These vegan and gluten free apricot crumble bars are a healthier take on one of our all-time favorite family recipes. They're buttery, slightly tart, just sweet enough, and they're also nut free.

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🥧 Why We Love This Recipe
- The perfect dessert: These crumble bars + vanilla ice cream = perfect summertime dessert. They're buttery, tart, and absolutely delicious.
- Super simple recipe: Our filling is just 3 ingredients, and there are no advanced techniques necessary. Just boil, mix, and bake.
- Nut free: most gluten free or vegan crusts/crumbles will add nuts to provide extra moisture and texture. Our recipe, on the other hand, is totally nut free.
🥗 Ingredients
Here's everything you'll need to make these apricot crumble bars:
📋 Ingredient Notes
- Dried apricots: We opted for these over fresh apricots because it makes for an easier recipe. No chopping or pitting required. We found these at our local Kroger in 8 oz containers, so get two of them for the 1 lb. required by this recipe.
- Quick oats: We used quick oats in this recipe because they have a tender, already broken-down texture. We wouldn't recommend using other oat varieties here.
- Gluten free flour: We used gluten free AP flour, but we'd imagine other varieties like oat flour would also work well. And of course, you can sub for non GF flour.
🔪 Step-by-step Instructions
PREP: Preheat oven to 375F / 190 C.
(1) Add dried apricots, water, and brown sugar to a pan and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, stir well and then lower heat to medium and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
(2) Add mixture to a blender and pulse until mostly smooth, but leave some texture.
(3) Mix crust ingredients with your hands until it forms a crumbly mixture.
(4) Spray a 9 x 13 pan well with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. Press ⅔ of the crust mixture into the pan. Pour apricot mixture over the top of the crust and spread evenly, then sprinkle with the remaining ⅓ of the crust mixture onto on the top.
(5) Bake 32-36 minutes and let cool completely at room temperature. Slice and enjoy!
💭 Expert Tips and FAQs
- Don't forget to spray your pan or lay down parchment paper inside of it.
- Let the bars cool before cutting into them. The apricot filling needs some time to set after coming out of the oven, so tough as it may be, wait for 30 minutes before cutting into them.
- Serving suggestion: We highly recommend serving these with a heaping scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream.
- Finding dried apricots: You may have never seen these at the store, but at our Kroger, they're located near the produce section. If your grocery store has a bulk section, try that. If all else fails, they'll be with other dried fruits, like mango and pineapple.
- Use your hands: The best way to mix up the crumble is with your hands, which will do a better job at creating a crumbly texture than a food processor ever could.
🍽 Related Recipes
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Print📖 Recipe
Apricot Crumble Bars
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These vegan and gluten free apricot crumble bars are a healthier take on one of our all-time favorite family recipes. They're buttery, slightly tart, just sweet enough, and they're also nut free.
Ingredients
Apricot Filling:
- 1 lb. dried apricots, roughly chopped
- 1 ½ cup water
- 1 ½ cup light brown sugar
Crumble:
- ½ cup nondairy butter, melted
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 ¼ cup quick cooking oats
- 1 ¼ cup gluten free all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375˚F / 190˚C.
- Add dried apricots, water, and brown sugar to a pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- Add mixture to a blender and pulse until mostly smooth, but leave some texture.
- Mix crust ingredients with your hands until it forms a crumbly mixture.
- Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. Press ⅔ of the crust mixture into the pan. Pour apricot mixture over the top of the crust and spread evenly, then top with the remaining ⅓ of the crust mixture.
- Bake 32-36 minutes and let cool completely. Slice and enjoy!
Notes
Don't forget to spray your pan or lay down parchment paper inside of it.
Let the bars cool for 30 minutes before cutting into them.
Use your hands to mix up the crumble.
Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Look for dried apricots near the produce section, in the bulk foods section, or near other dried fruits at the supermarket.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 307
- Sugar: 48 g
- Sodium: 229.8 mg
- Fat: 5.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 61.9 g
- Fiber: 2.3 g
- Protein: 3.2 g
Ellen says
Can I use something else instead of the hemp and sunflower seeds? Maybe cashews and/or almonds?
Lexi says
Yep, both of those should work!
Jessica Formicola says
I love apricots, and these bars look amazing! I can't wait to try them!
Lexi says
Thank you, Jessica!
Beth Neels says
We all loved these! Especially my mom! She has celiac and is dairy intolerant, as well , so they were perfect for her! Thanks for the delicious recipe!
Lexi says
Love to hear that - thank you so much, Beth!!
Pam says
Yes! We always love using anything fresh whenever we can, too. These look so awesome. Can't wait to try them.
Lexi says
I always try to use fresh when there are so many gorgeous produce items in season! Thanks so much, Pam!
Alison says
These look amazing! I absolutely love apricots. I'm making this dessert with my boys this afternoon! Yum!!
Lexi says
Hi Alison, yay! Love to hear that! Apricots are the best.
Adrianne says
I am loving the little hit of cinnamon in this recipe which looks delicious by the way. Wow and yum, I look forward to giving these a go! I also love that they are gluten free.
Lexi says
Thank you so much, Adrianne! Hope you give them a try!