The Best EVER Vegan Apple Crisp that is gluten-free and oil-free, but you’d never know! So easy to make, so flavorful and healthy.
HEALTHY VEGAN APPLE CRISP
This is probably my family’s favorite fall dessert ever. Especially, my husband’s. He doesn’t make a sound while eating this vegan gluten-free apple crisp.
Apple crisp is notoriously full of butter and sugar. However, my version is so much healthier, yet to-die-for delicious. Oil-free and made with whole foods and simple ingredients. Yup, no oil and no butter and also, low sugar!
Instead of using oil or butter in this crisp, we are using homemade walnut butter! This yields amazing flavor, buttery and crispy texture in a whole food fat form. There is also almond flour in the topping to give that extra buttery flavor. These 2 ingredients help to make it oil-free, yet keeping all that delicious flavor. Walnut butter works much better than almond butter because it is much more oily and runny, so it gives a better flavor and texture. You can also use pecan butter if you like.
INGREDIENTS TO MAKE VEGAN APPLE CRISP
- Honeycrisp Apples: I like to use honeycrisp apples because they are naturally sweet, making the need for sugar in the filling to be very minimal. So many crisps call for 1/2 cup or more sweetener, which I find to be so excessive, especially since apples are sweet!
- Cinnamon: Gotta have spice in the filling to enrich the overall flavor.
- Allspice: Allspice further gives that fall vibe and enhances the cinnamon. Gives it that apple pie flavor.
- Lemon juice: I think lemon juice is crucial to an apple crisp, as the acidity helps balance out the sweetness so it’s not just a big blob of sweetness in your mouth. A little does the job perfectly.
- Sugar: I only use 1 tablespoon of sugar in the filling, that is it! And I promise, it’s all it needs because of using honeycrisp apples. I like to use raw sugar, but you could use regular sugar if you like. Also, the topping is sweet, too. The balance is overall perfection.
- Maple syrup: For the topping, I use maple syrup. It crisps up really pretty and gives a wonderful depth of flavor.
- Oats: What makes an apple crisp? The oat topping! Gotta have those oats. Texture galore.
- Almond flour: Almond flour gives moisture and texture to the topping and crisps up so nicely.
- Walnut butter or pecan butter: By using walnut or pecan butter, both which are extremely runny and naturally more oily than other nut butter, it gives this crisp a wonderful crispy topping and buttery flavor.
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN APPLE CRISP
Step 1: Make the filling. Slice the apples into 1/4 inch wedges and add to a large bowl. Add the spices, sugar, lemon juice and pecans. I finely chop these since my husband and daughter aren’t big fans of chunks of nuts. Stir for a good couple of minutes until the apples are evenly coated. Set aside.
Step 2: Make the topping. To a medium bowl, add the syrup, walnut butter and cinnamon and stir until smooth. Add the oats and almond flour and mix for a couple of minutes until very thick and sticky, as pictured.
Step 3: Fill the pie dish. Lightly spray a 9 inch pie dish with nonstick spray and spread out the prepared apples in an even layer.
Top with the topping mixture with your fingers and make sure all the apples are well covered evenly.
Step 4: Bake the apple crisp. Top the crisp with extra raw sugar for crunch, sweetness and shine. Bake for about 25 minutes in a preheated oven at 375°F, until the apples are tender and the top is a nice golden brown.
HOW TO SERVE
Apple crisps are best served immediately while warm. Top with dairy-free whip cream, such as the So Delicious CocoWhip or a vegan ice cream, like this Vegan Vanilla Cheesecake Ice Cream!
HOW TO REHEAT LEFTOVERS
To reheat any leftovers, reheat in the oven at 300°F covered with foil until hot. The topping will get nice and crispy again.
MORE VEGAN HOLIDAY DESSERTS TO TRY
VEGAN PUMPKIN DESSERTS
- The BEST Vegan Pumpkin Pie
- Best Vegan Pumpkin Bread Ever
- Vegan Pumpkin Cake with Frosting
- Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
- Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Pumpkin Spice Sauce
VEGAN SPICE DESSERTS
- Vegan Chai Coconut Cookies
- Vegan Gingerbread Cake
- Vegan Gingerbread Men Cut-Out Cookies
- Coconut Butter Gingersnaps
- Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Vegan Cardamom Pecan Cookies
I originally wrote this recipe 7 years ago originally for my previous blog, The Healthy Flavor, before I created The Vegan 8. Therefore, it is 9 required ingredients instead of 8, but it is still incredibly easy to make and so delicious! It has been updated with much better photos and directions from its original post.
