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The Best Gluten Free Apple Crisp

Name: The Best Gluten Free Apple Crisp
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Gluten Free
Ingredients: 2 apples, diced; 1 cup quinoa, cooked; 1/4 cup oats, plus 1 tbsp for topping; 1/4 cup almond flour; 1 egg; 1/4 cup almond or coconut milk; 2 tbsp coconut oil, slightly melted but somewhat solid; ¼ cup maple syrup; 1 tsp vanilla; 1/2 tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp baking soda; pinch salt; 1/2 tsp cinnamon; 2-3 tbsp mini chocolate chips

Jul 31, 2019 | #Baked Goods

This Gluten-Free Apple Crisp recipe uses a blend of quinoa and oats to create a crumbly, healthy apple crisp recipe. This apple crisp is perfect for fall and great by itself, with additional fruit, or melted ice cream on top!

This post was originally published in November, 2016 and was updated in July, 2019.

Good morning and happy Wednesday!

Although I feel like fall is *nowhere* in site (it is dead summer for us), I’m beginning to see pumpkin and apple recipes pop up on Pinterest. That tells me that people are starting to think about recipes for fall.

So perhaps this healthy apple crisp is something you can add to your repertoire. It’s perfect for fall and using up those fresh apples. Plus, it’s a sugar free apple crisp that uses maple syrup as a natural sweetener.

I originally made this healthy apple crumble recipe for a Recipe Redux theme years ago.

The theme was to “healthify” one of our favorite holiday desserts for a specific diet. Now that I look back, that is a diet culture in disguise statement. We know from research that diets don’t work.

Nonetheless, it led me to create this gluten free apple crumble as a low sugar apple crisp recipe, which is still all kinds of delicious so I’m sharing it with you today.

Plus, there aren’t many healthy apple crisp recipes that use quinoa, and the quinoa crisp part is the unique, fun part!

Table of Contents

When Should You Make This Gluten Free Apple Crisp?

Well, anytime in the fall of course! But in all reality, this healthy apple crumble recipe is perfect for any time of year, especially with a cold scoop of ice cream!

But now that I’ve brought up holidays, let’s talk about them! When it comes to favorite holiday desserts, I go back and forth between apple pie and pumpkin pie.

Ultimately, apple pie wins over for me. It’s just an American classic, isn’t it? Plus, there are so many varieties of apples to pick so I feel like there’s more choices..maybe?

I did a little googling and found out that the concept of apple pie has been around since the Middle Ages. Plus, it really is acceptable for any holiday, not just Thanksgiving.

How To Make a Healthy Apple Crisp

I’m all about easy, 30 minute recipes, which you probably know. You can make something taste great and not spend a ton of time on it.

So, to make this, you’re just going to need one big bowl!

What You’ll Need for This Gluten Free Apple Crisp Recipe

Quinoa (cooked)
Oats
Almond Flour
Apples
Egg
Almond Milk
Coconut Oil
Maple Syrup (get the good stuff!)
Chocolate Chips

Mix all of your main ingredients in a mixing bowl, except part of the apple and oats, which you will use for the topping. Now you can leave out the chocolate chips, but who are we really kidding if you don’t add chocolate chips?

You do you.

Then, you’ll pour the batter in a cast skillet or pie bowl and toss it in the oven for 45-50 minutes and enjoy the cinnamony, droolworthy smells coming out of your kitchen.

I’ve made it in both a pie bowl and cast iron skillet. It will work well in a cast iron skillet if you have the right size.

Since mine was a little too big, the pie was very thin. However, if you have a skillet close to 9-10 inches, it would be perfect!

What Kind of Apples Should You Use?

I prefer red apples, but if you like a tart taste, granny smith would work too. As a matter of fact, Bon Appetit says Granny Smith apples are the best for baking!

Personally, I love pink lady apples every which way and also bake alot with braeburn.

Honeycrisp apples just seem too expensive to bake with. I’d rather just bite right into them.

Apple Crisp vs. Apple Crumble

I feel like this healthy apple crumble recipe borders on both a crisp and crumble. The outside is crispy and the inside is crumbly.

When first testing this recipe, I knew I wanted something crumbly, having been wildly obsessed with apple crumble recipes every fall.

While most recipes use regular or whole wheat flour, I chose almond flour to keep it gluten free. I didn’t aim to create a paleo apple crisp but here we are. You can use any flour you desire!

When the opportunity arose to create a healthy fall dessert, my mind went right to a combination of apple crisp, apple pie and apple crumble.

It’s not as solid and stout as your typical apple pie, but there’s more cake to it than your typical crumble. So…err…it’s kinda in the middle of a cake, pie and crumble.

The quinoa crisp is what gives it the apple crisp taste, which is the bottom line of why you’re here I’m sure.

Why You Need This Healthy Apple Crisp:

Unlike your typical store bought pie, there are no refined grains or sugars in this pie.

The sweetness comes from maple syrup, which bonus, even has small amounts of calcium, iron, zinc and magnesium.

And, there is an abundance of fiber from whole grains.

Also, it’s:

Crumbly
Moist
Ready in under 50 minutes
Perfect as is, or crumbled over ice cream

So, there you have it. You can eat a slice of it like pie, or crumble some of it over your yogurt, whip cream or ice cream. Or, you can eat it like cake and throw a scoop of ice cream on there.

If you’re looking for a vegan apple crisp recipe, you could try substituting a flax egg for the egg but I haven’t tested it. You’ll also want to find a good non-dairy ice cream option!

And, when I say chocolate chips are optional, are they really ever optional? Enjoy Life does make vegan chocolate chips though.

If you like this, you may also like the chocolate mint berry quinoa bowl or the mango lime quinoa salad.

My favorite fall breakfast to add to the rotation (that combines pumpkin and apple!) is the apple pumpkin pie baked oatmeal, which makes meal prep a breeze.

It is also a delicious homemade apple dessert recipe when you add a scoop of ice cream!