BHA & BHT 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 a proper autumn afternoon. The filling is cooked down on the stovetop with coconut sugar, Ceylon cinnamon, and cardamom until it turns glossy and jam-like, then thickened with tapioca starch so every bar holds its shape when sliced. Avoiding BHA and BHT often means scrutinizing packaged snacks and baked goods for synthetic preservatives that sneak into shortenings, oils, and even some spice blends — here, every ingredient is straightforward and easy to verify. Coconut sugar and pure maple syrup do the sweetening, cold unsalted butter builds the crumble, and rice flour keeps the base tender without any mystery additives. The parchment-lined pan and the two-thirds/one-third split of the oat mixture is a clever technique that gives you a firm, press-in crust and a generous crumbly top from a single bowl. Letting the bars cool completely is the one step worth being patient about — the filling sets beautifully and you get clean, satisfying slices rather than a gooey mess. These are genuinely impressive enough to bring to a gathering, and nobody will guess they were made with such a short, clean ingredient list.
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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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