If you make this recipe, be sure to leave feedback below and share your pic on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thevegan8 #thevegan8!
Healthy Vegan Apple Crisp (Gluten-Free and Oil-Free)
Ingredients
FILLING
- 4 heaping cups (430g) of peeled and sliced honeycrisp apples, into 1/4 inch slices (the weight is AFTER they are peeled/sliced)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1 tablespoon raw sugar (please understand that if you change the apples to sour or less sweet than honeycrisp, you may need more sugar)
- pinch salt
- 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)
TOPPING
- 1/2 cup (160g) pure maple syrup
- 4 tablespoons (64g) of my homemade walnut butter or pecan butter
- 1 1/2 cups (150g) gluten free old fashioned oats
- 3/4 cup (84g) blanched almond flour (this keeps it moist, do not sub with another flour, as that will change the buttery topping)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Optional: 2 tablespoons raw sugar for sprinkling on top, highly recommended for shine and crunch!
NOTE
- I like to use honeycrisp apples because of their natural sweetness, making the need for sugar very minimal. I, personally do not want to eat a pie of sugar, so the apples are an important choice here. If you change the apples, you may need a lot more sugar. The honeycrisp flavor is the best and complimented by the lemon juice.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- First, you will need to make the walnut butter or pecan butter. It helps to do this the day before so it's ready to go. This replaces any oil or butter, yet still gives a wonderful buttery taste and crisp.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and lightly grease the bottom of a 9 inch pie dish.
- For the filling, peel and slice the apples into 1/4 inch wedges and add to a large bowl. Add the cinnamon, allspice, sugar, lemon juice and pecans. Set aside.
- For the topping, to a separate medium bowl, add the syrup, walnut butter and cinnamon and stir until smooth. Add the oats and almond flour and mix for a couple of minutes until very thick and sticky, as pictured.
- Spread out the prepared apples in an even layer into the pie dish. Top with the topping mixture with your fingers and make sure all the apples are well covered evenly.
- Bake for about 25 minutes or until the apples are tender and the top is a nice golden brown.
- Apple crisps are best served immediately while warm. Top with dairy-free whip cream, such as the So Delicious cocowhip or a vegan ice cream, like this Vegan Cheesecake Ice Cream!
Notes
- If gluten-free, be sure to use certified gluten-free oats.
- Be sure to use either walnut or pecan butter, as these are both naturally very oily and runny after being roasted. This is what yields such a wonderful buttery taste that other nut butters won't provide.
- To reheat any leftovers, reheat in the oven at 300°F covered with foil until hot. The topping will get nice and crispy again.
Nutrition
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Oh I love fruit crisps or crumbles. This looks great and can’t wait to see the recipe for the cinnamon ice cream.
Thank you!! It was so satisfying!
Thanks Alice! 🙂
Me too Uru!
Looks heavenly! Yum!!!! 🙂 By the way, thank you for mentioning gluten free options 😉
Absolutely my dear!! I’m trying to have as many as I can and accommodate the requests for them. It’s important to me! Thank you so much! 🙂
Thank you so much 🙂 It seems that more and more people are having issues with gluten. Have a great weekend and thanks again for all your wonderful recipes 😉
I really enjoy crumbs and crisps; especially as the weather gets cooler. They are such a great comfort food. Your honey apple pecan crisp looks and sounds so delectable! I like the strong cinnamon too, and the raw sugar. Your topping ingredients are all perfect!
Thank you so much Judy!! I really appreciate the compliments!
Haha! Might be, might. I pretty much ate the whole thing in one day. My friend made it and her and her husband ate the whole thing after dinner…so I guess I’m not the only one, lol! 🙂
Looks so good! I know what you mean about sugar-loaded desserts, I never want it to overpower my baking. Oh and I’m looking forward to your cinnamon ice cream too!
Thank you!! I agree…it’s done way too often. I like sweets, but I also want to taste the other ingredients! 🙂
I too love a strong cinnamon flavor 🙂 and I agree with you on the fact that sometimes the amount of sugar added to fruit desserts is scary
I know right…I can’t get enough cinnamon :). I need to make some more of the ice cream for a post….my husband ate it all before I could take enough photos, haha!
hehehe..My husband does that too!
