This gluten-free apple crisp combines soft-baked apples flavored with maple and warm spices and a crumbly oat topping. Instead of using all-purpose flour, use a combination of almond meal and oats. Almond meal adds a lovely texture and delicious nutty flavor. To keep the recipe gluten free, make sure you’re using certified GF oats. This is a wonderful alternative to my regular apple crisp recipe.
I originally published this recipe in 2014 and have since added new photos and more helpful success tips.
This gluten-free apple crisp will test alllll your self control. It’s not just “really good for a gluten-free recipe.” I mean, just plain good… just like my cranberry frangipane tart. It’s every bit as good as my classic apple crisp recipe! And dare I say even better because you have the fabulous addition of maple syrup. Yum.
(By the way, did you know I have a section on my website dedicated to gluten-free recipes? I also have this gluten-free desserts page.)
One reader, Ruth, commented: “I’ve made this recipe at least 5 times now since fall… and it is amazing. Easy to prepare and tastes so delicious. Thank you—my gluten-free daughter and son-in-law thank you, too! ★★★★★“
Another reader, Lindsay, commented: “I’ve made this 3 times now—it’s so quick and delicious to make! I’m not even gluten free, but I think the almond adds nice flavor… ★★★★★“
Here’s Why You’ll Love This Gluten-Free Apple Crisp:
- Quick & easy: No pre-cooking, chilling, or waiting-for-it-to-cool steps
- Fall-favorite flavors of apple, cinnamon, maple, and brown sugar
- Crumbly, buttery oat and almond crisp topping
- Recipe doubles easily for serving a crowd
- No one will believe it’s gluten free!
I appreciate how easy it is to prepare fruit crisps. While I adore fruit pies with my homemade buttery flaky pie crust, they can be rather time consuming. Apple pie is a forever favorite dessert, but waiting for it to cool can be downright torturous. With this crisp, we can dig right in while it’s still warm!
Easy Apple Filling
- Apples: See below for the best apples to use. You need 5 cups of peeled, chopped apples, which is about 4 medium/large apples.
- Lemon Juice: A squeeze of lemon helps brighten up the flavor of the apple filling—it tastes a little flat without it.
- Brown Sugar: The molasses content in brown sugar adds so much flavor as it sweetens. It’s how I sweeten this apple galette and this apple brie phyllo galette, too.
- Maple Syrup: For sweetness with that unequaled maple flavor. The apple-maple combo tastes like quintessential fall! Have you ever tried my healthy apple muffins?
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances and complements all the other flavors.
- Cornstarch: This helps the filling thicken as it bakes.
- Spices: Just like in apple pie and apple cobbler, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice add warmth and depth of flavor to this gluten-free apple crisp.
What Are the Best Apples to Use for Baking?
Firmer apples are ideal for baking. Avoid soft, mealy, and mushy apples. For depth of flavor, it’s best to bake with a mix of tart and sweet apples. For this crisp, I usually use 2 tart and 2 sweet.
- Tart apples I love to bake with: Granny Smith (in my opinion, this is the best overall apple for baking), Braeburn, Jonathan, and Pacific Rose
- Sweet apples I love to bake with: Jazz, Pazazz, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, and Fuji
Peel & Slice Apples Into Chunks
You can skip peeling the apples if you’d like, but many prefer peeled apples in desserts. I use and love (affiliate link) this OXO peeler. A lot of crisp recipes use apple slices, but I prefer chunks because chunks easily fit onto a spoon or fork. It’s also difficult to get perfectly uniform slices, so some pieces can be much thinner than others—and that means mushy apples. 1-inch chunks that are between 1/4 and 1/2 an inch thick are ideal for this gluten-free crisp.
Toss the apple chunks with the rest of the filling ingredients and then spoon/pour the apple filling into a 9-inch pie dish or square baking pan.
