Wheat Free Maple-Ginger Pear Crumble Bars
Warm spiced pears, a glossy maple-ginger filling, and a buttery oat crumble on top and bottom — these bars hit every note you want from a fall bake. The base and topping come together from rolled oats, rice flour, and tapioca starch, so there's no wheat flour anywhere in the recipe, and no need to hunt down specialty blends or worry about what's lurking in a store-bought bar. The filling is cooked down on the stovetop until the pear juices thicken into something almost jam-like, which means every bite is fruity, fragrant, and deeply satisfying rather than watery or bland. Fresh grated ginger gives the whole thing a gentle heat that plays beautifully against the sweetness of pure maple syrup used throughout. Cold butter worked into the dry mixture creates that irresistible crumbly, slightly sandy texture that holds together when you slice but still crumbles at the edges in the best possible way. Let them cool completely before cutting — the tapioca starch needs that time to set the filling so your bars actually look like bars and not a delicious mess.
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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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