gluten-free | dairy-free
This apple crisp is gluten-free and dairy-free—warm cinnamon-and-citrus apples under a crumble of GF oats, brown sugar, and Earth Balance. Victoria’s favorite dessert; she says it reminds her of Dutch apple pie and is much easier to make. Serve warm, ideally with a scoop of Very Vanilla Cashew frozen dessert. Uses Bob’s Red Mill certified GF oats and the GF cooking flour blend.
Apple crisp makes my heart sing! It’s my favorite dessert, and I really should make it more often. It reminds me of Dutch apple pie but is so much easier to make.
My apple crisp recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free and uses certified gluten-free oats (Bob’s Red Mill), a custom flour blend we created to replace all-purpose flour, and Earth Balance Buttery Spread instead of butter. The orange and lemon juice provide a nice balance to the sugar and add wonderful depth of flavor. Oh, and the crisp, which is, in my opinion, the best part. It’s wonderfully crunchy, decadently buttery, and hard to stop eating.
I love to eat the apple crisp warm either by itself or topped with Very Vanilla Cashew Frozen Dessert, which is the closest thing to “real” vanilla ice cream I have found.
Be careful, you may not be able to stop eating this!!
Note on the flour blend
We created what we call our Cooking Flour Blend and used it in this recipe. We don’t recommend it for baking cookies, cakes, or any other gluten-free baking. We DO recommend it for sauces, gravies, batters, dusting, and some desserts. Click here for the recipe.
Now, go eat something amazing!
Gluten-Free Classic Apple Crisp
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The Ingredients
For the Apples
- 4 lbs apples, Gala or Fiji or similar, peeled and sliced
- zest of one half lemon
- zest of one half orange
- 2 tbsp lemon juice, fresh squeezed
- 2 tbsp orange juice, fresh squeezed
- 1/2 cup sugar, granulated
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
For the Crisp
- 221 g gf explorers cooking flour blend, or 1 1/2 cups
- 1 cup oats, gluten free
- 3/4 cup sugar, granulated
- 3/4 cup brown sugar, light, packed
- 8 oz Earth Balance Buttery Spread, cold, cubed
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
The Process
Mise en Place
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking dish with Earth Balance.
- Cut the Earth Balance you will use for the crisp into small cubes, place in a bowl and put into the fridge to keep cold until needed later in the recipe.
For the Apples
- Before you start peeling and slicing the apples, get the rest of the ingredients ready. Squeeze the lemon and orange juices into a small bowl. Measure the cinnamon and nutmeg into a small prep bowl. Measure the sugar.
- Peel each apple and get as much peel away from the stem and bottom. Using an apple corer/slicer, slice the apples and place in a large mixing bowl. Do not leave them very long before you add the other ingredients or they will begin to turn brown.
- Add the lemon and orange juices, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Using a zester, zest the lemon and orange into the apples. Use as little or as much zest as you prefer.
- Using your hands or a large spoon, gently mix the apples to incorporate all the ingredients. Transfer apple mixture to the baking dish and make sure they are distributed evenly. Set aside.
For the Crisp
- Grab the cubed Earth Balance from the fridge and add the bowl of you stand mixer. Add the flour, two sugars, oats, and kosher salt to the bowl. Attached the paddle, raise the bowl and mix on low until the Earth Balance becomes the size of peas. The texture should be a bit crumbly and slightly moist. Do not mix on a high speed or your crisp will be too moist and warm.
- Add the crisp mixture evenly over the apples in the baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until the top is brown and the apples are bubbly. Remove from the oven and let cool about 10-15 before serving.
- Serve the apple crisp alone or with a dairy free ice cream such as So Delicious' Very Vanilla Cashew Milk Frozen Dessert.
- Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days. Enjoy