This Gluten Free Apple Crisp Recipe is so easy and the perfect fall dessert. Baked apple filling with maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla that is topped with oats and baked to golden perfection! Serve warm with vanilla ice cream for the ultimate comfort food dessert. Dairy free and nut free options included; this is a dessert the whole family can enjoy!

Gluten Free Apple Crisp With Oats

One of the best things about fall desserts, in my opinion, is not just the taste but the smell that wafts through your house when making them! And hands down one of my absolute favorite healthy fall desserts is this Gluten Free Apple Crisp! It has everything I love from the juicy apples to flavors of maple, vanilla and cinnamon and then that crunchy oat topping. Mmm, mmm, mmm. It’s so delicious! Perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top or even served for breakfast overtop oatmeal.

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How to make Apple Crisp:

Making apple crisp is so easy! First, select your apples, assemble your ingredients and preheat your oven. Next grease your baking dish then peel and slice your apples and lay them in your baking dish. Mix together the remaining filling ingredients and pour over the apples. Bake the apple crisp filling.

Sliced honeycrisp apples in a square white baking dish.

Sliced honeycrisp apples in a baking dish with a sauce being poured overt top.

While the apples bake combine all the ingredients except butter in a small mixing bowl, then using your hands “pinch” in the cubed butter so that the pieces of butter are small and mixed throughout the topping. Set aside until the apples come out of the oven.

All the gluten free apple crisp ingredients in a glass mixing bowl with cubed butter on the side.

Apple crisp oat topping in a glass mixing bowl with cubes of butter ready to be mixed in.

View into a glass mixing bowl of oat and almond flour mixture ready to top an apple crisp.

After the apples are out of the oven, top with the oat crisp topping and pop it back in the oven to finish baking until the filling is bubbling around the edges and the topping is golden brown.

Baked apples in a white square baking dish with a glass bowl of apple crisp topping sitting next to it.

Scoop scooping oat apple crisp topping from a glass bowl on top of baked apples in a white square baking dish.

Overhead view of a white square baking dish filled with apple crisp ready for the oven.

Apple Crisp Easy Recipe

This healthy apple dessert is made with simple ingredients and only a few steps. You can also slice the apples a couple hours ahead of cooking if you’d like. Then once ready to bake, pop in the apples and mix up the topping while they bake. After the initial cooking time, spoon the oat crisp topping over the apples and finish baking. Then enjoy!

Healthy Apple Crisp

What makes this apple crisp healthy?

Sugar free – This apple crisp is sugar and corn syrup free and instead uses a modest amount of pure maple syrup to sweeten the recipe. It’s just the perfect amount.

Gluten free – Use certified gluten free old fashioned rolled oats in this recipe to make it gluten free.

Dairy free / Vegan – This recipe comes with substitutions to make it both dairy free and vegan and I also provide my favorite ice cream recommendations!

Healthy additions – Chia seeds, flax seeds and walnuts are included to add more nutrition to this healthy delicious dessert.

Substitutions for this Health Apple Crumble Recipe

This recipe is so flexible. Here are a few of the substitution possibilities for this healthy apple crumble:

Nut free – Replace the almond flour with more oats and omit the walnuts.

Butter – To make this recipe dairy free simply replace the butter with coconut oil. Use refined coconut oil if you don’t want an added coconut flavor to the recipe. (My favorite dairy free/vegan vanilla ice creams are from the brands Coconut Bliss and Nadamoo.)

Maple syrup – To replace the maple syrup, use 1/4 cup of honey in the filling portion of the recipe and 1 Tablespoon of honey in the topping.

Old fashioned Rolled Oats – You can use quick oats in this recipe however the texture will be softer and less crisp. (Steel cut oats will not work in this recipe.)

What apples to use for Apple Crisp?

I’m a huge fan of Honeycrisp apples. To me they have the best flavor, texture (crisp not mealy texture) and hold up well in this type of cooking application so that’s what this recipe calls for. However, you can use other types of apples but some break down easier than others so not every variety is created equal for this recipe. A few other apple varieties that would work well in this recipe are: Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Fugi.

Do you peel apples for Apple Crisp?

This is completely up to you! Both work beautifully and the skins contain a lot of nutrients you might not want to skimp on. However, in this recipe I remove the skins because that’s what my family likes but it’s completely your choice. If you choose to leave the skins on just be sure to wash them well and consider choosing apples that haven’t had a wax coating applied to them. (You can usually tell this by how glossy the apples are and sometimes by touch.)

Serving Apple Crisp

I highly recommend serving this apple crisp with vanilla ice cream on top and a sprinkle of cinnamon. You could also serve with whipping cream.

Storing Apple Crisp

Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days, but I highly doubt it will last that long.

Helpful Tools:

9 inch Square baking dish – I love the white that lets the crisp color pop and it takes beautifully.
Vegetable peeler – In case you don’t already have one you like, this is my favorite!
Citrus squeezer – I use this simple hand tool ALL the time! You get so much more juice than just using your hands.

More Healthy Apple Recipes:

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