How To Substitute Flour In A Gluten-Free Apple Crisp

Don't listen to the naysayers and ne'er-do-wells, there are excellent alternatives to wheat flour that you can use when making gluten-free baked goods, including apple crisps. For people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, there's no reason to sacrifice dessert when there's a better option. Using almond meal, oatmeal, and a varied selection of baking apples (like Granny Smiths, Fujis, and Golden Delicious), you can create a crisp that's so good, even your gluten-full friends won't be able to tell the difference.

Almond meal, which is made from ground, unpeeled almonds, has a coarse texture and nutty flavor — which are two important characteristics for a crunchy apple crisp topping. Though almond meal and its finer-textured counterpart, almond flour (made from ground blanched and peeled almonds), have a higher moisture content and less binding power than wheat flour, these characteristics won't affect the results when making the perfect, gluten-free apple crisp. Both almond meal and almond flour can be readily found at the grocery store, but you can also make them yourself using a coffee grinder or food processor and sliced or slivered almonds. Just be careful not to grind them too much or you'll end up with almond butter.

Quite a few of the best baked goods can be made gluten-free by simply swapping almond meal (or almond flour) for wheat flour using a 1-to-1 ratio. In the case of apple crisp, this works remarkably well for several reasons. It's not bread, so you don't have to focus on the gluten or the rising. Additionally, in a crisp (or a crumble) the aim is to create a crunchy, or crumbly, buttery topping; it's a job easily accomplished with almond meal.

To make gluten-free apple crisp, simply use your favorite recipe and swap out the flour for almond meal. To seal the deal on your gluten-free crisp, add a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch (instead of wheat flour) to the apple mixture to thicken the juice. From there, all you have to do is bake, serve with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, and you're ready to dive in to a sweet, gluten-free treat.