Aww that was so sweet…you made my day, truly!! Thank you for the compliment! 🙂
Thank you so much Erika!! I hope you love it as much as my friends and I have! Absolutely, cornstarch should work just fine too. 🙂 Let me know how it turns out. Seriously, honey crisp apples are amazing..adding buckets of sugar just ruins it and I even have seen people pour sugar on apple chips….another thing I don’t understand?? lol. I like sugar too, but its just not necessary in many instances. 🙂
That’s so true about the sugar in most recipes! I made a simple applesauce recently (British style, no spices) and I didn’t use ANY sugar! Greek apples are sweet, so no need for extra sweetness! I even used juice of half a lemon and it was still sweet enough 🙂
This looks gorgeous! Will be trying it!
Thank you so much! This is a favorite if mine and one of my friend’s too, it’s sooo delicious and healthy! The honey crisp apples are just to die for 🙂 Let me know if you try it! I really appreciate your comment.
This recipe looks incredible, one of the only ones I’ve that doesn’t have coconut oil. I’m going to be making this for a gathering at a friend’s house on Saturday. Would you recommend preparing it beforehand and then baking it there, bringing the topping and cut up fruit separate and assembling it and baking it there, etc.? Thank you!
Hi Melinda! Yes, I agree…they all seem to have oil or butter right?! Well, it certainly doesn’t need it, I promise, especially with the nut butter! I would definitely wait to get to your destination to bake it up, crisps are always best eaten straight out of the oven and fresh. The granola is best and crunchy that way and if it sits out too long, it becomes more chewy and less crispy. What I would do, to save time, is just mix the dry ingredients separately for both the topping and filling in containers and label them appropriately, so you don’t get confused! Then just add the apples and wet ingredients right before you bake it up. Hope that helps and let me know how it turns out! 🙂
Wanted to treat myself a little extra tonight after a busy day with the kids and I just love crumble pies! Great idea to spice up the apples a bit. I ran out of maple syrup so only used the half amount and added coconut oil instead for the other half so the crumble wouldn’t be too dry – the result was great, I don’t like it too sweet anyway. And peanut butter instead of almond butter worked fine too. I don’t have all-spice either but used some nutmeg, cardamum and clove instead. Thanks again!
Btw, absolutely better than chocolate! Especially if I had the time to make vanilla sauce (cashew+maple syrup+water+vanilla) but it was also yummy served with plain yoghurt!
I’m so happy to hear that Liv, thank you so much for letting me know! So glad it still worked with your slight changes. I actually have a cashew cream sauce on my blog too, btw 🙂
Sold. I’m making this for Thanksgiving. This is exactly what is was looking for!!! Looks incredible, Brandi! Can’t wait <3
Haha, awesome Mandy!! Thank you so much! Can’t wait to hear what you think! xo
This apple crisp was the best !! It was easy to make and smelled so wonderful in my kitchen while baking. And so pretty when you put the raw sugar on top. It sparkles ! This is definitely a favorite I will be making again !! Keep the recipies coming Brandi ! You Rock !!
I couldn’t believe how easy this was to make and our house smelled SO good while it was baking. We couldn’t get our hands on organic honeycrisp apples, so we used organic opal apples and it turned out amazing! So buttery with just the right amount of sweetness. Everyone loved this at Thanksgiving!
Made this for dessert w/ my New Years Eve dinner last night. It was delicious. Everyone thought it was great & could not believe that such delicious fare could be healthy. My apples did not make much juice as they cooked, & it was beginning to look a bit dry near the end of the cooking time. I just poured a little apple juice over the top & let it cook about another 5 minutes, which allowed the juice to warm up & moisten up the dish while the top got crispy.
Wonderful! I’m so glad to hear everybody loved it so much! Thank you so much for the feedback, I truly appreciate it 🙂
So I’m a little late to the party for this recipe but better late than never! This was fantastic! So easy and so much better tasting than anything else I ever made, even those with sugar and butter! Today my husband was talking to his daughter and told her what a delicious dessert I had made and asked me to email her the recipe! Thanks!
can you substitute coconut sugar for the raw sugar. I only have coconut sugar on hand and I want to make it today.
We love any kind of crisps.
Thanks, it sounds so good.
Hi Jande! Yes I think coconut sugar should work fine. Less of a crispy topping but the taste should still be delicious. Come back and let me know how it turned out. Thank you!
Looks delish! I don’t have almond flour… What can I use instead? Thank you! ????
Hi Sheri! You can just grind up some almonds yourself in a food processor into a flour. It won’t be as fine as the commercial kind, but since it’s just for the topping, it will be fine. Just make sure to measure the correct amount after processing. It should grind up into a flour in 15 seconds or so, you don’t want to overdo it or will start to turn into a paste/almond butter. Let me know how it turns out!
