Gluten Free Sweet Cherry Crumble
Not only is this Sweet Cherry Crumble gluten free but it also contains no refined sugar. Talk about a guilt free way to treat yourself to some yummy dessert!
To continue with my cherry obsession of the late, I have another dessert recipe for you, and a crazy delicious (yet completely guilt-free) one, at that! Indeed, not only is this Sweet Cherry Crumble gluten free but it also contains no refined sugar whatsoever.
The only sweetener that I used in this entire dessert a mere half cup of pure maple syrup. Divide that between 8 people, you’re looking at just a meager tablespoon of syrup per person. And to be honest, that half cup of syrup could be reduced significantly, too, as this cherry crumble truly is on the sweet side. I say a quarter of a cup should amply do the trick.
How about the crumble topping, you may ask. Wasn’t sugar added to that? Nope, is what I would answer. All I used were rolled oats, almonds, coconut flour, tapioca flour and coconut oil. Oh, and a little bit of salt and cinnamon. Not a single grain of sugar was added to that mixture.
Whoa! Talk about a great way to treat yourself to some delightful, summery dessert, without having to feel guilty in the least!
I have to admit that I even had some of that beauty for breakfast a couple of times this past week. It’s not exactly what I would call the optimal way to start the day, but seeing as how my tummy is still being difficult and cherries would be one of those things that he just can’t refuse, I say it was fair game. Still much better than a bowl of boxed cereal!
What’s that you say? You’d like to whip one up too, like right now? Well, I don’t blame you one bit…
I’m totally ready to get going. Are you?
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Then, start by making the crumble: in the bowl of your food processor, combine the sliced almonds, rolled oats, almond flour, tapioca starch, coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar. Pulse that a few times until evenly combined.
Add the chilled coconut oil…
Be sure that your coconut oil is chilled, as this is what will cause your mixture to clump up into all kinds of delicious clusters of goodness.
Pulse the coconut oil in, until the mixture is well combined but still fairly crumbly. Set aside.
Now on to the cherry filling: in a separate bowl combine the tapioca starch, ground cinnamon and salt and mix well. Place the pitted cherries in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the tapioca mixture all over them.
Toss the cherries around until they are completely covered in the starch mixture.
Transfer the coated cherries to a 9″ square baking dish and pour the maple syrup and vanilla extract over them.
Like I said earlier, I used a half cup of maple syrup in this recipe, but you could very well cut that down to 1/4 cup if you wanted to keep the sweetness level / sugar content on the really low side…
Dump the crumble mixture over the cherries and distribute it evenly across the top with your fingers.
Bake for 50 to 55 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling around the edges.
Remove the crumble from the oven and allow it to cool for at least 1 hour before serving.
Unless you’re too impatient and enjoy burning your tongue on hot fruit, that is… but I suppose if you were REALLY impatient, you could get away with 30 minutes, without burning yourself.
Any potential leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week but due to the very firm texture of coconut oil when it’s chilled, this crumble is best served slightly warm. As such, I strongly suggest that you reheat it for a few seconds in the microwave before splurging.
Gluten Free Sweet Cherry Crumble
Ingredients
FOR THE CRUMBLE
- 1 cup sliced raw almonds
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca starch
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt, I use Himalayan salt
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 3/4 cup coconut oil, chilled
FOR THE CHERRY FILLING
- 6 cups pitted sweet cherries
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract, (storebought or homemade)
- 3 tbsp tapioca starch
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F
- Start by making the crumble: in the bowl of your food processor, combine the sliced almonds, rolled oats, almond flour, tapioca starch, coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar. Pulse a few times until evenly combined.
- Add the chilled coconut oil and pulse a few more times until the mixture is well combined but still crumbly. Set aside.
- Now make the cherry filling: in a separate bowl combine the starch, ground cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Place the pitted cherries in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the tapioca mixture over them. Toss to completely coat the cherries.
- Transfer to a 9" square baking dish and pour in the maple syrup and vanilla extract.
- Dump the crumble mixture over the cherries and distribute it evenly across the top with your fingers.
- Bake for 50 to 55 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 1 hour before serving.
- Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week but are best served warm; reheat for a few seconds in the microwave.
Nutrition
If you’ve tried this recipe, please take a minute to rate the recipe and let me know how things went for you in the comments below. It’s always such a pleasure to hear from you!
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12 Comments on “Gluten Free Sweet Cherry Crumble”
YUM! Love good cherries!
Are you aware that your site has been so overtaken by advertising that it’s impossible to navigate around. You have some interesting food articles but its impossible to read anything. Now one of the most horrible food blogging sites around!
What do you mean impossible to navigate around, Berti? I don’t think that my blog has more ads than most of the other food blogs out there…
I’d like to apologise firstly as I was so frustrated trying to scroll through one of your posts and the last thing I should have done was make a comment when I felt that way. I had great trouble yesterday and on previous occasions when your page gets stuck and I can’t scroll (it tells me there’s a long running script happening) then my computer says “not responding” so I have to leave your page then try again only to have the same thing happen. Sorry for any offence but it can be very frustrating.
Don’t sweat it, Berti, it’s all good. I’d be interested in knowing exactly what error message you are getting, though. And what browser are you using? Also, did you try more than one browser and are you getting the same result with each one of them? Did you try clearing your cache? The Internet can be a real tricky thing and sometimes we are experiencing troubles on a page that aren’t really related to the actual website we are visiting…
Nevertheless, I like my readers to get the best possible experience when they visit this place, so I’d like to investigate this issue further. I wish I didn’t have to run ads at all, but then I wouldn’t have any money to buy food… 😉
I don’t mind the ads on the side, but the ones inserted into the body of the blog are irritating. I read other blogs that don’t have these, tho I suppose it could be my settings. Just wanted to agree with Berti.
This crumble sounds terrific to use with peaches! My sis brings them from the farm- so juicy and fresh! Thanks for the idea.
I totally hear you, Susan, and I wish there could be no ads at all on the site… they irritate the heck out of me, too! Unfortunately, there are bills to be paid, you know. Not all blogs have the ads inserted in the body of the posts, it’s not a question of settings. Perhaps they get more traffic or don’t have as many bills to pay, so they don’t need to run as many ads…
And I totally agree with you re: peaches. They should be in season any day now, guess I’ll have to give it a shot!
Thanks for your feedback, I sincerely appreciate it.
Would this recipe work with frozen cherries? I would love to try this for the holidays.
Absolutely, Tami!
Can I use cherry pie filling in place of the fresh cherries? Would I use l or 2 cans?
This recipe worked well, and was a big hit. We commonly will make cherry pies, but yesterday’s occasion involved a neighbor and good friend who is gluten sensitive. We made it with frozen sour cherries from our own garden, roughly a kilogram. That posed two procedural problems: first, how much more sweetening would be needed when sour cherries are used rather than sweet cherries; second, should the thickening for the cherry mixture be increased in response to the larger amount of free water in frozen and thawed tart cherries? In response to the first concern, I added 1/3 cup of raw brown sugar. In response to the second concern, I added 1-1/2 tablespoons of additional tapioca starch. These guesses turned out to be on target, in that the finished product was not overly sweet, but was also not tart enough to lessen the enthusiasm of the children who were present at the meal! The texture was that of a soft pie filling, holding together well enough for serving but not being stiff.. we will definitely add this to our repertoire for next season’s crop.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience, Dale, and for the awesome feedback! Real happy to hear you had such great success with the recipe! 🙂