Here’s What You Need for the Topping
6 ingredients come together to make a delicious gluten-free topping:
- Brown Sugar: Brown sugar adds so much flavor and softness, and pairs really well with the maple flavor in the filling.
- Oats: Whole rolled/old-fashioned oats are best in this topping. Make sure to look for “certified gluten free” on the label.
- Almond Meal: This replaces the traditional all-purpose flour. Almond meal is simply ground almonds (before reaching the stage of almond butter). If you use blanched almonds and grind them up a little more fine, you’ll get almond flour. Almond meal has a little more texture. You can use almond flour or almond meal; I’ve done it both ways and either works.
- Cinnamon: A hint of cinnamon in the topping adds even more flavor.
- Salt: Sweetness balancer/flavor enhancer.
- Butter: Stirring in melted butter is what makes the crisp topping come together, all crumbly and delicious!
You can buy almond meal from the store, but it’s really easy to make at home. Pulse sliced or slivered almonds in a food processor until the almonds are pulverized. To avoid the almonds grinding into an oily almond butter due to the processor’s heat, pulse them with 2 Tablespoons oats. I note that in the recipe below.
Sprinkle the topping all over the top of the apple filling, and your gluten-free apple crisp is ready to bake! No chilling, pre-cooking, cooling, or any other steps that would further delay the moment of bliss when you dig in your spoon for that first bite.
And of course, don’t forget the vanilla ice cream! No apple dessert is complete without a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. And for a juicy pop of color, sprinkle some fresh pomegranate arils on top before serving. (Totally optional, but look how pretty!) Talk about texture heaven.
Can I Make Other Gluten-Free Fruit Crisps?
Yes, you can replace the apples with cherries or pears, or even replace 1 cup of the apples with fresh cranberries. You can also use blueberries or peaches, but reduce the maple syrup in the filling down to 3 Tablespoons, because both of those fruits get so juicy. Feel free to adjust the spices, based on the fruit you’re using.
Gluten Free Apple Crisp
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: serves 6
- Category: Pies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This gluten-free apple crisp combines soft-baked apples flavored with maple and warm spices and a crumbly oat topping. Instead of using all-purpose flour, use a combination of almond meal and oats. Almond meal adds a lovely texture and delicious nutty flavor. To keep the recipe gluten free, make sure you’re using certified GF oats. It’s not just “really good for a gluten-free recipe.” It’s just plain REALLY GOOD.
Ingredients
Filling
- 5 cups (about 600g) peeled & chopped apples
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/3 cup (67g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (80ml) pure maple syrup*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Topping
- 1/3 cup (67g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 cup (85g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats (certified GF)
- 1/2 cup (50g) almond meal or almond flour*
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup (71g, or 5 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
- optional: 2 Tablespoons sliced or slivered almonds, vanilla ice cream (GF), pomegranate arils
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 9-inch pie dish, cake pan, or square baking pan. Set aside.
- Filling: Stir all of the filling ingredients together in a large bowl. Make sure the apples are evenly coated. Spread evenly into prepared pan.
- Topping: Whisk the brown sugar, oats, and almond meal together. Break up any large clumps of brown sugar. Whisk in the cinnamon and salt. Once combined, stir in the melted butter. Sprinkle topping over the apples and finish with a few slivered or sliced almonds (optional).
- Bake for 35–40 minutes or until the filing is bubbly, the apples are a little soft, and the topping is browned. If it looks like the topping is browning too quickly, cover the top loosely with aluminum foil about halfway through baking time. Allow to cool for 5–10 minutes before serving.
- Top with pomegranate arils, if using, and serve with vanilla ice cream.
- Cover leftovers and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Follow steps 2 and 3 in the recipe, then cover the crisp and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bake as directed.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9-inch Pie Dish, 9-inch Round Cake Pan, or 9-inch Square Baking Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Rubber Spatula | Vegetable Peeler
- Apples: You want about 5 cups (about 600g) chopped apple chunks. For best flavor, use a mix of tart and sweet varieties, such as 2 tart Granny Smiths and 2 apples of a sweeter variety like Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, or Fuji.
