Healthy Peach Crisp (Gluten Free)
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An easy Peach Crisp Recipe that is healthy and delicious. The best gluten free peach crisp that’s perfect for a simple dessert.
There are few things I love more than a fruit crisp for an easy summer dessert – Sweet, juicy peaches and a crispy warm oat topping are seriously a match made in heaven!
This peach crisp is gluten free (thanks to the old fashioned oats), dairy free, and refined sugar free (only a tablespoon of maple syrup).
Peel and slice peaches, mix a quick crisp topping, and bake. This recipe takes no more than 10 minutes of prep time and is done in under an hour, start to finish!
Wondering how this differs from a peach cobbler? A crisp typically uses oats as the base mixture (and in this case, chopped pecans for extra crunch, healthy fats, and flavor), while a cobbler typically has a crumbly biscuit like layer on top that is usually rolled out.
liz’s tips for the best peach crisp
- You can tell if a peach is ripe by feeling it. Peaches should be slightly soft to the touch. Peaches should not be mushy. They should be slightly less firm than an apple when ripe.
- If your peach crisp is soggy, you may have added too much liquid, or it could be underbaked. You can bake with a loosely placed foil cover on (to prevent the top from burning) to get the liquid out.
Healthy Peach Crisp Ingredients:
Substitutions
Peaches – Freestone peaches are the best type of peach for baking because they’re easiest to peel/slice. Any peach will work in this recipe and will be delicious! It’s ok if your peaches are a little soft or bruised – it won’t matter! If you have a lot of peaches, try baked peaches.
Gluten Free – Use certified gluten free oats to make this gluten free.
Nut Free – To make this nut free you can omit the pecans. If you’d like to add in some crunch you could sub in sunflower seeds.
Butter – You can sub butter with coconut oil with olive oil or avocado oil. You can also use dairy free or vegan butter.
Spices – You can omit the nutmeg, ground ginger, or cinnamon from this recipe if you prefer. It will not be as flavorful. Read our post Is Thrive Market Worth It to find out why we love them for spices!
Berries – This recipe will work with other fruit like cherries, raspberries, strawberries, or even a frozen berry mix! You can also check out this Gluten-free Strawberry Crisp or Healthy Blueberry Crisp.
Fresh Fruit – You can make this recipe with fresh peaches or frozen peaches. It may take a few less minutes to cook!
Canned Fruit – We don’t recommend using canned fruit for baking because it’s so high in sugar, so opting for fresh or frozen peaches is a much healthier option, but I do think it would work in this recipe. If you are using canned peaches, you might want to cut the cook time by about 5-10 minutes since they are typically softer.
Fruit – You can use pretty much any fruit in this recipe. We also have a Healthy Apple Crisp that is delicious!
Maple Syrup – You can sub maple syrup with honey
How to Make Peach Crisp with Fresh Peaches
- In a bowl, whisk together oats, pecans, spices, melted butter, and maple syrup until combined.
- Pour peeled, sliced peaches into the bottom of the pan. Layer crisp topping evenly on top of the peaches.
- Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes until the topping is golden brown.
How to Easily Peel Peaches
It’s recommended to take the skin off peaches for peach crisp. The skins can separate when the peach slices cook, and it can lead to an odd texture/eating experience.
However, there really is no easy way to peel peaches. I use a very sharp vegetable peeler.
Some people recommend boiling peaches for 1-2 minutes and blanching in an ice bath to easily peel off the skin with your hands, but I have not found this method to work well.
How to Serve Gluten Free Peach Crisp
The best way to serve gluten free peach crisp is with a scoop of protein ice cream or fresh whipped cream. Peach crisp is also delicious on its own or with a little bit of vanilla yogurt.
Storing Peach Crisp:
Storing: This peach crisp will stay in the fridge for 3-4 days
Freezing: We haven’t tried freezing this recipe, but we don’t think it would freeze well. I’m sure it would taste fine if frozen, but the topping would lose its crisp/would get soggy.
Serving: We recommend serving this peach crisp with protein ice cream or whipped cream. It’s also great with a scoop of vanilla yogurt.
Preparing in advance: You can prepare this recipe 3-4 hours in advance of baking it. Keep it in your refrigerator until you are ready to bake.
Other healthy dessert recipes:
Looking for other easy desserts? Check out these 40+ Healthy Dessert Recipes.
The Best Gluten Free Peach Crisp Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats gluten free if necessary
- ¼ cup pecans chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons melted butter see substitutes in green box above
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 4 cups fresh peaches peeled and sliced in 1 inch segments (about 8 peaches)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and prepare a greased 8×8 baking dish
- In a bowl whisk together oats, pecans, spices, melted butter and maple syrup until combined
- Add sliced peaches to the bottom of the pan. Layer crumble topping evenly on top of peaches
- Cover and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, uncover the crisp and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Just made this dessert and it turned out GREAT! 35 minutes was also perfect for me. I topped it with organic cottage cheese, and YUM! I don’t feel guilty eating it. ☺️
I ended up doing 2 cups of peaches, 1 cup of quinoa (cooked) and 1 cup of oats and I put it in a 13 x 9 and did not cover it for about 25ish mins. And of my goodness this was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something for a light snack or breakfast and it’s perfect. Thank you!!