Could you sub the raw sugar with coconut sugar?
Thanks
Yes! Of course, just give them a good overall sprinkling, so they are sweet enough. Let me know what you think after you make them, thank you!
This was so awesome! I customized a bit since I didn’t have all of the ingredients, but I loved the crumbly top so much! I used walnuts instead of pecans and didn’t have almond butter. It was still delicious, which just proves how amazing you and your recipes are! Even without all of the ingredients, it’s still superb.
Made this for a dessert for a family dinner. It was a hit. Even my brother, who is NOT by any stretch of the imagination, a healthy eater loved it! I didn’t tell him it was a vegan & healthy version of apple crisp;) Looking forward to making the cinnamon “ice cream!”
Yay Sara! So awesome to hear that it was such a hit! Thank you so much for the wonderful review!
Loved it! We have friends with an orchard and we had apples galore to get “rid of”. I came here first because you don’t disappoint! I whipped it up after dinner, the house smelled amazing and it was loved by all, even the curmudgeonly omni grandfather. 🙂
Woohoo, so happy to hear you loved it so much Elyse and that it was loved by all! Thank you!
And too cute about your grandfather, haha!
My whole family loved this, including my 2 toddlers! It was quick and easy to throw together and was absolutely delicious!
So happy to hear that Sara, thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review!
This looks delicious! I’m wondering if anyone has made it in smaller serving sizes, such as a mini loaves. I’m thinking this would be great for a gift basket of yummies! If so, how would you adjust the cooking time/temp? Thanks bunches!
Hi Jen! I’ve never tried it like that. Honestly, not too sure about these being Christmas gifts in a gift basket because crisps need to be eaten fresh out of the oven. Did you mean to ask this on this recipe or perhaps you meant my pumpkin bread?
I’m making a basket of goodies for an anniversary next week & thought this would be a nice addition. I didn’t think about it not being eaten right away though. Maybe I’ll have to reconsider. I will most definitely make this for myself regardless! Thanks!
This was so delicious!! I used cashews instead of pecans, and nondairy butter instead of butter. I took it to a Halloween party and it was a hit!
Yay Christine, so happy to hear that!!
I do not have almond flour, can I substitute oat flour?…or spelt? Would like to try this tonight if possible! 🙂
No, almond flour is high in fat and gives moisture and texture to the topping and crisps up so nicely. Oat or spelt is low-fat and would make the topping very dry. Since the topping doesn’t have oil or butter like traditional crisps, the almond flour is an important ingredient. But, if you don’t have almond flour, that is fine, if you have almonds, you can just grind up the same weight amount (84g) into a flour and use that. Since it’s not being baked into a cake, the diy ground almond flour will work fine here.
Just made this yesterday, another absolute winner! My husband declared it another great desert from you. Also made the walnut butter. He is going to start adding it to his smoothies as suggested. Thanks again!
So happy to hear that Karen, thank you so much for the feedback!!
I made this for our PBNSG (Plant Based Nutrition Support Group) meeting and it was a huge success. I doubled the recipe and baked it in a 9×13 for 50 minutes and the apples were tender and the topping crunchy. I used pecan butter and it was so easy to make. This recipe is a real winner and I’ll definitely be making it again. Thank you!
That is so wonderful to hear Annmarie! SO glad it was a winner, thank you so much for letting me know!
can you sub almond butter?
You can if you like, but the topping will have a much less buttery effect and more dry, as walnut butter is almost the consistency of oil and tastes very buttery. You could just sub it for oil too if you like!
This was so good! I had the oven on cooking Thanksgiving dinner so I put some in for dessert — perfect!!! Thank you!!!! And hope you’re having a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Yay Lisa! So happy you loved it! Thank you so much for the review!
Omg! That’s all I’m gonna say 😂
My only variation was almond butter because I didn’t have walnut or pecan butter.
Ohh my goodness this was delicious!! We used coconut sugar for the sugar. We topped it with banana/date nice cream and it was out of this world. Thank you!!! The perfect fall (or anytime) dessert.
So awesome to hear that!!
Super easy and great use organic apples when they went on sale… ingredients I usually have on hand anyway too… served warm with vegan vanilla ice cream… so delicious!
Hi Brandy,
I was looking for a apple crisp recipe that was healthy & oil free so of course I checked out your site.
I have a bunch of empire apples and was wondering if
they would be sweet enough!
Can’t wait to make it!