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From the warmly spiced apple filling to the crisp and buttery topping, this Vegan Apple Crumble is a fall dessert you’ll dream about. Easy to make in about 1 hour! Vegan, Gluten-Free Option.
This Vegan Apple Crumble Recipe is an easy dessert that has the best of fall in every bite: a sweet, tart, and warmly spiced apple filling and a soft, melt-in-your-mouth crumb topping. I highly recommend serving it while it’s still warm with a big ‘ol scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream on top!
Table of Contents
All About This Crowd-Pleasing Fall Dessert
I look forward to vegan apple desserts every fall, but this Easy Vegan Apple Crumble has to be one of my favorites. Just like my Pumpkin Apple Muffins and my Vegan Apple Cake, it’s loaded with juicy apples and infused with lots of cinnamon for those perfect cozy fall vibes. Just don’t forget the scoops of vegan ice cream on top… It’s one of the best parts!
What I love most about this fruit crumble is that I only need to spend 15 minutes putting it together. From the buttery crumb topping to the cinnamon-y apple filling, preparing and assembling the two layers is a breeze! Plus, I can serve it on a chilly Sunday evening or after Thanksgiving dinner, and everyone will be happy no matter what. Trust me, this one is a serious crowd-pleaser.
Ingredients for Vegan Apple Crumble
This classic fall dessert uses a lot of the same ingredients as my Vegan Apple Crumb Pie, but skips the fuss of making a vegan pie crust. It’s still rich with buttery, cozy flavors and easy to make using 10 simple ingredients:
- Apples: if you want to make the best apple crumble, then you need a blend of sweet, tart, and firm apples. Make sure you peel the apples, too. Apple skins don’t melt into the filling and will leave stringy pieces behind, messing with the soft and cozy textures.
- Butter: opt for dairy-free salted butter. If all you have is unsalted butter, add an extra pinch of kosher salt to the vegan crumble topping.
- Sugar: brown sugar has a rich molasses flavor that complements the sweet and tart apples so well. You need it both for the topping and for coating the apples, so make sure you have enough!
- Flour: all-purpose flour serves two purposes: it’s the base of the crisp topping and coats the apple slices to soak up any excess moisture (because no one likes a soggy crumble).
- Ground Spices: the fruit filling gets its comforting and aromatic flavors from a blend of ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom.
How to Make Vegan Apple Crumble
- Mix the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves. Add the flour and mix until a crumbly mixture forms.
- Stir the apples, flour, sugar, spices, vanilla, lemon juice, and salt together in a prepared cast iron skillet. Spread the crumble evenly over the fruit.
- Bake the apple crumble until the fruit is bubbly and the crumble has browned. Set it aside to cool.
- Serve the warm apple crumble with vanilla ice cream on top. Enjoy!
Caitlin’s Cooking Tips
- The variety of apples you use makes a difference! You can make an apple crumble with pretty much any variety of apples you like, BUT I do recommend a mix of sweet and tart varieties, like Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples. The firm, crunchy textures and layers of sweet and sour flavors will be better balanced this way. Read more about the best apples for baking.
- If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, you can make the crumble in a 9×13” baking dish instead. If you opt for a dish that’s smaller, know that the fruit filling layer will be significantly thicker and may not bake through during the allotted bake time.
Serving Suggestions
Any fruit crisp or crumble recipe is best served immediately after coming out of the oven. The warm fruit will be nice and gooey, the topping will be crisp, and your kitchen will be enveloped with irresistible cinnamon flavors. Yum!
Just like my Apple Blueberry Crisp, I can’t resist topping this dessert with a few scoops of vegan vanilla ice cream. You can even add a dollop of vegan whipped cream, your favorite drippy nut butter, or a generous drizzle of Vegan Caramel Sauce to take it over the top.
If you’re looking for more vegan dessert recipes for fall, you’ll also love these Vegan Apple Turnovers, these Vegan Pecan Sandies, and this Salted Caramel Apple Tart!
How to Store Vegan Apple Crumble
The leftover crumble will keep for up to 5 days in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer. Once cooled to room temperature, transfer the leftovers to an airtight container to keep them fresh and flavorful.
If you’d like to make the apple crumble ahead of time, you can assemble the apple filling in the cast iron skillet, then cover the skillet and refrigerate it overnight. Sprinkle the crumble on top right before baking.
When it’s time to eat, reheat as much crumble as you plan on eating in the microwave or oven. Remember to thaw the frozen leftovers overnight before reheating.
Substitutions and Variations
- Gluten-Free Option: For a vegan and gluten-free apple crumble, use a gluten-free flour blend in the crumble topping. Use an equal amount of cornstarch or arrowroot powder in the fruit filling instead of gluten-free flour (it absorbs moisture better than flour).
