Gluten-free Apple Crisp

Name: Gluten-free Apple Crisp
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 12 cups peeled, sliced apples; 1/2 tsp cinnamon; 2 Tbsp. lemon juice; 1 Tbsp. water; 1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar; 1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour; 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats or old-fashioned oats; 2 tsp. cinnamon; 1/2 tsp. nutmeg; 1/8 tsp. salt; 3/4 cup unsalted butter or non-dairy alternative

ByMichelle Palin First PublishedSeptember 17, 2018October 19, 2023 Last Update:October 19, 2023

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Gluten-free Apple Crisp. Pan of deliciousness! Easy to make gluten-free and dairy-free recipe!

So much easier than making apple pie, this gluten-free apple crisp is our go-to fall dessert when we buy a box of apples from the orchard!

My husband loves fruit desserts. While I often choose to have my fruit in a cake like in this gluten-free apple cake, my hubby would always prefer a homemade gluten-free Dutch apple pie or this apple crisp for dessert.

I rarely feel like making a pie with a pie crust, but I’m always up to mixing up a fruit crisp like this gluten-free apple crisp! The streusel topping is so much easier to make than a pie crust!

This recipe for gluten-free apple crisp is a long-time family favorite recipe, adapted from my mom’s recipe.

Crisps are very easy to convert to gluten-free, as you can substitute pretty much any gluten-free flour and certified gluten-free oats in the topping.

Gluten-free Apple Crisp with fresh whipped cream

Pick your favorite baking apple to use in this recipe. This guide to fall apple varieties can help you choose which variety you want to use in this gf apple crisp.

The variety of apple that you pick will affect the texture of the apple crisp. Some varieties, like McIntosh will become very soft, while others, like Honeycrisp or Pink Lady, will retain their shape. I prefer to use a somewhat tart variety like McIntosh, Braeburn or Pink Lady as I find it goes well with the sweet crisp topping.

In the photo above, where you can see the shape of the apple slices still, we used Pink Lady apples. In this older photo below, we used McIntosh apples, which break down more. Both are amazing apple crisps – just wanted to show you the difference so you’d know that the results will definitely vary depending on the variety of apple you use.

Family Favorite Gluten-free Apple Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream

Making this apple crisp is so easy and requires just 11 ingredients! I didn’t include the tablespoon of water in the ingredients pic but here are the rest of the ingredients:

Notes on ingredients and substitutions for this gluten-free apple crisp:

Lemon Juice: you might be wondering why there is lemon juice in this recipe – it’s to keep the apples from discoloring while you’re getting everything ready. It really doesn’t affect the taste.
Gluten-free Flour: Most brands of gluten-free flour should work just fine in this recipe. The flours I’ve used and recommend are: gfJules (from Amazon here) and King Arthur Measure for Measure.
Gluten-free Oats: You want to use certified gluten-free oats that are grown following purity protocol. I recommend Bakery on Main gluten-free rolled oats.
Butter: You can use regular salted butter, just omit the additional salt called for in the topping. Otherwise use unsalted butter or your favorite non-dairy butter stick alternative.

Can you make this a dairy-free apple crisp?

Yes! The only dairy here is the butter used in the topping, so you can definitely swap that for your favorite butter alternative. Stick non-dairy butter alternatives like Melt or Earth Balance work well, or use coconut oil that’s at a solid state.

I love making this to bring to fall potlucks! My hubby or kids are very willing to use our handy apple peeler corer slicer to peel and slice up all the apples I need while I mix up the topping. I can have this in the oven in minutes after the slicing is done, or put it in the fridge to bake later.

I highly recommend you get one of these apple peeler corer slicers at Amazon too! It’s so handy and so much easier on my hands than peeling and slicing these by hand!! You can check it out in action in the video on this post!

Several times, I’ve put this gluten-free apple crisp together before dinner, then I wait to put it in the oven until I pull dinner out of the oven. It bakes while we enjoy dinner, and we’re ready to enjoy dessert right after. Guests are always like, “What’s that yummy smell?”

We love it with a scoop of ice cream or fresh homemade whipped cream, but you could definitely enjoy with a non-dairy ice cream or coco-whip topping if you need it to be dairy-free.

Looking for more gluten-free apple recipes? Here are some to try:

If you have more apples on hand, I’d suggest using some to make these gluten-free allergy friendly apple nachos! Or you could make this gluten-free apple pear tart. It’s such a pretty dessert to share with company.

For a side dish, I’d recommend this apple grape salad recipe. And for breakfast, I’d recommend these gluten-free apple muffins or my gluten-free apple puff pancake recipe! These are all favorites here!

My family loves dried apples, so I’m wanting to make these baked apple chips as I think they’ll like them too! I’m also definitely wanting to make this fresh apple pie dip recipe soon!