Gluten-free Caramel Apple Crumble

Imagine a juicy cinnamon-caramel sauce mixed with tangy diced apple topped with a fluffy and light gluten-free crumble topping. Do you want to know the secret to make perfectly even crumbles? Grate the dough with a large hole cheese grater. It will be perfect.

Do you like crisps, crumbles and pies? Check out our Juicy Caramel Apple Crisp Pie or our tangy and sweet Gluten-free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, or our almond Gluten-free Blueberry Crisp, or our cinnamon-y Gluten-free Plum Crumble recipes. One of the most delicious Gluten-free Blueberry Pie I ever made is a tangy lemon crumble topping.

What to expect from this recipe?

In short, our juicy apple crisp pie meets with our perfect crumble topping. We made this caramel apple filling using coconut sugar in our Juicy Caramel Apple Crisp Pie. You will have cinnamon-y apple slices in a smooth caramel sauce, which is just heavenly.

And about the crumble topping. Have you heard about grating to the dough instead of crumbling it with your fingers? My mom used to make this grated chocolate short bread crumble bars with a sweet lemony cottage cheese filling. Which is one of my favorite desserts ever. If I figure out how to make delicious vegan cottage cheese, I promise to upload her recipe. It was super simple and everything was so even and nice. I love one every bite tastes the same.

How to make a caramel apple filling?

1. Wash, peel, core and slice the apples. For a fast finish, I use my handy easy-to-use apple corer* that also cuts the apple into 8. Then I just diced the parts evenly.
2. Take a large saucepan or in this case I used our UnoCasa cast-iron skillet* and pre-heat over medium heat. (see below picture for both)
3. Add the diced apples, lemon juice, coconut sugar, cinnamon, and molasses. Stir until combined. Cook it over medium heat for 5 minutes.
4. When apples are cooked but not mushy, take a small bowl and mix corn starch with water.
5. Add the mixture to the cooked apples and mix rigorously. Try to scoot the apple slices over, so the starch mix hits the liquid part immediately. It will thicken within a minute!

Important tip: Don’t add the starch directly (aka without dissolving in water in advance) to the cooked apple filling as you will get lumps!

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How to make a perfectly even crumble topping?

First step is to make the dough for the crumble in the food processor.

1. Measure up all ingredients: buckwheat flour, rice flour (white or brown), tapioca starch, dairy-free butter (cold, not room temperature), cold water, and cane sugar.
2. Take your food processor and add all the above ingredients (pictured below).
3. Mix and pulse until you get the dough together.

The next step is to GRATE THE DOUGH! – Oh yes, it makes such a difference. This method results in a fluffy, light and EVEN crumble topping. How to do it you ask? Follow these steps or watch it in our short video:

1. Form a ball or rather a brick from the dough and wrap it tight in a cling foil or saran wrap.
2. Place it in the freezer (quick freeze compartment) for 15-30 minutes. If you have a long thin shape, then the dough freezes faster compared to a ball.
3. Use a large hole cheese grater and grate the dough on the caramel apple slices.
4. Place it in a pre-heated oven immediately.

Baking the gluten-free apple crumble

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
2. Cook the caramel apple filling in a skillet or in saucepan. If you use a saucepan transfer the cooked apples to an oven-safe dish. If you use the skillet, proceed with that.
3. Take the gluten-free crumble dough out of the freezer when the filling is ready and grate it on top of it. Gently spread it if needed, don’t pat it down.
4. Place your complete apple crumble in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. It is ready, when the crumble is crunchy and light brown. Gluten-free flours get golden or dark brown really slowly. Usually when they do, you are too far gone. The crumble will be too dry and hard.
5. Serve it with a scoop of ice cream or two. Absolutely delicious!

FAQs and substitutions

Can I freeze the dough overnight?

You can prepare the crumble dough in advance. If you want to leave it in the freezer overnight or longer, then thaw it a bit on the kitchen counter before grating. Otherwise, it will be too hard to grate.

Can you make it with other fruits?

Absolutely. Which one is your favorite? This cinnamon caramel sauce goes great with pears, peaches and other stone fruits. We have a Gluten-free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, a Gluten-free Blueberry Crisp, and a Gluten-free Plum Crumble with different crumble toppings, but all of them can be made with this crumble recipe.

How long does it last?

Keep it in the fridge not more than 4-5 days. It is the best tasting the next day when the pie is chilled and all the ingredients are bound and come together.

This Caramel Apple Crumble recipe is vegan, so dairy-free and egg-free. It is also suitable for vegetarian, and gluten-free diets. It can also be WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) if you use nut or seed butter instead of dairy-free butter.

More vegan gluten-free dessert recipes

You can browse through our Vegan Gluten-free Dessert Recipes or check out

• Vegan Gluten-free Chocolate Cake
• Vegan Gluten-free Fudge Brownies
• Vegan Gluten-free Sweet Potato Brownies
• Vegan Tapioca Pudding
• Vegan Panna Cotta