To me fruit crisp is the perfect warm weather dessert. I start making crisps as soon as rhubarb makes an appearance in May and continue right through fall with various versions of apple crisps. Right now, though? This is the perfect time to make crisps, when the blueberries are still out and all the peaches and nectarines are at their peak. So let’s dig into a gluten free blueberry peach crisp!
Over the years I have had a few go-to crisp recipes that I’ve loved, and will undoubtedly return to as time goes on. This one, however, is clearly my new favorite. I’ve made it four times in the past few weeks!
Friends coming over for dinner meant I needed a gluten-free dessert to serve them and making a crisp seemed, as usual, a perfect idea. An idea made even more perfect than usual by the fact that crisps are nearly gluten-free to begin with and, as someone who has only just begun experimenting with gluten-free baking, it seemed a sure thing for me to make an excellent crisp with no gluten in sight.
And simple? It doesn’t get easier than this. Wash some blueberries. Slice a few peaches. And whir the topping ingredients in the food processor for a few moments.
The biggest question for me was what would work best in the topping instead of wheat flour. A quick search informed me that the consensus of the internet was almond meal and led me to the Gluten Free Strawberry Nectarine Crisp over at Minimalist Baker.
So I thought why not? I’ll pick almond meal up at the store and try it out. And the internet was right. Almond meal is excellent in crisp topping.
The other thing you may notice about this crisp is that the filling is just fruit, nothing else. I was actually going to use my usual crisp filling, adding sugar and spices to the mix, but I forgot and did it the way it was in the original recipe. And it worked! (Sorry for doubting you.) It was already in the oven when I realized so at that point the only thing to do was to give it a try. And it turns out the sweetness of the topping is enough to flavor the fruit.
However, you can never go wrong by adding some vanilla ice cream to the top of a crisp and an unsweetened crisp makes this almost a requirement since now you have less guilt about all that sugar.
One more thing I love about crisps is that they are just as easy to make in individual portions (with the added benefit of having your very own little container which no one else can touch) as they are in large casserole dishes.
Just keep an eye on the cooking time! A small ramekin is not going to take as long and a very large casserole dish – if you, say, increased the recipe by half or double it, might take more than an hour.
– Happy Baking, Annemarie
Gluten-Free Blueberry Peach Crisp
Ingredients
- 4 medium peaches, each sliced into 8 pieces
- 4 cups blueberries
- 1 cup rolled oats, gluten free old fashioned oats not quick oats
- 1/2 cup almond meal
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- pinch table salt
- 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Add fruit to a 9x13 casserole dish (or equivalent).
- In a food processor, pulse together oats, almond meal, pecans, sugar, and salt a few times. Add the butter and continue pulsing until ingredients are well mixed and finely chopped. Distribute evenly over top of fruit.
- Bake for 50 minutes. Or until topping is browned and fruit is bubbling.
- Serve with vanilla ice cream.
- For individual crisps, use 8-ounce ramekins, adding 1/2 cup blueberries and 1/2 of a peach to each ramekin. Divide topping equally. Reduce cooking time to 40 minutes.
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