Artificial Food Coloring Free Honey-Nutmeg Apple Crumble Bars
Warm spiced apples, golden crumble, and a drizzle of honey — these bars hit every note you want from a fall-inspired bake. The entire ingredient list is naturally free from synthetic dyes, which means no label-scanning or second-guessing whether that bright orange filling came from a bottle of food coloring. Sweetness here comes entirely from honey and the apples themselves, and the warmth of ground nutmeg does all the heavy lifting in the flavor department. Rice flour and tapioca starch stand in for all-purpose flour, giving the crust and crumble a delicate, slightly crisp texture that holds together beautifully once cooled. Cold butter worked into the oat-based crumble creates those irresistible clumpy, golden bits on top that make every bar look like it came straight from a bakery case. Letting them cool completely is the one step worth being patient about — the tapioca-thickened filling sets up into clean, sliceable layers that won't fall apart when you cut them. Whether you're baking for kids, guests, or just yourself on a quiet afternoon, these bars are the kind of treat that feels genuinely wholesome without sacrificing a single bit of indulgence.
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Learn more →Ingredients
9 servings
For the crust and crumble
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¾ cup rice flour
- ¼ cup tapioca starch
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into ½-inch cubes
For the apple filling
- 3 medium apples (about 1 ½ lb), peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch slices
- 3 tbsp honey
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tbsp tapioca starch
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- 1
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a 9×9-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two opposite sides to use as handles for lifting the bars out later.
- 2
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the rolled oats, rice flour, tapioca starch (the crust-and-crumble portion), granulated sugar, and fine sea salt until evenly combined. Add the cold butter cubes and work them in with a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse, clumpy crumbs with some pea-sized pieces of butter remaining — do not overwork it into a smooth dough.
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