There’s nothing like using baked fruit to make paleo desserts during the summer. This gluten-free Apple Blackberry Crisp uses seasonal, fresh, luscious ingredients, and is the perfect warm weather delight. When finished off with a high-protein almond flour topping, baked fruit treats such as this are superfood in the form of dessert.
The boys love apple crisp. It’s one of their favorite desserts and I make it often. When I make dessert for friends on a nut-free diet, I use one of the incredible recipes from Paleo Cooking from Elana’s Pantry. It’s so hard to find good paleo recipes that are nut-free. So, when I wrote that book I created a bunch of easy recipes for those of you with nut allergies. Did you know that more two-thirds of the recipes in that book are nut-free?! If you can’t afford to buy the book, check out my Nut-Free Recipes page.
This low-carb Apple Blackberry Crisp is made with only 2 tablespoons of sweetener. That’s far less than most baked fruit dessert recipes which typically call for high-carb wheat flour and a cup or so of sugar. Still, if you’re going on a very low-carb diet (VLCD) you’ll want to check out my Keto Brownies recipe and my Keto Diet page.
Apple Blackberry Crisp
Ingredients
- 5 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (Gala, Braeburn or Honeycrisp)
- 1 pint fresh blackberries
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
- 1 cup blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil or palm shortening
- 2 tablespoons agave nectar, honey, or maple syrup
Instructions
- In a large bowl, toss together apples, blackberries, lemon juice, vanilla, and arrowroot
- Transfer mixture to an 8 x 8 inch baking dish
- To make topping, in a food processor, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, oil, and maple syrup
- Crumble topping over apple-blackberry mixture
- Cover with tin foil and bake at 350°F for 60 to 70 minutes until fruit is juicy and bubbling
- Uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes to brown topping
- Serve
Here are some more easy gluten-free baked fruit dessert recipes for you!
This post is an oldie but goodie from the archives. I first published this recipe in 2011.
Florence says
LOVE THIS RECIPE!! I’ve been a subscriber for years and never made this. Shame on me. . Omitted the blackberries. Used 4 Honeycrisp apples. Mixed the topping in the same bowl I tossed the apples in. Didn’t want to dirty another dish. Love that it is dairy free, and egg free. Was a bit nervous because it didn’t have any spices. Used avocado oil. Delicious, next time I will double the recipe. Thank you for creating.
Elana says
Florence, thanks for letting me know you LOVE THIS RECIPE! We do too :-)
Leslie says
HI Elana. Would this work with blueberries instead of blackberries? Since blueberries are sweeter, am thinking I could cut sugar in the topping by half?
Elana says
Leslie, I haven’t tried that so not sure :-)
Heather says
Thank you so much for this! I’ve made it and shared the recipe more times than I can count :) I use coconut oil because that’s what I had originally on hand and the flavor is so good, and I double the topping now because my friends and family looove the crunchies on top! I really appreciate you!
Elana says
Heather, thanks for your awesome comment! So glad to hear your family and friends love this recipe :-)
Kristi K Payne says
How much coconut oil did you use
jill johnson says
Do you think this would work with 2 pints of blackberries and no apples? Love your recipes!
Elana says
Jill, I haven’t tried that so not sure. If you experiment I hope you’ll let me know if it works :-)
Karina says
I made this Apple Blackberry crisp today for the first time and it was super yummy!!! Thank you very much for sharing the recipe. Looking forward to trying out more of your recipes.
Elana says
Karina, you’re welcome! I’m so happy to hear this was super yummy :-)
LaVada Triesch says
Arrowroot powder is not legal with the SCDiet….is there a substitute, or can you eliminate it?
Thanks!
Elana says
LaVada, thanks for your comment. Yes, arrowroot powder is not SCD compliant. Here’s a link to my SCD recipes page for you:
https://elanaspantry.com/special-diets/scd-dessert/
I hope you find something you like there!
Elana
PAC says
This is the second time I’ve made this yummy dish, but both times I’ve processed the topping a little too long and the topping ends up more like dough and hard to spread over the fruit. Next time I’ll pulse just a few times and see how that works.
Elana says
PAC, that is a great idea. Thanks for letting me know this crisp was yummy!
Dolores Beccar says
I had the same problem… and never got crunchy… :(
but I´ll try again…
Elana says
Dolores, this hasn’t ever been super crunchy for me either :-)
joan says
Hi,
I just make this crisp, and my apples didn’t cook. I followed the recipe and cooked it even longer. The crisp part was very good, but my apples were hard. i must have had a witch in the kitchen.
I will try again and precook the apples, I think that would help. What do you think?
Elana says
Joan, thanks for your adorable comment! This can happen when the apples are not sliced thinly enough. When you try again slice the apples a bit thinner and they will cook right through without pre-baking them. Thanks for letting me know this was very good :-)
Chaya says
I recently found your cookbook in the library when I went on the candida diet and was looking for recipes. Your recipes are all AMAZING!!! I have yet to find one that hasn’t come out good. The idea of using almond flour in baked goods is genius – you need much less if any sugar to make things taste good. By the way, I made your crisp using your pie crust recipe sprinkled on the top for the crisp so that it doesn’t have any sugar in it at all and I don’t miss it at all. Just want to let you know that I am a real fan.
Elana says
Chaya, I’m so happy to hear you are enjoying my book. Have you seen my Candida Recipes page?
https://elanaspantry.com/diets/candida/
I hope it’s helpful to you!
Elana
patricia says
This is one of my favorite desserts. Thanks for your recipe.
Elana says
You’re welcome Patricia! I’m so glad it is a favorite :-)
Rosemary says
Hi Elana, could I use ground almonds, almond flour is so expensive? Thanks for your nice recipes
Elana says
Rosemary, you’re welcome. Here’s some information on the products that work best in my recipes:
https://elanaspantry.com/ingredients/almond-flour/
Enjoy!
Elana