Sesame 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 every bite. The combination of ripe pears, warm nutmeg, and a touch of apple cider vinegar creates a jammy center that's bright and complex without being overly sweet. A quick simmer on the stovetop thickens everything beautifully before it ever hits the oven, so you get that perfect set filling rather than a soggy middle. The crust and crumble do double duty here, built from rolled oats, rice flour, and tapioca starch with cold butter worked in for those irresistible clumpy, buttery bits on top. Every ingredient in this recipe is naturally free from sesame — no tahini, no sesame oil, no hidden seeds — so there's no label-reading anxiety or substitution gymnastics required. They slice cleanly after cooling and hold together well, making them just as good for a lunchbox or a dinner party dessert plate.
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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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