Artificial Flavors Free Honey-Pear Crumble Bars
These bars are the kind of thing you pull out of the oven and immediately want to eat straight from the pan — golden, crumbly on top, and filled with soft, honey-kissed pears that cook down into something almost jammy. Every bit of flavor here comes from real, whole ingredients: ripe pears, a drizzle of honey, a whisper of nutmeg, and a splash of apple cider vinegar that brightens the whole filling without tasting sharp. The crust and crumble are built from rolled oats, rice flour, and cold butter, which means you get that satisfying, slightly rustic texture without any mystery additives or synthetic flavoring agents hiding in the mix. Packaged baked goods and fruit bars are notorious for sneaking in artificial flavors under vague ingredient labels, so making these at home puts you completely in control of what goes into every bite. The pear filling gets cooked briefly on the stovetop with tapioca starch to thicken it into a glossy, spoonable consistency before it ever hits the crust — a small step that makes a huge difference in the final texture. Once baked and cooled, they slice into neat, sturdy bars that hold together beautifully and taste like something from a really good bakery, just without the ingredient list you'd need a magnifying glass to read.
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Learn more →Ingredients
9 servings
For the crust and crumble
- 1 ½ cups rolled oats
- ¾ cup rice flour
- ¼ cup tapioca starch
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into ½-inch cubes
For the pear filling
- 3 medium ripe pears (about 1 ½ lb), peeled, cored, and cut into ½-inch dice
- 3 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp tapioca starch
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
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. Scatter the cold butter cubes over the dry mixture 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 work it until smooth.
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