Gluten Free Peach Crisp (Vegan Option!)
This luscious gluten free peach crisp features warm and juicy spiced peaches with a crunchy pecan and oat topping. It just happens to be a healthy peach crisp recipe, but you’d never know it!! This crisp features a high topping-to-fruit ratio, maximizing the cookie-like crust (oh YES!). It’s naturally sweetened with coconut sugar or maple sugar (although you can use brown sugar if you prefer), and the topping is made with just oats, making it naturally gluten free. For a vegan version, use coconut oil or vegan butter in the topping. *If your peaches are not very ripe and juicy, cut back the cornstarch to 2 teaspoons.
Servings: 6 people
Ingredients
- Butter or cooking spray, for pan
Crisp topping
- 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats, divided
- ⅓ cup pecans
- ¼ cup packed coconut sugar, maple sugar or light brown sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch freshly ground nutmeg
- 4 tablespoons butter or coconut oil, melted
Filling
- 1 ¾ pounds ripe peaches and/or nectarines (about 6 peaches), cut into ½-inch wedges
- 2 tablespoons packed coconut sugar, maple sugar or light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
For serving
- Vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or coconut whipped cream
Instructions
Make the crisp topping
- Preheat the oven to 400˚F (200˚C). Butter an 8x8-inch baking dish, or spray it with cooking spray.
- Put ½ cup of the oats in a mini food processor (or you can use a large processor or Vitamix), and process until finely ground. Transfer to a bowl. Add the pecans to the processor (no need to wash it) and pulse until coarsely chopped.
- Transfer the pecans to the bowl with the ground oats, and add the remaining whole oats, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and melted butter. Stir until combined.
Make the filling & Assemble
- In a large bowl, toss the peaches with the sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla paste (or extract). Fold in the cornstarch (see the headnote).
- Scrape the peaches into the baking dish (including any juices that have accumulated in the bottom of the bowl). Sprinkle the crisp topping over the peaches, pressing it gently in an even layer. Bake the crisp until the topping is golden brown and the peaches are bubbling, about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly.
- Serve the crisp warm or at room temperature with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream. Swoon!
Notes
Do Ahead: The crisp can sit at room temperature for up to 6 hours. Leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Tips:
- You’ll need an 8x8-inch baking dish or baking pan for this crisp. You can also make smaller individual sized crisps instead (like these) - check the crisps at 20 minutes.
- You can use either fresh peaches or nectarines (or a mix!) in this recipe. There’s no need to peel them.
- This crisp is naturally sweetened with coconut sugar or maple sugar (although you can use brown sugar if you prefer). If your peaches aren’t very sweet, feel free to add another tablespoon of sugar to the filling.
- The topping features both whole and ground oats (the ground oats bind the topping together). A food processor or Vitamix makes quick work of grinding the oats and chopping the nuts. If you don’t want to grind the oats, you can also use ½ cup of store-bought oat flour instead and chop the nuts by hand.
- Feel free to swap out the pecans for walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts.
- Try the crisp with this Cardamom Whipped Cream (swoon).
- Don’t miss this easy apple crisp recipe and this gorgeous strawberry crisp!
- For other recipes that use the food processor, check out my first book, The Food Processor Family Cookbook.