These Vegan Cinnamon Apple Shortbread Bars are everything you love about buttery vegan shortbread cookies baked into ultra-thick, buttery bars! They’re infused with tons of apple flavor and warm cinnamon and melt in your mouth with every bite.
Ingredients You’ll Need
To make these homemade bars, all you need is 7 simple ingredients:
- Freeze-dried apples: The key to infusing these shortbread bars with apple flavor without making the shortbread dough overly moist!
- Flour: We developed these shortbread bars using regular all-purpose flour because it yields the softest, butteriest shortbread cookie dough. For the best results, we recommend using our weighted measurements for consistent cookie bars every time.
- Cinnamon: Adds warmth and spice and enhances the flavor of the apples!
- Unsalted butter: Essential for that rich, moist, buttery textured shortbread cookie. We used Country Crock Buttery Sticks, but Earth Balance buttery sticks are also great.
- Sugar: We recommend a combination of granulated sugar and light brown sugar for the perfect moistness, additional richness from the molasses, and balanced sweetness.
- Vanilla: You can use either vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste for a stronger vanilla flavor.
How to Make Vegan Cinnamon Apple Shortbread Bars
- Preheat and prep. Preheat the oven to 350F and line an 8×8 glass pan with parchment paper.
- Process the freeze-dried apples. Add the freeze-dried apples and process on high until a powder forms.
- Add the dry ingredients. To the food processor, add the flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt and pulse to combine.
- Add remaining ingredients. Add the cubed vegan butter, sugar, and vanilla, and pulse once more until the shortbread dough forms a coarse meal.
- Press into the 8×8 baking dish. Transfer the dough to the prepared pan and press it down to flatten. The dough should be buttery enough to prevent it from sticking to your hands, but if desired, you can cover it with parchment or plastic wrap and then press it into the pan to keep your hands clean.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes. Prick the shortbread with a fork, then transfer to the middle oven rack and bake until golden, about 30-35 minutes.
- Cool completely, then enjoy! Unlike other vegan cookie recipes that can be eaten while warm and gooey, shortbread cookies are best enjoyed at room temperature. For this reason, we recommend allowing the cookie bars to cool completely before slicing and enjoying!
Find the full printable recipe here: Vegan Cinnamon Apple Shortbread Bars
