Chicken Free Honey-Nutmeg Apple Crumble Bars
Warm spiced apples, golden crumble, and a drizzle of honey — these bars are the kind of thing that disappears from the counter before it has a chance to cool. The filling layers thinly sliced fresh apples with honey and nutmeg, giving you that classic cozy-autumn flavor without any fuss. A base of rolled oats, rice flour, and tapioca starch forms a crumble that doubles as both crust and topping, so every bite has that satisfying crunch on both ends. Cold butter worked into the dry ingredients is the secret to those irresistible clumpy, golden crumbs that bake up deep and toasty. Since the whole recipe is built around pantry staples, fruit, and dairy, there's nothing here that raises any flags for those avoiding poultry — just straightforward, honest baking. The parchment-sling trick makes lifting and slicing the slab genuinely easy, so you get clean, bakery-worthy bars every time. Serve them at room temperature or slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you're feeling generous.
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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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