In my home, we are a dessert-lovin’ family. No matter if it’s cake, cookies or pies — we love them all. Lately, my youngest son has been on a sugar cookie kick. He loves that sweet, buttery taste of the sugar cookies when they come right out of the oven, and he’s been requesting a fresh batch every week.

My oldest son is a fan of fruit pies, but they must have the perfect fruit-to-pie-crust ratio. To satisfy both of their sweet tooths, I decided to make a batch of these Apple Pie Sugar Cookie Bars. It contains the best of both worlds — warm, chewy cookies and yummy apple pie.

Apple Pie Sugar Cookie Bars. (Andrea Mathis / Registered Dietitian and owner of Beautiful Eats & Things)

This recipe may sound a little complicated, but it’s actually very easy to make. And thanks to a couple of shortcuts, this recipe calls for only a few simple ingredients that I purchased from Walmart. Instead of making my cookie dough from scratch, I decided to use a packaged sugar cookie mix, and instead of spending hours to prepare my apple pie filling, I decided to use BakeGood Sweeten-to-Taste Apple Pie Filling. That allows me to control the sugar content by sweetening the filling with my preferred sweetener. You can choose to use maple syrup, stevia, erythritol — the choice is yours.

Because this recipe was such a breeze to put together, I let my kids help and join in on the fun. When sweetening the apple pie filling, they really enjoyed tasting it to make sure that it was just right.

Apple Pie Sugar Cookie Bars. (Andrea Mathis / Registered Dietitian and owner of Beautiful Eats & Things)

Apple Pie Sugar Cookie Bar

Click here for a printable version.

Serves: 9

Ingredients

• 1 (17.5-ounce) package sugar cookie mix
• 1 cup BakeGood Sweeten-to-Taste Apple Pie Filling
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the streusel topping:

• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsalted melted butter

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.
3. Prepare the sugar cookie dough per the package directions and spread the dough into the prepared baking dish. Set aside.
4. Combine the apple pie filling, cinnamon and maple syrup in a medium bowl, and spread it on top of the cookie dough layer.
5. To make the streusel topping, mix the flour, brown sugar and melted butter together in a small bowl.
6. Sprinkle it on top of the apple topping and bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until the cookie layer is completely cooked through.
7. When done, cool completely before cutting into bars. Enjoy.

Recipe notes

These bars can be kept stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days.

This recipe originally appeared on Beautiful Eats & Things. For more great recipes, visit beautifuleatsandthings.com.