Beef 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, fragrant, and filled with jammy pears kissed with honey and a whisper of nutmeg. The filling comes together in a single saucepan, where the pears soften into a glossy, almost preserve-like consistency that holds beautifully between the layers. A buttery oat-and-rice-flour crumble does double duty as both the base and the topping, giving you that satisfying crunch in every bite without any wheat flour in sight. A splash of apple cider vinegar in the filling is the quiet hero here — it brightens the sweetness of the honey and keeps the whole thing from tasting cloying. Since every ingredient is naturally free of any animal proteins beyond butter, there's no need to scrutinize labels or swap anything out — it just works as written. These bars slice cleanly once cooled and hold their shape well, making them just as good for a lunchbox or a weekend brunch spread as they are for a casual dessert.
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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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