Gluten free apple crisp makes a delicious dessert that’s perfect for Fall, the holidays and special occasions.
Apple Crisp is the first pie I learned to make by myself. I bake all the time, so that might surprise you but I was intimidated to make my own pie crust for a long time. Since apple pie is a staple in the Fall and at the holidays, it seemed like the perfect place to start. After all, the delicious apple filling is the best part in my opinion anyway.
The apple filling was the easy part of this recipe, but the crumb topping took a few tries to perfect. In the end, I learned that pre-baking the crumb topping makes a big difference. That simple step leads to ideal color and crispiness of the crumb layer.
The recipe contains 9 ingredients so it’s fairly simple to make. It’s perfect for any night you are craving hot apple crisp or pie, and it would work great at Thanksgiving dinner or any special occasion too. We topped ours with vanilla bean coconut milk ice cream and next time I think I’ll also add some caramel drizzle. If you want to make caramel sauce yourself, you can follow the caramel portion of my gluten free caramel apple recipe.
Gluten Free Apple Crisp Printable Recipe

Gluten Free Apple Crisp
This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and peanut free. It makes one 9 inch pie.
Ingredients
Apple Crisp Filling Ingredients:
- 4 medium size apples
- 5 tbsp coconut oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 heaping tbsp corn starch
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- nutmeg sprinkling, optional
Apple Crisp Topping:
- 1/2 cup almond meal blanched
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 tbsp. palm oil shortening
- 1/4 cup gluten free flour multi-purpose
Instructions
To make the filling:
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Peel, core and slice the apples and place them in a bowl. We got 16 slices from each apple to give you an idea of the thickness.
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Pour the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg over the apples and mix until evenly coated.
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Heat the coconut oil in a pan over medium heat until it's melted.
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Add the apples and cook, stirring frequently for 5 minutes.
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Fill a measuring cup with water and add the cornstarch.
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Mix the water and cornstarch and pour it over the apples.
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Continue tossing the apples every minute so that they're evenly coated, and cook for another 15 minutes.
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
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Spoon the filling into your pie pan and set aside until topping is ready.
To make the topping:
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Combine all of the ingredients into a small food processor.
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Mix until well combined.
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Take out a baking sheet, and line it with parchment paper.
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Spoon out the topping mixture and bake it at 350 for 10-15 minutes.
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Once it's finished cooking, spoon the topping over the pie.
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Place in the oven for 20 minutes.
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Serve by itself, or top with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.
Recipe Notes
To convert this recipe to a grain free version, omit the gluten free flour, reduce the coconut oil in the topping by 1/2 tbsp, and replace the corn starch with arrowroot powder.Â
This recipe can be made into 3 miniature pies as well. Simply use three small pie pans instead.Â
Can it be made grain free?
Yes! Just omit the gluten free flour, reduce the coconut oil in the toppings to 2 tbsp and replace the cornstarch with arrowroot powder. The topping won’t be quite as thick as it will with gluten free flour, but it will still taste amazing!
Apple crisp is my favorite dessert and I love experimenting with all of the variations! I find it fascinating that you use both coconut oil and palm shortening for the crumbles.
It is unusual to use them together. I started with only coconut oil, but the texture wasn’t crumbly enough. I love the flavor of coconut oil so I wasn’t willing to give it up completely. Adding in the palm shortening gave it just the crumble it needed.
You’ll have to share your secret for getting the hubs to help bake in the kitchen ????
Haha! The secret is he really wants pie at Thanksgiving so he was extra motivated to help me develop a good recipe 🙂
Mmm, I can almost taste it now! this looks so good!
Thank you!
I will have to give this recipe a try! My son is gluten free. Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad you found it! It’s so nice to be able to enjoy gluten free desserts again!
Oh, I love apple recipes in the fall especially! This looks like a great recipe to try out. Thank you for posting it!
Thanks, Julie! I’m loving everything apple right now.
Oh yummy! I think we need to make this this weekend for sure. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I think you’ll really enjoy it!
Apple crisp is a must in the Fall!
Totally agree!
I’m totally making this! We’ve been following the whole 30 and this will totally comply!! Can’t wait to try it! thanks so much:)
I’m so glad! If you’re not able to have sugar, I would skip that ingredient in the topping and add a little bit of 100% juice apple juice if you feel the filling needs a sweetener.
I have all the ingredients for this! Can’t wait to try!
Awesome! Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Perfect season for this recipe! I love that there’s coconut oil and I bet it would be good with honey or maple for a refined sugar free version 🙂
I think maple syrup would work perfectly, and you’d probably need less of it. I’d start with 1/4 the sugar for maple syrup and add as you go so it’s not overly sweet.
Great recommendation! Thanks Jereann 🙂