- Brown Sugar Substitute: Replace the brown sugar with coconut sugar for a refined sugar-free crumble.
- Butter Substitute: Melted coconut oil or another neutral-flavored oil will work in place of butter here.
- Optional Fruit Add-Ins: Replace 1 to 2 cups of chopped apples with diced pears, berries (blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, etc.), or chopped rhubarb.
- For an Extra Crunchy Topping: Fold up to 1/2 cup of chopped nuts (pecans, almonds, etc.) or rolled oats (regular or gluten-free) into the crumble mixture for a hearty crunch.
Recipe FAQs
I have only tested this recipe with fresh apples, but readers have tried it with frozen apples and had great results. Let me know if you try it!
A fruit crisp is traditionally topped with a crumbly topping made from flour, oats, butter, nuts, and sugar. A crumble is very similar, but the topping is made with a softer streusel (no oats or nuts!).
I have not tested an oil-free version of this crumble since the butter is essential to making the topping the right consistency. Instead, I’d recommend trying my Healthy Berry Galette or my Cranberry Orange Crumble Bars.
Enjoy! If you make this recipe and decide to share it on Facebook or Instagram, don’t forget to tag me @FromMyBowl + #FromMyBowl! I would also love it if you could leave a comment below with a recipe rating! Thank you for the support 😊
Vegan Apple Crumble
Ingredients
For the Crisp:
- 10 tablespoons salted butter melted (I used dairy-free)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar lightly packed
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
For the Fruit Filling:
- 3 cups peeled cored, & ½” sliced granny smith apples (about 2)
- 3 cups peeled cored, & ½” sliced honeycrisp apples (about 2)
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour or sub cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- Vanilla ice cream for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 10” cast iron skillet (or similar sized pan) with butter or cooking spray and set aside.
- Make the Crumble: Add the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt to a small bowl. Mix well, until the brown sugar has dissolved. Add the flour to the bowl and mix gently until a thick, crumbly mixture forms. Set aside.
- Fruit Filling: Add the apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla, lemon juice, and salt to the prepared cast iron pan. Mix well with a spatula until all of the apples are evenly coated, then spread the slices out to form an even layer across the bottom of the pan.
- Assemble: Use your hands to spread the crumble evenly over the fruit, leaving some pieces bigger and some smaller.
- Bake: Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until the fruit is bubbly and the crumble has browned. Remove from the oven and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes, to allow the filling to set.
- Serve: Serve warm topped with vanilla ice cream, or as desired. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Recipe Notes
- Gluten-Free: Use a gluten-free flour blend to make this recipe gluten-free. I recommend using cornstarch or arrowroot powder for the fruit filling instead of gf flour.
- Refined Sugar Free: Use coconut sugar instead of brown sugar
This was a delicious recipe! Your recipes never disappoint! It was just a tiny bit sweet for me, but I think maybe I didn’t use enough apples and had extra crumble lol. We devoured it, and I will definitely make it every Fall!
So happy you enjoyed, Esli!
The best ever !!!!
yay so happy!
Can I add oats? Do I need to reduce the flour amount?
Hi there! Yes, if you wanted to topping to be more of a crisp you could add 3/4 cup of rolled oats. I would reduce the flour to 1 cup!
Apple crumble is the easiest dessert to make but sometimes I butcher it!!!!
This receipe is SO tasty and I don’t even know why hahaha because the ingredients are the same as any other apple crumble I’ve made…but I’ve made this specific one three times now and HEAVEN (all my guests love it!!!). I usually sub the butter for coconut oil and the sugar for coconut sugar & dammm… Best thing ever!
I am a huge fan of this page now!
Thank you so much!
Easy and delicious! I used frozen apples and it turned out fine. Used a Vegan butter from Trader Joe’s. Was worried about the consistency but one could not tell the difference. Definitely a crowd pleaser. Will make this again!
Glad to hear it works with frozen apples too!
Amazing and so delicious! Made this today and it was the perfect fall recipe for the long weekend here in Canada. For the gluten-free folks out there, I used the Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 flour in place of the wheat flour in the topping, and cornstarch in the filling as suggested. It worked perfectly.
Glad you enjoyed it, Candice!
Delicious and so flavorful!
Thank you, Jill!
What a delicious and easy recipe!
I made the crumble a few hours in advance and put it in the fridge. I also added raisins to the apple mixture.
Shortly before the guests arrived, the crumble went into the oven and was served hot😋
Sounds delicious, so happy you enjoyed, Inbar!!
Thank you so much, Jill!
This is an overall opinion of your body of work: STELLAR! I’ve tried many of your offered recipes and not one has disappointed. Easy to make and always delicious, I have come to trust your recipes without question. Thank you for your work!
That is so heart-warming. Thank you, Jocelyn! We’re so happy you enjoy the recipes! ♥