Vegan Apple Crumble (Gluten-Free!)
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A classic dessert, this vegan apple crumble is made with sweet cinnamon apples, then topped with a nutty oat crumble! It’s easy to make, gluten free, family friendly, and makes the entire house smell amazing!
This gluten free apple crisp is seriously the best. It’s gooey and sweet on the inside with a “buttery” vegan crumble topping. It’s made with healthy ingredients and has only 5 grams of added sugar per serving! It’s one of my favorite feel-good apple desserts, and is perfect any time of year!
While apple picking is a traditional fall activity, I love that you can enjoy apples all year round! And I love making a vegan apple crumble for a special occasion, during the holidays, or even in the summertime served with ice cream. Between the warm apple compote and the delicious smells that fill my kitchen when it’s baking – I can’t get enough of it!
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Serve this gluten free apple crumble with homemade whipped cream or a scoop of vegan ice cream! It’s less work but even better than a vegan apple pie! The first time I made this, I had to sit down to eat it. It’s just that good!
👩🏽🍳 Why This Recipe Works
- Gluten-free & vegan too!
- Made with wholesome ingredients
- Great for summer, fall, or any time of year
- A fun way to use extra apples from apple picking!
- Perfect for apple season
- Kid friendly
- Tastes like a classic apple pie with no pie crust
- Any type of apples can be used
- Best vegan apple crisp recipe ever!
🥘 Ingredients
This easy vegan apple crumble is made with simple ingredients. You probably have most of them in your pantry! For the full recipe and nutritional information, see the recipe card below.
- Apples: I used a combination of Gala apples and Fuji sliced apples, but you can also use Granny Smith apples, Honeycrisp apples, or any of your favorite apples! Try chopping them into large and small pieces to get a variety of textures in your crisp. The best apples to bake with are ones with a firm flesh and a slightly tart taste. Tart apples won’t be quite as sweet.
- Warm Spices: I used cinnamon and nutmeg in this vegan fruit crisp, but any warm fall spices taste great. Pumpkin pie spice, allspice, cloves, cardamom, and ginger are good options!
- Lemon Juice: Lemon brightens up any fruit and enhances its flavor. If you don’t have a lemon, use a splash of apple juice instead.
- Cornstarch: A small amount of cornstarch thickens the apple mixture. Arrowroot powder is a good swap if you don’t have cornstarch.
- Nuts: To add some more texture to the crisp topping, I used a combination of chopped pecans and walnuts. Almonds and hazelnuts taste delicious too. Or make it nut free and omit the nuts completely.
- Oats: Gluten-Free Oats are the key to the crumble topping! I like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oats. You can also make this gluten-free apple crisp with oat flour if you prefer. For a nutty flavor, swap out 1/4 cup of the oats for 1/2 cup of almond flour.
- Brown Sugar: Gives this a touch of needed sweetness to both the apples, and the crisp topping. You can also use coconut sugar for a refined sugar free version.
- Coconut Oil: You can also use vegan butter like Earth Balance if you don’t have coconut oil.
- Vanilla Extract: The sweet taste of vanilla is always a good addition.
- Salt: A pinch of salt brings out the sweetness in this vegan apple crumble recipe.
📖 Variations
Next time try one of these delicious takes on an easy apple crisp!
- Pear Crisp: Swap out the apples for pears! The best pears to use for baking are Bosc, D’Anjou, Bartlett, Forelle, and Concorde pears.
- Apple and Pear Crisp: Use half apples and half pears to make this into an apple and pear crisp.
- Sugar Free Apple Crisp: To make this recipe sugar free, eliminate the brown sugar in both the apple mixture, and the crisp topping. Substitute for a small amount of monk fruit sweetener. Monk fruit is sweeter than regular sugar, so a 1:1 substitution is too much. Instead use one teaspoon of monk fruit sweetener in the apple filling, and 2 tablespoons of monk fruit in the crisp topping.
- Low Calorie Apple Crisp: Keep this recipe low calorie and skip the toppings. One serving of this recipe is only 206 calories per serving!
🔪 Instructions
Here’s how to make this healthy vegan apple crumble:
Spray Baking Dish: The first thing you need to do is preheat the oven and grease a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Make Apple Filling: In a medium bowl, toss the sliced apples with cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, salt, and a little bit of cornstarch. Add one tablespoon of the sugar to the apples. Toss well to coat.
Blend Oats: Blend 1 and 1/4 cup of the oats in a food processor or high-speed blender until the oats resemble flour.
Make The Streusel Topping: Add the oat flour to a large bowl and mix with remaining oats, brown sugar, baking powder, vanilla extract, nuts, and melted coconut oil. The oats + sugar + oil creates a crunchy texture that’s irresistible.
Prepare Healthy Apple Crumble: Dump the apple filling into the baking dish and spread around evenly with a spatula.
Add Topping: Top the apple mixture with the oat crumble. Try your best to evenly spread it over the apples.
Bake: Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly before serving. Serve this vegan gluten-free crumble warm with a scoop of dairy-free vanilla ice cream!
🍎 Is Vegan Apple Crumble Healthy?
Yes! This is a totally guilt free dessert. A typical serving of apple crisp or crumble will run you anywhere from 250 to 350 calories, and upwards of 28 grams of sugar!
My version has about 200 calories and 5 grams of added sugar for a hefty portion. Here are some of the healthy swaps I made to lighten up this recipe but keep all of the decadence of the traditional version!
- Whole Grains: This plant based apple crisp uses rolled oats for the fruit crumble topping – which are high in fiber, low-glycemic, and gluten-free.
