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!
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Keto Strawberry Crumb Bars
Ingredients
Strawberry Filling:
- 2 cups fresh strawberries chopped in half
- 1 Tbsp sugar-free sweetener of choice i use sugar-free brown sugar
- 2 tsp tapioca flour
- Pinch sea salt
Shortbread Crust and Topping:
- 2 cups superfine almond flour
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted
- 3 Tbsp sugar-free sweetener of choice i use sugar-free brown sugar
- Pinch sea salt
Instructions
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.
Nutrition
I just need a sugar free recipe for my mom’s birthday, can I use regular AP flour?
Hi Maya! I believe using regular AP flour will work so long as you increase the amount of melted butter. I haven’t tested the recipe using regular flour but if I were to try it myself, I would guess I would need about 3/4 cup to 1 cup of melted butter, possibly more. All-purpose flour is more absorbent than almond flour and contains no fat (where almond flour does), so we would need to play with the portion a bit. If it were me, I would start with 10 tablespoons of melted butter and work up from there. The dough should be thick yet somewhat crumbly and still press together easily to make the crust. In this sense, it shouldn’t be as wet/sticky as cookie dough, but resemble more of a pie crust consistency. Let me know if you try it, and how it turns out! Another option would be to google a regular recipe for strawberry crumb bars that uses AP flour and simply swap the regular sugar for sugar-free sweetener. Happy baking, and happy birthday to your mom!!
I love making this recipe. It is so good. I usually make it for 4th of July using wineberries that I have picked and are in season at that time.
I love hearing that, Sheri! There’s nothing like fresh picked berries! Happy baking 🙂
Thank you for sharing this recipe!! So simple and delicious. I did not have any thickener on hand, so i cooked strawberries without a lid and long enough to get very thick, that made it work just fine. Yummy!
I’m happy to hear it all worked out without having to add a thickener! Thanks so much for sharing, Stevie! xo
Can these bars be frozen?
Hi Patti! Yes, the bars freeze very well! I freeze them in a large zip lock bag and keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months. xoxo
Tapioca Flour is NOT Keto!
Hi Cindy, I understand where you’re coming from, and I would like to offer a little perspective.
For something to be keto-friendly, it needs to not exceed a certain amount of carbs or cause a blood sugar spike. Each crumb bar contains 5 net carbs. Whether or not that is suitable for your diet is entirely up to you. Consider your carb target for the whole day as well as how you want to use those carbs.
As you probably know, people who follow the ketogenic diet who don’t exercise usually aim for 25-30 grams of carbs per day. These individuals are better off dedicating their carbohydrate intake to low-carb veggies to maximize the amount of nutrition they are getting out of their food in addition to the feeling of satiety. For those who do exercise, the daily carb count can be much higher (typically between 50 grams for moderately active individuals to 100 grams for very active individuals).
Some individuals get a little out in the woods about what is or is not keto, forgetting that what matters is the affect the food they consume has on their blood sugar. If a crumb bar like this is going to raise your blood sugar, it makes sense to not include it in your keto diet. If, however, your blood sugar doesn’t spike as the result of eating 5 net carbs, you’re probably in the clear.
Further, there are 2 teaspoons of tapioca flour in the entire recipe. 2 teaspoons of tapioca flour contains 17 calories and 4 grams of carbs. That’s 4 grams of carbs distributed over 15 bars.
If I followed a ketogenic diet, I would be far more concerned about the strawberries in the recipe over the 2 teaspoons of tapioca flour, but that’s just me.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Very well put Julia!!! I’m keto and it does work but people commonly forget that there ARE levels of keto.
Strict, lazy, dirty and clean. Some use sweeteners some don’t. Some are too quick to comment. What may work for some might not work for others Some might want quick results some (like me) prefer to not to be so strict but still the diet works 50 lbs down in a year. I’m going to try this tonight. Thanks for posting and being very gracious in your feedback 💕
Hi Carrie! I really appreciate you weighing in with your voice of reason! 🙂 HUGE congratulations to you on your accomplishment – I hope you’re so proud of yourself, as lifestyle changes take a lot of dedication and patience. My warmest wishes to you! xo
@Cindy Fryrear, I have used glucomannan (powdered kojac root) instead of this. It’s non-starchy way to thicken things, similar to xanthan gum, but not with that awful slimy texture xanthan gum provides.
I found this recipe searching for “gluten free, keto strawberry baking” because I wanted to make a different breakfast for my daughter (celiac, insulin resistant and lactose intolerant).
I made the following substitutions: 16 oz. frozen strawberries, hazelnut flour, ghee, serve brown sugar. Because frozen fruit often loses some flavor, I added some strawberry essence and I added the vanilla.
I was nervous and a bit skeptical, no egg, nothing to bind…but I trusted the quality ingredients used. My trust was rewarded! It turned out delicious and my daughter is very happy. She said “I’m actually looking forward to breakfast tomorrow”. I’ve bookmarked your site (I don’t have time for emails) and can’t wait to explore and try your other recipes!!
Thank you for sharing your talent 🙂
I’m so thrilled to hear it, Crystal! Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It is so helpful to know how you ended up here, the changes you made, and your thoughts on the result. I really appreciate you taking the time to report back. Much love to you and your family! xoxo
Couldn’t you just use gelatin or glucomannan to thicken the strawberry jam instead of a starch?
Hi Lilly! I bet gelatin would work! I don’t have a lot of experience cooking with it, so I’m not sure how much you would use, but if you’re familiar with it, I would try it for sure! xoxo
This recipie looks awesome ! Do you think I could freeze it ? Thank you !
Yes, absolutely! In fact, that’s how I store the bars. I simply cut them first then stick them in a zip lock bag. xoxo
I am doing the keto eating plan and the strawberry crumble bars were absolutely awesome. Pretty sure I ain’t more than what I should have. Yum
I hear ya! It’s hard to stop at one! xo
Hi! Wondering if I could substitute the tapioca flour for anything else? Thanks! I have almond and coconut flour.
The ideal replacement for tapioca flour would be something starchy like arrowroot flour or cornstarch. If you don’t have either of those on hand, a small amount of coconut flour will work to thicken the strawberry mixture (start with 1 teaspoon), although it will have a slightly grainy (less jammy) texture. Let me know if you have any other questions! xo
Thank you for the great recipe-I make your cranberry version in the Fall. This is the perfect summer recipe! I used mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries)
I’m so happy you like the cranberry version too! And mixed berry sounds amazing! xoxoxo
Thank you so much for this recipe! I used cherries instead of strawberries. They turned out perfect! This recipe is a keeper!
Ooh, cherries sound amazing! so happy you enjoy it! xoxo
I was wondering if rhubarb could be added to the strawberries, for a strawberry rhubarb filling? These sound so delicious!
Hi Myti! I’m betting that would be marvelous! I would simply reduce the amount of strawberries (maybe do 1/2 rhubarb, 1/2 strawberries?) and add some more sweetener to account for the loss of sweetness 🙂 I hope you love them!
What a great recipe to make for the grandkids, take to the beach or camping. Actually, I would love to have these ready for watching the next episode of _____!