Description
Healthy Apple Pie Crumble bars with a delicious oatmeal cookie crust and apple filling. These bars are made with a combination of almond flour and oats so they are naturally gluten-free. They are so easy to make and the perfect treat that everyone will love!
Ingredients
Scale
For the Crust and Topping
- 1 1/2 cups gluten-free rolled oats
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, diced
For the Apple Filling
- 3 1/2 cups thinly sliced apples (roughly 3–4 small to medium pink lady or Granny Smith apples)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- juice of one lemon
- 2 teaspoons arrowroot or cornstarch
Icing Drizzle:
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon almond milk
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the oats, almond flour, brown sugar, and butter almond flour to a mixing bowl. Use your hands to work the butter into the flour, sugar, and oats until it is well combined and forms a dough like consistency.
- Press 2/3 of the crust mixture into a 8×8 pan lined with parchment paper. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, remove from the oven, and set aside.
- In a medium saucepan combine the sliced apples, maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and cardamom over medium-high heat. Cook the apples for 7-9 minutes until they start to become tender.
- Once the apples are tender, remove them from the heat. Whisk together the lemon juice and cornstarch to make a slurry and then pour that mixture into the apples. Stir until the apple filling has thickened.
- Pour the apple filling over the crust and then use a spatula to spread it out evenly. Sprinkle the remaining topping evenly over the filling.
- Let the bars bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the fruit is bubbly around the edges and the top is golden brown.
- While the bars are baking make the icing drizzle my whisking together the almond milk and powdered sugar until smooth.
- Let the bars come to a complete cool. Slice into 16 squares and then drizzle the icing over the bars. Enjoy!
Notes
- almond flour – if you have a nut allergy, feel free to use all-purpose flour or a gluten free all-purpose flour instead. Coconut flour is too drying and will not work as a 1-to-1 substitute flour the almond flour in this recipe.
- brown sugar – you can easily substitute brown sugar for coconut palm sugar in this recipe. I would not recommend using a liquid sweetener in place of brown sugar in this recipe.
- butter – to keep the bars dairy free, feel free to use coconut oil instead of butter if you like. It will add a bit of a coconut flavor to the bars. Just make sure that the coconut oil is solid and not melted before using. If you have a favorite vegan butter substitute you can feel free to use that instead of traditional butter if you prefer.
- arrowroot starch – I love to use arrowroot starch as a grain free replacement for cornstarch in several recipes. If you don’t have any you can simply substitute corn starch in its place. Tapioca flour will also likely work.
