Cinnamon Free Maple-Ginger Pear Crumble Bars
Warm pears, earthy maple syrup, and a bright kick of fresh ginger come together in a filling that's jammy, glossy, and deeply satisfying. The base and crumble are built from rolled oats, rice flour, and tapioca starch, giving these bars a tender-yet-crumbly texture that holds together beautifully when sliced. For anyone navigating a sensitivity to cinnamon, fruit crumbles and bars can feel like a minefield — most recipes lean hard on it as the default warming spice. Here, fresh grated ginger does all that heavy lifting instead, delivering genuine warmth and complexity without a trace of the usual suspect. The maple syrup does double duty, sweetening both the crust and the filling while tying every layer together with a subtle caramel depth. Letting the bars cool completely before cutting is the one step you really don't want to rush — it's what takes them from delicious mess to clean, bakery-worthy slices. These are the kind of bars that disappear fast at a gathering, and nobody will guess they were built around a dietary need.
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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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