Do you suppose I could sub butter for applesauce?
No, I don’t think that would work.
Sadly, I was bitterly disappointed in this crisp. The top became soggy oats without flavor. Through no fault of the recipe, the peaches, though ripe, were not sweet. Since it was the dessert for a family outing at the lake, and my baking usually gets compliments, I came home crushed, with nearly the entire dish of crisp….untouched. I’ve added roasted sunflower seeds, and brown sugar to the topping, this morning, and put it in a hot oven to try to crisp it up. It tastes better, but there is nothing crisp about it. I have no clue what happened.
I’m really sorry to hear that you didn’t like this recipe. As you mentioned, it’s not my fault that the peaches weren’t sweet – so that was out of my control. Whenever I make this, the oats have come out crispy and delicious. Did you mix them in with the peaches? They’re just supposed to be on top. My other guess is that since you’re saying you ate this at a lake- this likely sat (I’m guessing for a few hours), outside or in a cooler, absorbing liquid from the peaches or condensation from the air. Crisps and cobblers are typically eaten warm, fresh out of the oven. This isn’t something I would recommend baking and taking along for the day.
Simply delicious!! We topped ours with creamy yogurt! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Can you sub canned peaches?
I haven’t tried that so I’m not sure, sorry!
How many bags of frozen peaches would you recommend to use?
Every bag of frozen peaches is different in weight. Maybe 2 bags? Hard to guess because I don’t know how big the bags you’re buying are
Wonderful, but you need to add a thickener to the peaches.
This is soooo good. My husband and I have been eating this alot since we got a case of peaches….
As far as the juices at the bottom of the pan, I just spoon them out and drizzle it over my overnight oats in the morning.
Bonnie, can u make this??
I really liked it!
Didn’t have 4 cups of peaches, I used 2.5 nectarines and 1.5 mango. didn’t mix them but put them on separate place in the pan.
Both options are delicious! the mango is sweeter, the nectarine sweet-tart.
I will prepare more crisp for next time as it wasn’t enough to cover all of the fruits. perhaps 1.5 cups oats and adjust the rest.
This healthy peach crisp was so good, and easy to put together. With minimal ingredients and quick prep and bake time, we had a delicious summer dessert in no time. Bonus, it was even better the next morning for breakfast!
Can you use frozen sliced peaches instead? And just thaw them before baking?
Thank you!
Yes – we cover this in the green substitutions box! You can make this recipe with fresh peaches or frozen peaches. It may take a few less minutes to cook!
This recipe is fantastic! I reduced the amount of maple syrup and it is still plenty sweet. I’m going to try Apple’s next time!
That’s hilarious! You reduced the 1 Tbsp of maple syrup! Good for you!! Lol!
I’ve been looking for something to satisfy our sweet tooth since my guy was diagnosed with diabetes.
This is perfect for all of us!!
If using frozen peaches, do they need to be thawed prior to making? Or would you add them in frozen?
Thanks
no – you can cook them right from frozen!
It’s almost peach season in CT and I can’t wait to make this!
Would this work with frozen peaches?
Yes, you can cook them right from frozen
We had a lot of peaches from a nearby peach orchard so I made this last night incredibly yummy. Hard to believe it only had 1 T. of sweetener (maple syrup). Plan to make it again to take to a struggling friend. Mighty good.
Only change I might make next time is to mix 1 T corn starch with the peaches so the peach syrup is thicker.
I had to adjust the recipe a bit and added apples with peaches as I didn’t have enough. I also had no pecans but had some hazelnuts in my pantry. I only had quick oats as well. It all turned out super delicious.
Wow! This was seriously sooo simple and easy to make! I got fresh peaches from the farmers market to make this! Everything I did the same except use honey in place of maple syrup as I did not have any. The whole house smelled when baking which was awesome! Can’t wait to make this again! Don’t delay get some peaches and make this healthy dessert!!
So glad you liked it, Cheryl!
This is such an easy and delicious recipe! I topped it with ice cream and used fresh peaches and I was in heaven! if I’m being honest, it was so healthy that I ate it for breakfast the next day too 😀 Thank you so much for this easy and amazing recipe!
So glad you liked it! Thank you so much!!
YUMmers ! Thank you IT IS peach season ! Yippee!
I noticed it’s labeled as vegan. It’s not vegan if it has butter in it. Butter is a dairy product. What could be used instead of butter? And margarine is not an option either.
It says to sub vegan butter if necessary and there are options for substitutions in the green box in the blog post