Artificial Flavors Free Pear Crumble Bars with Cinnamon and Cardamom
Warm spiced pears tucked between a buttery oat crust and a golden crumble topping — this is the kind of bake that makes your kitchen smell like the best version of autumn. Every ingredient here is exactly what it says it is: real Ceylon cinnamon, true cardamom, pure maple syrup, and ripe pears cooked down into a glossy, jam-like filling thickened with tapioca starch. There are no flavor packets, no synthetic vanilla stand-ins, and no mystery extracts — just honest pantry staples doing all the heavy lifting. That matters more than you might think, because plenty of packaged bar mixes and store-bought fruit fillings sneak in artificial flavoring that you'd never catch without reading the fine print. The technique here is straightforward: press, fill, crumble, bake — and the parchment overhang makes lifting and slicing genuinely foolproof. Coconut sugar adds a gentle caramel depth that plays beautifully against the floral warmth of cardamom without tipping into anything cloying or artificial-tasting. Let them cool completely before slicing and the filling sets into clean, stackable bars that are just as good the next day.
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Learn more →Ingredients
9 servings
For the crust and crumble
- 1 ½ cups rolled oats
- ¾ cup rice flour
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar
- ½ tsp ground ceylon cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
For the pear filling
- 4 medium ripe pears (about 1 ½ lbs), peeled, cored, and cut into ½-inch dice
- 3 tbsp coconut sugar
- 1 tsp ground ceylon cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 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, stir together the rolled oats, rice flour, coconut sugar, Ceylon cinnamon, cardamom, and 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. Drizzle in the maple syrup and toss with a fork until the mixture just holds together when pressed.
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