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Recipe Type
Crisps & Crumbles Recipes
8 recipes
Curated by Evelina Melnikova
Crisps and crumbles are secretly the best gluten free desserts because they barely need adapting at all. Think about what a crumble topping actually is: butter, sugar, oats, maybe some flour, mixed together and baked until golden and crunchy. Swap the flour for almond meal or a GF blend, use certified GF oats, and you have a topping that is indistinguishable from the original. In fact, I think almond meal crumble toppings taste better than traditional ones.
The beauty of this category is its simplicity and seasonality. In summer, a peach and berry crisp with vanilla ice cream. In fall, an apple crumble with cinnamon and brown butter. In winter, a pear and ginger crisp. Spring brings rhubarb. You are essentially learning one technique and rotating fruits through the year, and it never gets old because the fruit does the heavy lifting.
For the filling, toss your fruit with a little sugar, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a tablespoon of cornstarch or tapioca starch to thicken the juices. That is it. Do not overcomplicate things. The fruit should taste like fruit, not like a jar of pie filling. Let some of it bubble up through the crumble topping during baking for those caramelized, jammy edges that are the best part.
These 8 recipes are the kind of everyday desserts that take 10 minutes to assemble, 30 to 40 minutes to bake, and make the whole house smell incredible. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, yogurt, or just a spoon straight from the baking dish.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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The terms are often used interchangeably, but traditionally a crisp includes oats in the topping for extra crunch, while a crumble uses just flour, butter, and sugar. Both are fruit desserts with a streusel style topping baked until golden. In practice, most recipes combine elements of both.
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Always use oats labeled "certified gluten free" or "purity protocol." Regular oats are almost always cross contaminated with wheat during growing or processing. Bob's Red Mill GF rolled oats and GF Harvest oats are widely available and safe for people with celiac disease.
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Yes. Mix the topping and store it in the fridge for up to a week or the freezer for up to 3 months. When you are ready to bake, toss fruit in a dish, sprinkle the topping straight from the fridge or freezer, and bake. This makes it possible to have a hot fruit dessert ready in 30 minutes on a weeknight.
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Make sure the butter pieces are cold and distinct in the topping mixture, not melted in. Bake on the upper middle rack where the top heat crisps the topping before the fruit juices can soak through. If the fruit is very juicy, toss it with an extra tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken the juices during baking.
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Apples, pears, berries (any kind), peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, and rhubarb all make excellent crisps. Mix fruits together for more complex flavors. Apple and blackberry, peach and raspberry, strawberry and rhubarb are classic combinations. Firmer fruits like apples and pears hold their shape better during baking.
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It depends on the fruit and your preference. Apples and pears benefit from peeling because the skin can be tough after baking. Peaches can go either way. Berries are used whole. Stone fruits like plums and nectarines taste great with the skin on and the color is prettier.
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