- Less Added Sugar: Fruit is already naturally sweet! There’s no need to add tons of sugar to the filling, the fruit takes care of the sweetness.
- Healthy Fats: Walnuts and pecans in the crumble topping are both rich in antioxidants and healthy omega 3 fats.
❓Recipe FAQs
This all depends on personal preference. Apple skins don’t break down and bake completely, so it changes the texture of the crisp. If you want a creamier crumble, I recommend peeling the apples first (using a vegetable peeler), because the apples will cook down more. But if you want a heartier dessert with a little more texture, feel free to leave the skin on!
Absolutely!
To Freeze Unbaked: Follow all of the steps to prepare the crisp, then cover and freeze for up to 2 months.
To Freeze Baked: Bake the this crumble then let it cool completely. Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
To Reheat: If unbaked, bake the vegan apple crisp as directed. If prebaked, bake the until the top is crisp and the apples are hot.
Both are dishes with baked fresh fruit, with a streusel like topping made from butter, sugar and some sort of grain.
The difference between the two desserts is in the topping: The crisp’s topping typically includes oats, and is less dense than a crumble topping. Whereas a crumble will use flour, butter, sugar, and nuts, but the topping is much more dense.
Our vegan apple crumble is sort of in between a crumble and a crisp, because we use flour and oats, and the topping is more dense.
Make sure you don’t use too much fat (coconut oil, butter, etc.) or you will get a soggy topping. Be patient with the bake time, low and slow is the way to go here. Don’t forget to add the cornstarch! It acts both as a binder and helps to absorb some of the juice the apples release when they are cooked.
👪 How To Serve
Here are some of our favorite ways to serve this gluten-free dessert recipe:
- With homemade whipped cream
- A scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream
- Vegan caramel sauce or chocolate sauce drizzled on top
- A sprinkle of candied nuts
- A dusting of powdered sugar on the crispy topping
- Drizzle melted nut butter on top
💭 Expert Tips
- Use Gluten Free Oats to make this gluten-free. Add some almond flour if you like a nutty flavor!
- Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to help keep the apples from browning.
- Make sure to coat your baking dish with cooking spray.
- The best way to serve this crisp is warm! Top it with homemade whipped cream or ice cream for more decadence.
- This apple crisp will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Make sure to let it cool to room temperature before covering.
- Melted coconut oil is easier to mix with the dry ingredients to make the topping!
- If you have a lot of apples, make two vegan crumbles and freeze one for later.
🍨 More Apple Dessert Recipes!
- Apple Cinnamon French Toast
- Baked Apples With Spiced Sprouted Quinoa
- Apple Curd Recipe
- Healthy Gluten Free Apple Cake
- Instant Pot Apple Sauce With Cinnamon
- Healthy Vegan Apple Pancakes (Gluten Free!)
📋 Recipe Card
Vegan Apple Crumble (Easy + Gluten Free)
Ingredients
For the filling:
- 2 pounds Organic Fuji or Gala apples peeled and cut into ¼ inch cubes (about 6 medium sized apples)
- 1 tbsp Brown sugar unpacked
- 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp Ground nutmeg
- ½ tbsp Cornstarch
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice About the juice from 1 lemon
- 1 dash Salt
For the topping:
- ⅓ cup Brown sugar unpacked
- 2¼ cup Gluten Free Rolled Oats
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tbsp Chopped pecans
- 1 tbsp Chopped walnuts
- ⅓ cup Melted Coconut Oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, toss the apples with cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon, salt, and cornstarch. Add one tablespoon of the sugar to the apples. Toss to coat.
- Pour 1¼ cups of old fashioned oats into a blender and blend until finely ground. Add the blended flour to a large bowl and mix with remaining oats, brown sugar, baking powder, vanilla extract, nuts, and melted coconut oil.
- Add the apples to the baking dish and top with the oat mixture.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before serving.
Notes
- Serving Suggestions: Homemade whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, candied nuts sprinkled on top, fresh fruit on the side, powdered sugar sprinkled on top, or ground cinnamon sprinkled on top are some of our favorite ways to serve this gluten free apple crisp.
- Apple Variations: Try a combination of apples including — Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, or Pink Lady. Feel free to substitute in a totally different fruit like pear or peaches for a twist on the traditional apple crisp!
- Spices Variations: Try your favorite fall spices — nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, all spice, cloves, cardamom, and ginger
- Nuts: Try almonds or hazelnuts along with (or instead of) the pecans and walnuts. Or make it nut free and omit the nuts altogether.
- Use Gluten Free Oats to make this gluten-free.
- Make sure to coat your baking dish with cooking spray.
- Be sure to serve this crisp warm! Top it with homemade whipped cream or ice cream for more decadence.
- This apple crumble will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
- Make sure the coconut oil is melted before you combine it with the topping – this will ensure it mixes well.
Great dessert to make with all the staple ingredients at home! Lovely warming flavours and extremely easy to make 🙂
Aw thank you so much Ieva!!
This is such an easy dessert and super delicious. I love serving this with ice cream for an easy summer dessert.
Totally! It’s perfect for the summer for sure! 🙂
So easy! So delicious! Can’t wait to make again. 🙂
Thanks Kris! So glad you liked it!
Made this delicious crumble tonight for a small dinner party, where one of the friends eats gluten-free. It was amazing – the flavors were great!
Woohoo! Great to hear – thanks for letting me know Cynthia!
This is in the oven now, wow does it smell amazing. Love that I could make this for a dear friend with severe allergies to bring her after surgery.
Thanks so much Kathleen! I hope you and your friend love this recipe!