- Maple Syrup: Delivers so much flavor. And makes the apple filling extra juicy and gooey. Don’t leave it out!
- Almond Meal: You can use store-bought almond meal or almond flour, or you can make your own. Start with 1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds. Pulse them, along with 2 Tablespoons of the 1 cup oats called for in this recipe, in a food processor until a crumbly meal has formed. Do not run the food processor continuously; you may end up with almond butter. Quick pulses are best. You will end up with about 1/2 cup almond meal.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Do I have to peel the apples?
You certainly don’t have to.
How was it woth unpeeled apples?
This is my go to crisp! Love it! Do you think I could sub coconut oil for the butter? Thank you!
Hi Tessa, you can certainly give it a try. Results may be slightly different. We’re so glad this is a favorite for you!
I absolutely love the apple crisp! My daughter shared your recipe and now we don’t seem to be able to do without it!! Thank you!
Can I make this in the morning, refrigerate it, and bake it that evening?
Can’t see why not! It will take a little longer to bake.
Excellent breakfast option! We’re trying to reduce sugar a bit so I reduced the brown sugar to 1/4 cup in both the filling and the topping. I didn’t have any issues with excess liquid – everyone ate it right up. Definitely saving for later.
I’ve made this recipe at least 5 times now since Fall ( we just moved into a house with an apple orchard) and is amazing. Easy to prepare and tastes so delicious. Thank you, my gf daughter and son in law thank you too!
Doubling recipe- would it fit in a 9 x 13 pan?
Yes, you can double this recipe for a 9×13 dish. Same oven temperature, the bake time will be longer so keep an eye on it in the oven. Enjoy!
Can I substitute the almond flour with oat flour?
Hi Susan, I’m sure you could. I have not tested it though.
Also if you want your top to be more crispy and the filling to be less runny, then i took some of the yummy excess liquid from the filling and tried to spread it out over the topping once all ready to put in the oven. The liquid will make it a bit crispier on top and less runny on bottom so its a double win! god bless whoever made this recipe.
I found this recipe for a friendly thanksgiving dinner and it was just pure magic. You can really use any flour for the almond flour part. I ended up making TONSE of profit off of it by making and selling it. I was told so many times, “This is amazing can I have the recipe?” and it was all by none gluten free people. So I would recommend this.
This is the first recipe from this site that didn’t work perfectly on the first try. It tasted and looked good but filling came out way, way, too runny; everything was swimming in liquid! Looking at the recipe I see there’s nothing in the filling to absorb all the liquid; i.e., the maple syrup and juice from the apples. Also the addition of allspice and nutmeg makes it smell like a store-bought pie.
Thanks so much for your feedback, John. Did you accidentally skip the cornstarch in the filling?
We made this for an early Thanksgiving dinner with extended family, and it is a fabulous recipe! I used granny smith and honecrisp apples—delicious combination. I ordered the GF oats and almond flour and you’d seriously never know the difference. Everyone loved it—thanks so much!
I’ve made this three times now – it’s so quick and delicious to make! I’m not even gluten free but I think the almond adds a nice flavor. It’s good with yogurt as breakfast or a snack. And it uses up apples that aren’t so fresh anymore.
Hey Sally – trying to make a dessert that is both gluten and dairy free. Will margarine work instead of butter? Saw your note about gluten free desserts. Thank you! I’ll be looking at them.
Hi Paula, you may have more success using a plant-based butter instead, like Earth Balance butter sticks, but we haven’t tested it ourselves to know the exact results. Let us know if you try it!
Looks great! Any recommendations for adjustments to make it nut free? (guests have nut allergies as well as celiac). Thanks!
Hi Anne, we haven’t tested it ourselves, but coconut flour may work in place of the almond flour. Let us know if you try it!
