Keto Strawberry Crumb Bars

Beautifully buttery Keto Strawberry Crumb Bars on a grain-free shortbread crust are magically flaky with the perfect sweet, tangy gooey strawberry bite. This incredibly easy recipe only requires 5 basic ingredients! Egg-free and easy to make dairy-free for a vegan option!

A few years ago, I posted a recipe for Paleo Blueberry Crumb Bars,  and was so well received that I don’t know why it has taken me this long to revisit the topic!

Yet here we are! Diving into Keto Strawberry Crumb Bars for a very similar treat that happens to be sugar-free and low-carb.

Made with only 5 ingredients, you’d never guess these crazy simple bars were grain-free and sugar-free!

Tangy, sweet, buttery, and an explosion of berry flavor?! You’ll want to eat them for breakfast, snack, and dessert, just like we did 😉

One of my favorite parts about these bars is that the natural sweetness of the ingredients shine through and speak for themselves without the need for excessive sugar-free sweetener. There’s only ¼ cup of sugar-free sweetener total in the whole batch of bars, which is low relative to most recipes!

Ingredients for Keto Strawberry Crumb Bars:

Strawberries: Fresh, juicy strawberries get cooked into an amazing jammy mixture to make these crumb bars insanely flavorful and luscious. I haven’t tested the recipe using frozen strawberries, but my guess it will work as long as you add another 1 to 2 teaspoons of tapioca flour to the filling mixture.

Sugar-Free Sweetener: I use sugar-free brown sugar because I feel like it gives the bars a richness, but you can use regular sugar-free granulated sweetener. My top three brands I use are Lakanto, Truvia, and Swerve. 

Tapioca Flour: In order to thicken the strawberry filling mixture, you’ll need to add a small amount of thickening agent and reduce down the mixture until it’s nice and thick. I use tapioca flour, but you can swap it for arrowroot starch or cornstarch.

Almond Flour: Used for both the shortbread crust and the topping, super fine almond flour gives us that perfectly flaky crumb bar texture.

Butter: A little butter goes a long way in making these strawberry crumb bars completely addicting! Melted butter is mixed with the almond flour and sugar-free sweetener to create both the base and the crumb topping for these bars. Use salted and don’t add sea salt or go with unsalted and add sea salt to the crumb mixture. Ghee or melted coconut oil also work!

Sea Salt: Used to enhance all of the flavors and bring out the sweetness even more!

How to Make Keto Strawberry Crumb Bars:

Prepare the Strawberry Filling: Add the strawberries, sugar-free sweetener, and sea salt to a small saucepan, cover, and heat over medium heat. Bring this mixture to a full boil. Stir the strawberry mixture occasionally and allow it to continue to cook at a gentle boil until the strawberries have leached out a great deal of moisture and a lot of liquid forms. Add the tapioca flour and continue cooking, mashing the strawberries as you stir, until the mixture is very thick, about 20 minutes total. Remove from heat and set aside or refrigerate until ready to use.

While the strawberry mixture is cooking, prepare the rest of the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 8” x 8” cake pan with parchment paper.

Prepare the Crust: Stir together all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Keep stirring until a thick, moist, crumbly dough forms.

Measure out ½ cup of the crust mixture and place it in a bowl to use as the topping. 

Press the rest of the crust mixture into the parchment-lined cake pan until you have an even layer of crust. Poke several times with a fork to ensure even baking. Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 12 to 16 minutes, or until the crust is golden-brown and appears as though it has set up. 

Remove the crust from the oven.

Make the Bars:

Spread the strawberry filling mixture over the crust in an even layer. 

Sprinkle the reserved topping mixture over the strawberry layer. 

Bake the bars for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the crumb bar topping is golden-brown. Remove from the oven and allow crumb bars to cool at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

Note: I chill the bars in the refrigerator to allow them to cool completely before slicing.

Can I Make These Dairy-Free and Vegan?:

Yes, absolutely! All you need to do is replace the melted butter with melted coconut oil and then your bars will be vegan and dairy-free.

Recipe Adaptations:

• Add ⅓ cup of chopped walnuts or pecans to the topping mixture for a nutty infusion.
• Swap the strawberries for blackberries, blueberries, or raspberries. 
• Add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract or ½ teaspoon of almond extract to the crumb mixture if you have it on hand!
• Replace the almond flour with hazelnut flour or cassava flour (note: cassava flour is not low-carb). Don’t replace the almond flour with coconut flour, please! It requires a lot of additional love to get it to work.

More Delicious Keto Desserts:

• Keto No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars
• Espresso Keto Brownies
• Keto Cowboy Cookies
• Dairy-Free Low-Carb Cheesecake
• Keto Key Lime Pie Bars
• Flourless Keto Chocolate Cake

That’s it! I hope you love these buttery, flaky, tangy, fresh n’ frisky keto strawberry crumb bars as much as we do!

My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!

If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo on Instagram and tag @The.Roasted.Root!