Black Pepper Free Honey-Pear Crumble Bars
Sweet, jammy, and golden at the edges, these crumble bars hit every note you want from a fruit dessert — tender pear filling, a buttery oat base, and a crispy top that shatters just enough when you bite in. The filling gets its depth from honey and a touch of nutmeg, with apple cider vinegar brightening everything so it never tastes flat or overly sweet. Because the recipe relies on rice flour and tapioca starch rather than all-purpose flour, it also happens to be gluten-free, which is a quiet bonus for anyone baking for a mixed crowd. Avoiding black pepper is genuinely effortless here — there's simply no need for it, and the warm spice note from nutmeg does all the heavy lifting. The pear filling is cooked down on the stovetop first until it turns glossy and jam-like, which means every bar holds together cleanly when you slice it. These are the kind of bars that disappear fast at a potluck, and nobody will guess they were built around any kind of dietary consideration at all.
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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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