Allergen Free Apple Crisp

This is one of the recipes I tried from our tour through More with Less. Somehow I never got around to sharing it with you. I dearly love a good fruit crisp and so I was sure to make it allergen free when I made it, so that I could eat it, too.

Fruit crisps are one of the easiest allergen-friendly desserts. Once you figure out a few key ingredients, you can adapt just about any fruit crisp recipe. Most of them call for three allergenic ingredients–flour, oats, and butter. All of which are fairly simple to replace.

For flour, you can substitute any starchy thickener. I’ve used potato starch and tapioca starch and rice flour. All of them work well. You could even use corn starch if you can tolerate corn. I prefer to use the rice flour, since I think the starches impart a kind of “off” flavor to the fruit.

You’ll want to use gluten-free oats in place of regular oats. Oats by themselves don’t contain gluten, but they are usually processed on equipment that’s shared with wheat and other gluten-containing grains. Gluten free oats are processed on equipment dedicated to gluten free products. So if you’re serious about avoiding gluten, buy oats that are specifically labeled “gluten free”.

I adore coconut oil and use it in place of butter in practically every recipe. If you prefer, you can also use any other kind of oil (grapeseed works well) or palm oil shortening (I like this brand by Spectrum)

And voila! You have a delicious dessert worthy of company. But then you’d have to share your yummy apple crisp. And I just don’t know if friendship means sharing my dessert.