This gluten free blueberry crisp is easy to make, healthy and the perfect dessert for summer! With an oat based crumble topping, perfectly sweet blueberry filling and delicious served with vanilla ice cream on top.
Why you’ll love this recipe
This gluten free blueberry crisp is one of my all time favorite summer dessert recipes. Okok my peach crisp is up there too! It’s fresh (even if you use frozen berries!), incredibly easy to make and made with simple, healthy ingredients.
It has hints of lemon from the filling, and is finished off with an oat based cinnamon crumble. I always serve mine with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, but it’s great just as is!
You can make it thick and jammy or super juicy, really sweet or kind of tart, just depends on your personal preference!
However you like it, this is truly the best blueberry crisp that’s healthy, vegan and perfect for an easy summer dessert. Try my lemon blueberry muffins next!
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
Blueberries. With this gluten free blueberry crisp, you can use fresh or frozen blueberries.
I love wild blueberries, which you can usually only find fresh in the summer, so I usually opt for frozen if I want to go the wild berry route. Just be sure to use a bit more starch in the filling if using frozen berries.
Oats. I like using half rolled oats and half quick oats, though you can use all of one or the other if that’s all you have on hand. I don’t recommend making this recipe without oats as it’s the star ingredient in the crumble!
Almond Flour. Just a little bit of almond flour in the topping to help absorb some of the other ingredients and give it a nice nutty yet buttery flavor.
You can sub oat flour if you have an allergy. Or, if you want to make this without flour, just add an extra 1/4 cup of quick oats!
Maple Syrup. We’ll use maple syrup with the blueberry filling to sweeten it up. You can sub for honey, brown sugar or any granulated sweetener.
Coconut Sugar. We’ll be using coconut sugar in the blueberry crisp topping, but you can really use any granulated sugar here! I don’t recommend a liquid sweetener as this will change the other ingredient proportions.
Tapioca Starch. The tapioca is used in the blueberry filling to help it thicken while it bakes and when it cools. You can safely sub for arrowroot or corn starch.
How to make blueberry crisp
Make crumble topping. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for the crumble together and mix until well combined. Set aside.
Make filling. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together all ingredients for the filling. Transfer to a 9 inch cast iron pan or baking dish.
Assemble. Sprinkle on the crumble topping. It will seem like a lot at this point, but use it all! A lot of it gets absorbed into the blueberries while baking, especially if you use frozen blueberries.
Bake. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the blueberries are nice and bubbly and the topping is golden brown.
Serve. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes (it will thicken mostly as it cools), then serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
How to store and freeze
Once prepared, this blueberry crisp will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
You can definitely make this blueberry crisp in advance! You can either bake it completely and store the crisp in the fridge for a few days or make everything and store the filling and topping separately. When you’re ready to serve, assemble, then bake as usual!
You can also freeze this blueberry crisp! Once cooked, just transfer it to a freezer safe container and seal tightly, or cover the dish you baked it in in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 1 month. Reheat in the oven at 350 for about 10-15 minutes or until warm.
Once it baked, I do recommend keeping this blueberry crisp stored in the fridge! It will stay fresh for a bit longer this way.
Blueberry crisp vs. crumble
A berry crumble and crisp are very similar, but a crumble is simply a crisp without oats in the topping. It will use more of a streusel topping made of butter, sugar and flour.
Why is it watery?
A common complaint with a gluten free blueberry crisp, or any kind of crisp, is that is turned out watery.
The berries are going to release liquid when they bake, especially if you use frozen ones, so if you don’t use enough starch or flour in the filling, that excess liquid won’t be properly absorbed and you can end up with a watery crisp.
The filling will thicken mostly as the crisp is cooling, so if you notice it is watery right when it comes out of the oven, just let it cool for a bit before serving.
If you like a really thick filling, you can use up to 1/4 cup of starch to prevent a soupy consistency.
More summer desserts to try!
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Healthy Gluten Free Blueberry Crisp
by: claire cary
Ingredients
Filling
- 5 cups blueberries fresh or frozen
- ¼ cup honey can sub maple syrup
- 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 ½ tablespoons tapioca starch
Topping
- ½ cup quick oats
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup almond flour
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil or butter
- ⅓ cup coconut or brown sugar
- ½ cup sliced almonds or other nut
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for the crumble together and mix until well combined. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together all ingredients for the filling.
- Transfer to a 9 inch cast iron pan or baking dish.
- Sprinkle on the crumble topping. It will seem like a lot at this point, but use it all! A lot of it gets absorbed into the blueberries while baking, especially if you use frozen blueberries.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the blueberries are nice and bubbly and the topping is golden brown. If using frozen berries, bake time will be 50-60 minutes.
- Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes (it will thicken mostly as it cools), then serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Kaela says
This looks amazing. I am allergic to oats. What would you recommend I use in place of that for the topping ?
Claire Cary says
I think your best bet would be to sub for about 1/2-3/4 cup gluten free all purpose flour. You might need a little more, but start with that and add more as needed. The consistency shouldn’t be dry, just a bit crumbly with larger chunks. Hope that helps!
Kaela says
Thank you! I did that and added a little bit of coconut flour and it turned out perfectly! With other recipes the blueberry inside is always soupy, this was perfect. Thank you!
Claire Cary says
Oh perfect! Good to know the coconut flour worked!