Artificial Food Coloring Free Honey-Pear Crumble Bars
These bars are everything a fruit dessert should be — golden, jammy, and just rustic enough to feel homemade in the best possible way. The filling comes together on the stovetop with fresh diced pears, honey, a touch of nutmeg, and a splash of apple cider vinegar that brightens the whole thing into a glossy, spoonable situation you'll want to eat straight from the pan. Underneath and on top, a buttery oat-and-rice-flour crumble gives you that satisfying crunch without a single drop of anything artificial. For anyone navigating synthetic dyes in packaged sweets, this kind of recipe is a genuine relief — every ingredient here is exactly what it says it is, nothing more. The honey does double duty as both sweetener and flavor, lending a floral depth that granulated sugar alone just can't match. Once baked and cooled, they slice cleanly into neat bars that hold together beautifully, making them just as easy to pack up as they are to devour at the kitchen counter.
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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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