Chestnut 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 a glossy honey-pear filling that tastes like autumn in the best possible way. The base and crumble come together from rolled oats, rice flour, and tapioca starch, which means the whole thing is naturally free from tree nut ingredients without any awkward substitutions or specialty products. Cold butter worked into the dry mix creates those irresistible clumpy, craggy bits on top that bake up perfectly crisp against the jammy fruit underneath. The pear filling gets cooked down on the stovetop with honey, a touch of nutmeg, and a splash of apple cider vinegar, which brightens everything up and keeps the sweetness from feeling heavy. Tapioca starch does double duty here — once in the crust and once in the filling — giving the bars a clean, glossy set that holds together beautifully when you slice them. Let them cool fully before cutting and you'll get neat, satisfying squares that are just as good packed into a lunchbox as they are served warm with a cup of tea.
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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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