Apple Pie Breakfast Bars {paleo, grain-free, gluten-free, refined sugar free}

Calling these breakfast is a BIT of a stretch, I know. But, if people can make layered bars with oats and flour and call them breakfast then SURELY almonds made into flour as a base layered with fresh fruit and very little maple sugar counts as breakfast?! I'm happy to jump on any train that qualifies pie as breakfast.

Usually layered desserts, ahem, *breakfasts* are labor intensive. But this recipe comes together easily and quickly. It all bakes at once and makes your whole kitchen smell like apples and cinnamon!

The crust layer though, is out of this world. UGH. I could just day dream and talk about this crust all day long. I think it might become my new go-to pastry crust recipe. It's just so yummy. I used a grass-fed butter, but if you cannot tolerate that I would opt for a sustainable palm oil shortening (link at the bottom of this post). It won't have that buttery flavor with the shortening, but it will lend the best texture of the dairy substitutes. Particularly with the crumble topping, shortening will work best. I find that coconut oil gets too greasy and requires much more dry ingredient to compensate and create that crunchy texture.

I hope you can make these up for a healthier spin on a sweet breakfast, or maybe even an after school/after work snack!

Let me know how you like these, because I'm already having visions of making these with seasonal fruits or maybe even pumpkin when fall rolls around!

On a side note, I thought it might be helpful to include some amazon links so you can see what types of pans, kitchen tools, or specialty ingredients I have used in the recipes I post. They are part of the Amazon affiliate program, so if you make a purchase through these links I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. My intention behind providing these is to, first and foremost, be of service for you to easily find things you might need! But also, any of the income made from affiliate links goes back into the blog to create great recipe and cooking content for our community here. I don't ever want these to become too ad-y, so if it becomes a problem when viewing my site, please let me know!

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What supplies I used in this recipe:

I love using Otto's Naturals Cassava Flour in my kitchen! It is the best quality and consistency available on the market. When you're trying to make your favorite recipes grain-free, that matters! Follow the link to purchase.

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