Coconut 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 base and topping come together from a single crumble mixture made with rolled oats, rice flour, and tapioca starch, so the texture is hearty and satisfying without relying on any tropical-derived ingredients. Cold butter gets worked into the dry mix until clumpy and coarse, which is exactly what gives you that irresistible, slightly crunchy topping once it bakes up deep golden in the oven. The filling is beautifully simple — thinly sliced apples tossed with honey, nutmeg, a touch of tapioca starch, and melted butter — nothing fussy, nothing hidden. Nutmeg does a lot of heavy lifting here, lending a warm, almost floral spice that pairs perfectly with the natural sweetness of the honey. Letting the bars cool completely before cutting is the one step you really cannot rush, since the filling needs time to set into clean, sliceable layers. These are the kind of bars that disappear fast at a potluck or make a genuinely satisfying weeknight dessert straight from the pan.
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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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