Eggless 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. The filling gets cooked down on the stovetop with coconut sugar, Ceylon cinnamon, and cardamom until it turns glossy and jam-like, so every bite is intensely fragrant and never watery. Tapioca starch does the thickening work here, which means the bars slice cleanly once cooled without any structural help from eggs whatsoever. The crust and crumble pull double duty from the same oat-and-rice-flour mixture, so you get a sturdy base and a craggy, toasty top with minimal fuss. Maple syrup binds the crumble just enough to give it those satisfying chunky clusters that bake up crisp and golden. Letting the bars cool completely is the one step worth being patient about — the filling firms beautifully and makes for neat, bakery-worthy squares. These are equally at home on a dessert plate or wrapped up for a lunchbox treat.
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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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