Keto Apple Crumble Bars with Pecans

These Healthy Apple Crumble Bars with Pecans are the ultimate fall dessert! These healthy apple bars are totally low carb, gluten free, refined sugar free, and there's a special secret ingredient. Combine honey crisp apples with zucchini to achieve a lovely fall flavor, without all of the sugar! Drizzle with some of our homemade keto salted caramel sauce for an amazing decadent treat.

pouring salted caramel syrup on a stack of apple bars

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Ahhh... fall! ☺️ The most wonderful time of the year! Many people when eating a low carb or keto diet often exclude things like apples completely. Apples do tend to be a bit higher in sugar, and for some people that isn't ideal. However, for us we are flexible and love eating fruits in smaller portion sizes, especially as the seasons change! 🍎

We wanted to find a creative way to still enjoy the taste of apples, and to lower the carb and sugar count slightly. So we used a mixture of apples and zucchini. If you're strict about things like apples, you can definitely use all zucchini and be blown away by how amazing they are! 😍

These healthy apple crisp bars with zucchini are only 6 net carbs per bar using apples and zucchini, and 4g net carbs for all zucchini.

We top with our favorite low carb ice cream and some of our homemade keto salted caramel sauce. These bars are so delicious, you'll be enjoying them all season long!

Ingredients:

Honey crisp apples- Chopped into bite size pieces and peeled if you prefer. We generally prefer to leave the peel on, we love the color and rustic feel.
Zucchini - Peeled, cored and chopped. We like to peel the zucchinis. This helps disguise them with the apples a little easier, not that zucchinis need a lot of help! They are a bit watery though, so make sure to scoop out the seeds on the inside.
Unsalted butter - For our sweet, buttery filling and for the crumble topping. Make sure to keep the butter cold to make the crumble topping.
Water
Apple cider vinegar - Really amps up the apple taste and adds a perfect tartness. Trust us, you need it!
Granular sugar free sweetener - Anything you prefer here. We generally opt for granular erythritol.
Apple pie spice & ground cinnamon - You could use all cinnamon if you prefer, but our apple pie spice blend is so easy to make at home. We add extra cinnamon for good measure!
Apple extract & vanilla extract - Apple extract is technically optional, but if you want a little extra something (especially with the all zucchini option) we do recommend it!
Xanthan gum - Again, technically optional, but it helps bind gluten free flours together since they lack the gluten of wheat.
Almond flour & coconut flour - Almond flour is the base, but a little coconut flour makes for the perfect balance. Just don't use all coconut flour, it's very drying and not a 1:1 substitute for almond flour.
Kosher salt - To enhance natural sweetness.
Chopped pecans (optional) - You could sub for almonds, or even coconut flakes if you prefer!
Serve with: Low carb ice cream or whipped cream & homemade keto salted caramel sauce! 😍

closeup shot of apple crumble bars in a baking sheet

Feel free to skip to the recipe card to get right into it if you're an experienced gluten free & keto baker. We do recommend reading the notes & checking out the process pictures to understand all the steps, and get many of your questions answered.

The process (and having patience), is super important to a delicious healthy apple crumble bar, and we made sure to include lots of tips and tricks!

If you still have questions, feel free to drop a comment below. Happy Autumn Baking! 🍂🍁

How to Make The Healthy Apple Crumble Bars:

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8 baking pan, then cover with parchment paper. This will make it very easy to pull out the entire batch of crumble bars to cut them up later.

In a large bowl, add your almond flour, coconut flour, salt, sweetener, apple pie spice, xanthan gum and cold butter cut into small chunks. Using your hands or a dough cutter, combine until your crust forms into a ball, then cut it in half.

bowl of dry ingredients combined with cold butter, sweetener and salt

ball of rolled gluten free shortbread dough in a glass bowl

Press half of the dough into your parchment lined baking sheet.

shortbread crust in a baking sheet with parchment

Add your chopped pecans to the rest of the dough and combine, then refrigerate until later. This will be your crumble topping. Bake your crust for 10-15 minutes, until it's golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool for 10-15 minutes.

shortbread crumble topping with pecans in a glass bowl

baked shortbread crust on a parchment sheet

While your crust is in the oven and cooling, it's time to prepare your apple and zucchini filling. In a medium sized sauce pan, add your chopped apples, zucchini, apple pie spice, cinnamon, water, apple cider vinegar, sweetener, unsalted butter, and salt.

