indeed, the tragedy that struck Japan is overwhelming... We were wondering about our friends over there and fortunately they all are ok.
What a nice story about your old friend- I hope that he and his family are doing ok. It is surprising with today's current technology you haven't been able to find him. The bars look delicious by the way, love that you put pretzles in the topping!
I've never baked with Saki, but this does sound delicious. I hope your friend is safe! And thanks for the link to the St. Baldrick's post- I've left a comment there as well. 🙂
Sake in the filling must taste delicious in these scrumptious bars. Thanks for sharing the story of your friend with us. Our hearts are with Japan right now.
So creative! I've never thought of baking with sake. Just drinking it :> I hope your friend Masaki is okay too.
thanks for sharing your Maskai and sushi story. I'm sure he thinks of his time in the US with you guys whenever he eats a hamburger or a big piece of lasagna.
Your bars look great, I too am a big fan of anything apple and crumbly:)
Oh these look so good! I love anything with crumbles on top! Thanks for sharing 🙂
oh my goodness. . . this sounds AMAZING! 🙂 Apple desserts are my favorite too. . can you find sake at your local liquor store?? I've only had it at restaurants! 🙂