I had been using another GF apple crisp recipe but when I saw the words “maple syrup” I knew I had to try this one. Delicious!!! And I love the almond flour instead of my normal GF flour and the nutmeg flavour was so yummy. This was a big hit! Thank you! P.S. I doubled the recipe, of course 🙂 and used Gala and Honeycrisp apples.
The GF topping is very good, but next time I will add pecans. I thought the filling was too sweet. I will probably lessen or eliminate the brown sugar. Also, I didn’t care for the allspice and nutmeg. I will stick to cinnamon only.
Delicious- I made this for my personal trainer, and everyone loved it- the crunch from the almonds, the crispy apple, warm spices, the beautiful pomegranates made all the difference
We are diabetic and need to watch sugars. Can we make this with brown sugar substitute and leave out the maple syrup?
Hi Christina, We’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for sugar substitutes. Thank you!
This is fabulous! I love how crunchy the topping is, and the glistening sauce from the cornstarch is beautiful. I made this with zucchini instead of apples and no one was the wiser. I’m never making fruit crisp with flour again!
Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe! I’m not GF but a friend of mine is. It’s nice to be able to make her a dessert and not have to buy specialty ingredients. These are all things I had on hand and it was delicious!
I’ve made this recipe multiple times, with different kinds of apples, and really like it! With firmer apples, sometimes I do have to bake it quite a bit longer. I’ve started doubling the topping because it’s so good and seems a little scanty otherwise. I like to punch up the apple mixture with a little nutmeg, powdered ginger, and cloves, as well as a pinch of salt.
It looks delicious; but all I have is the Almond flour. Can I use that in place of the Almond meal? I’m looking for a topping that doesn’t get soggy. What do you suggest?
Hi Phyllis, almond flour works here – enjoy!
Amazing! I’m so glad we had a gluten-free eating friend over for dinner, or I never would have found this recipe. I’ve made a similar one for a long time, but the maple syrup really adds another level. Superb!
This was delicious!! I made as a test run for Thanksgiving dinner because I have 2 cousins that are gluten free due to celiac and gluten sensitivity. My son and husband were unknowingly my taste testers and they raved about it and THEN I told them it was gluten-free. LOL Thank you for helping me contribute an amazing dish that my cousins can enjoy and not feel left out of dessert!
So glad to hear that this recipe is a hit for you, Kay!
Hi Sally, I don’t have almonds on hand but I do have GF flour – do you foresee that being an issue as a substitute?
Hi Milena, we haven’t tested it, but other readers have reported success doing so. Let us know if you try it!
I’m going to try this this weekend. Your recipe sounds great.!
I haven’t tried this yet, but it sounds yummy. Unfortunately, I’m counting calories (Boo! lol). Any idea what a serving size would be and how many calories per serving ?
Hi Mimi, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients, and many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients. However, there are many great online calculators where you can plug in your exact ingredients like this one: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Hi Sally, I want to try this recipe but I was wondering if it can be doubled and baked in a 9×13 baking dish? If so then at what oven temperature and how long? Thank you for your help.
Hi Virginia! Yes, you can double this recipe for a 9×13 dish. Same oven temperature, the bake time will be longer so keep an eye on it in the oven. Enjoy!
Thank you for answering my question about doubling this recipe. I made it and served it to 10 family members and everyone loved it. I’ll definitely make it again!
I’ve made this recipe at least twice a month for the past 3+ years. Sometimes I add fresh cranberries and occasionally I omit the apples and make a mixed berries crisp.
I use vegan “butter” as well since two family members are Dairy Intolerant.
We’re so glad you love this recipe, Wendy!
I have made this for my celiac friends and it was a big hit. How would I alter this to use fresh peaches? Thanks.
Hi Judy, You can use this ginger peach pie filling and use this GF crust recipe. Use 1/4 cup of instant tapioca instead of the flour for the filling.
What would you substitute for the maple syrup?