apples and zucchini with sweetener, butter and cinnamon

Cook until softened, about 20 minutes. Once softened, remove from the heat and add in your vanilla extract, apple extract and sprinkle the xanthan gum over top. Whisk vigorously until the sauce has thickened. Taste to ensure it's sweet and spiced enough to your liking. Allow to cool for a few minutes to continue thickening.

apples and zucchini simmering in a buttery spiced sauce

apples and zucchini cooked in a thickened sauce

Spread your apple and zucchini filling over top of your cooked and cooled crust layer. Add your crumble topping by sprinkling it over top, then pressing it lightly to adhere to the filling. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the top is lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before cutting in.

apple and zucchini filling in a baking sheet with a spoon over top

apple pecan crumble topping overtop of apple filling in a baking sheet with parchment

Top with heavy cream or ice cream, and salted caramel sauce if desired!

stack of keto apple crumble bars topped with ice cream, caramel with some dripping down the sides

Do I Need Xanthan Gum For This Recipe?

Xanthan Gum is pretty necessary for this recipe. We love it because you just use a small amount, and it makes things hold together very well. To us, it's a very necessary part of gluten free baking. Without the traditional gluten that holds things together when working with regular flour, it can be tricky to get things to stick properly.

We use the xanthan gum in the crust, the crumble topping and in the filling to get the apple/zucchini filling to thicken up and set nicely.

You could also probably use cornstarch or arrowroot powder to thicken up the filling instead of xanthan gum. Technically you could make the crust and crumble topping without it, but it just won't stick and hold together quite the same. Basically, we think you should get some xanthan gum to make your life easier! It's super affordable and easy to find.

What Is Apple Pie Spice Made Of?

Most varieties of apple pie spice on the market include some mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice. Ginger and cardamom are sometimes added just depending on the brand.

Apple pie spice is good for more than just apple pie, and it's so delicious. You can purchase it online or in stores, but it's also really easy to make at home!

How To Make Apple Pie Spice:

Everyone has their own recipe, and feel free to adjust to suit your preferences! Keep in mind that cinnamon is your base, and you can adjust according to your personal preferences!

A Full Living Apple Pie Spice Recipe:
5 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1.5 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1.5 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cloves

overhead shot of crumble bars cut up with honey crisp apple

Why Do We Use Cold Butter For the Crust and Crumble?

For this recipe, and many of our recipes that include a crumble topping (kinda like this no sugar added sweet potato casserole) we use cold butter! Grandma taught me this trick, but cold butter will help you achieve a "crispier" texture.

For this application, we are kind of making a shortbread crust, and then of course the crumbly topping that we want to crisp up a bit.

This article explains a bit more of why different temperatures of butter are good for different applications. Basically, for these bars, we want some crispier bits, and cold butter helps us achieve that. Why? Because cold butter won't full integrate into the crust, so when it bakes, some water releases, creating a more "flaky" or "layered" texture.

How Do I Make 'Stricter Keto' Apple Crumble Bars?

If you are looking to lower the net carb count in these healthy apple crisp bars, you could remove the honey crisp apples and use zucchini only. Zucchini is a sneaky ingredient, and once we peel it, core it and cut it into bite sized chunks, it has a very neutral flavor, lending it very nicely to being disguised as an "apple".

Once we add in our cinnamon and apple pie spice, along with some apple extract, butter, apple cider vinegar and sweetener, you could fool some serious apple enthusiasts!

Since we are more on the low carb end of the spectrum, we really enjoy adding in actual apple to this recipe, but we understand if you are less than enthusiastic. We can replace the one large honey crisp apple in our recipe with one additional chopped, cored and peeled zucchini.

This simple swap lowers the net carb count from 6 net carbs in the apple version, to 4 net carbs in the zucchini only version, making them keto apple crumble bars!

closeup stack of keto apple crumble bars

Can I Use Only Apples in These Bars?

Of course! If you aren't particularly concerned about the carb count of apples themselves, you can justuse all apples! For this recipe you would need one additional large honey crisp apple chopped into bite sized pieces (about 215 grams) to replace the two medium zucchinis. You can also leave out the apple extract.

We hope our recipe appeals to a variety of diets/ways of eating, and if you are are just looking to cut back on processed sugar and still enjoy plenty of fruit, we think that's a really great way to look after your health.

Cutting back on sugar in your diet can have so many great benefits, leading to a healthier and happier life.

hand picking up a keto apple crumble bar off a stack of bars

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More Recipes To Try:

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Until Next Time,
Briana & Chamere