Citric Acid 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 a glossy, honey-kissed pear filling that smells like autumn. For anyone navigating a citric acid sensitivity, baked goods and fruit desserts can be a minefield, since so many packaged options sneak in citric acid as a preservative or flavor enhancer. Here, the sweetness comes entirely from ripe pears and honey, and the gentle tang in the filling is handled by a small splash of apple cider vinegar, which is a naturally derived ingredient rather than a synthetic additive. The base and crumble are built on rolled oats, rice flour, and tapioca starch, so the texture is satisfyingly hearty without relying on anything processed or suspect. Cold butter gets worked into that dry mixture until it forms those irresistible clumpy crumbs that bake up crisp and buttery around the soft fruit center. Letting them cool fully before slicing is genuinely worth the patience — the filling sets into clean, neat bars that hold together beautifully. These are equally at home as a weekend treat or a lunchbox snack you can feel confident about.
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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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