Gut Friendly Pear Crumble Bars with Cinnamon and Cardamom
Warm spiced pears nestled 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 first, so the pears become soft and jammy with just the right amount of cinnamon and cardamom before they ever hit the oven. Tapioca starch pulls the juices into a glossy, set filling that slices cleanly rather than oozing everywhere, which makes these bars as satisfying to cut as they are to eat. Rice flour keeps the base light and easy to digest, while rolled oats and coconut sugar bring gentle sweetness without anything overly processed or refined. Ceylon cinnamon is used throughout — a deliberate choice, since it's the milder, more delicate variety that tends to be kinder to a sensitive system than the more common cassia. Everything here is straightforward pantry-friendly baking, and the parchment sling trick means you can lift the whole slab out cleanly and slice it into neat bars without any fuss. Let them cool fully before cutting and the filling firms up beautifully — worth every minute of the wait.
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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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