Barley Free Maple-Ginger Pear Crumble Bars
These bars hit every note you want from a fall bake — sweet, warmly spiced, and satisfying with a buttery crumble that shatters just enough when you bite in. The filling comes together on the stovetop, where ripe pears soften in maple syrup and fresh ginger until the juices thicken into something glossy and almost jammy. Tapioca starch does the heavy lifting as a thickener throughout the recipe, keeping everything cohesive without a trace of grain-based flour that could be a problem for those avoiding barley. The base and topping are built from rolled oats and rice flour, so the texture is hearty and crumbly in the best possible way — no compromise on that classic bar structure. One batch of dough cleverly pulls double duty as both the pressed crust and the scattered topping, which means less cleanup and more reward. Let them cool fully before slicing and you'll get clean, sturdy bars that hold together beautifully whether you're packing them for lunch or serving them warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
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Learn more →Ingredients
9 servings
For the crust and crumble
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¾ cup rice flour
- ¼ cup tapioca starch
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup 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 pure maple syrup
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
- 1 tbsp tapioca starch
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
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 1/4 cup amount), baking powder, and salt. 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. Drizzle in the 1/3 cup maple syrup and stir with a fork until the mixture just comes together into a crumbly, slightly sticky dough.
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