Legume Free Honey-Nutmeg Apple Crumble Bars
Warm spiced apples, a golden crumble topping, and a buttery oat base — these bars hit every note you want from a fall-inspired bake. The filling leans on honey instead of refined syrup for its sweetness, and a whisper of nutmeg gives the whole thing a cozy, almost nostalgic depth. Because the crust and crumble are built from rolled oats, rice flour, and tapioca starch, there's not a single legume in sight — no chickpea flour, no almond-adjacent swaps, just clean, straightforward pantry staples. The tapioca starch pulls double duty here, helping bind the crumble and thicken the apple filling so the bars slice cleanly once cooled. Cold butter worked into the dry ingredients creates those irresistible pea-sized clumps that bake up crunchy on top and tender underneath. Letting them cool completely is the one step you really can't rush — the filling needs that time to set so you get neat, bakery-worthy bars rather than a delicious mess. They're the kind of thing you'll want to wrap up and bring somewhere just to watch people ask for the recipe.
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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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