For a quick healthy dessert, try my Gluten-Free Easy Apple Crisp recipe - the perfect fall dessert made with juicy apples, cinnamon and a flourless topping
This Gluten-Free Easy Apple crisp recipe is a delicious fruit dessert – it’s your answer for what to do with all those freshly picked apples from the orchard! This recipe is healthier than traditional crisp, quick to make, and uses simple ingredients and instructions. It’s one of my favorite fall desserts along with Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread!
Healthy Apple Crisp Recipe
This recipe is very similar to a traditional apple crisp with some healthy swaps and overall super quick steps. It’s gluten-free and each serving is around 300 calories, and that’s with ice cream and caramel sauce! You’ll have a warm cinnamony apple pie-like filling with a crispy buttery oat topping. It’s all the fall feels for real!
How to Make Easy Apple Crisp
Prepare the Apples
Starting with the apples, I like to chop or slice the apples really small, and mix them with maple syrup and lemon juice.
Then in goes the cinnamon. And it’s 3 teaspoons, which looks like a lot of cinnamon, but it’s definitely needed! Most recipes also add flour or corn starch here in the filling, but I don’t think it’s necessary at all.
Mix the crisp ingredients
Now for the crisp part, I make mine gluten free, so I use gluten free rolled oats, oat flour (which I grind myself in my Vitamix), more cinnamon, either brown sugar or coconut sugar and some salt. By using oats and oat flour, it gives me an excuse to have this easy apple crisp for breakfast…haha!
Then I dice up the butter into small cubes and rub them into the oat crumble streusel mixture. To make it faster, you can also just leave the butter as is or melt the butter. But I like incorporating the butter evenly all over the mixture for better browning results of the crumble.
Then I transfer the apples to a baking dish, and top it with the crumble mixture. There’s no need to grease the dish, but you certainly can. Or you can line it with aluminum foil for easier cleaning.
When it comes out of the oven, you’ll smell a warm cinnamony sweetness that is so cozy, comforting and calling your name! Scoop out a nice big helping of the apple crisp, and serve it a la mode. I know you see that caramel sauce in the corner, and you know this easy apple crisp is about to get drizzled with all that caramel goodness!
Tips to Make Easy Apple Crisp
- Pick a mix of apples: For best flavor, I like combining sweet and tart apples. You can see I have a variety of colored apples that are all different kinds from the apple orchard. If they’re all sweet, the easy apple crisp will lend itself to an overly sweet apple crisp. And if you only use tart apples, you may need to add sugar to cut through the tartness (which I’m sure you don’t want to do!) The combination of different apples will give the perfect flavor balance.
- Keep apple pieces small: I like chopping up the apples really small or slicing them thinly (like in the video below). This is key because it helps to cook the apples faster, and ensures that they are super soft by the time the crumble is browned.
- Allow time to cool: Easier said than done haha! But this is very important because it will give the sauce made from the juicy apple filling a chance to thicken, and the flavors to settle.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between a crisp and a crumble?
Crisps and crumbles are similar – they are both baked fruit desserts with a topping. The topping of a crumble is denser and more cakey, where as a crisp is thinner and, well, crispier! The topping of a crisp also contains oats.
Can leftovers be refrigerated?
This apple crisp keeps well in the fridge for 3 to 4 days in an air tight container. It is also freezable, simply let the crisp cool and then cover it with foil and pop in the freezer where it will keep for around 3 months.
Is apple crisp gluten free?
Not all apple crisp recipes are gluten free due to the flour used in the topping. This recipe, however is gluten free! Just be sure to use gluten free certified oats and oat flour if you have an intolerance.
For more apple desserts:
- Rose Apple Pie
- Easy Apple Pie
- Cinnamon Baked Apples
- Cranberry Apple Mini Pies
- Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cups
This is one of my favorite fall desserts that you can easily whip up when you have extra apples on hand, people coming over and craving a cozy dessert when it’s cold and yucky outside. The great thing about it is it’s reminiscent of homemade apple pie with all the same flavors.
But it’s healthier than apple pie, easier to make and can totally be eaten for breakfast. Hey, it’s basically oats and apples (ice cream optional at breakfast haha 😉 )
If you make this healthy-ish feelgood Gluten-Free Easy Apple Crisp recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories!
Gluten-Free Easy Apple Crisp
Ingredients
For the apple filling:
- 5-6 apples chopped or sliced
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 3 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
For the crumble topping:
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans optional
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 3 tablespoons butter cold, diced
- Vanilla ice cream optional
- Caramel sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- For filling: In a large bowl, combine apples, maple syrup, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Transfer apple mixture to an 8x8 square baking dish.
- For topping: In medium bowl, combine oats, oat flour, pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add diced butter to the crumble topping. Using your fingers, rub butter into the crumble mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping over filling.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until apple is tender and topping is golden brown. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce, if desired.
Video
Notes
- For the flour, you can use almond flour, gluten-free flour or even all purpose flour. I love using oat flour to keep it gluten-free and light.
- For the butter, you can use a vegan butter stick or coconut oil
- For the pecans, you can leave those out completely as I've done in the images or use walnuts or almonds
Nutrition
