Healthy Fruit Crisps

I feel like I have had an obsession with cherries and peaches lately. And who can blame me? It’s summer! So I have allowed myself to entertain it and I started researching. I knew I wanted to do a crisp, but I’ve been reading a lot lately about how grains are actually unhealthy! Though I am not trying to be cynical, and may not be ready for a completely grain-free life, I am open to exploring new options and trying a few recipes to check it out. I started with these crisps…and they were completely delicious!

I could not decide between the combination of cherries and blueberries or peaches, so I made both! Even my husband loved them – hot and cold!

If you want to scar your idea of “healthy” whole grains, there are a lot of websites to read from, however, I like the way Katie writes about it here. I “see the light” since I know a few people with celiac’s disease, so I try to cook gluten-free when I can, and this is further inspiration. Since I had to be creative and go grain-free, I got a lot of ideas from Kelly at Foodie Fiasco. Here’s what I used.

Grain Free Fruit Crisps Recipe

makes 4 servings – 2 peach and 2 blueberry-cherry

1 large peach

1 handful of cherries

1 handful blueberries

1/3C almond meal

1/4C shredded coconut

2T unsweetened applesauce

1t vanilla extract

1t coconut oil, divided

1t sugar, divided, optional

1/2t salt

Allow me to introduce you to rainier cherries. If you have never had these, they’re worth the extra buck for a recipe such as these. Compared to their darker cherry cousins, rainiers are lighter and sweeter and can only be described as golden. They are definitely worth adding into your fruit basket! Look at them! They’re a blend of a lovely light yellow and pink.

Preheat the oven to 400. After washing and drying your produce, cut the peach in bite size pieces and pit the cherries and slice them in half. The rainiers are slightly larger than a normal cherry, so they were a bit difficult to maneuver into the cherry pitter, but it didn’t really bother me that the skins were a little scuffed up since they were cooked together with the blueberries and the scuffs weren’t noticed.

The original recipe called for shredded coconut. Due to weird sensory issues from childhood, I don’t really love the texture of shredded coconut. I decided to try to be an adult and try it, but I still chopped it up further so it was tiny pieces.

Meanwhile, I combined the almond meal, coconut, vanilla, salt, and applesauce which will serve as the healthy, gluten-free, sugar-free crisp topping. Putting half the sugar and half the coconut oil in a pan on medium heat, let it melt.

Then I cooked the fruit in separate batches for 3-5 minutes each.

The blueberries will give off a blueish, purple juice, but don’t worry – since it’s not being cooked too long, the color doesn’t effect the light cherries too much. Melting the other half of the coconut oil and sugar, I repeated this step with the peaches.

Separate the fruit into oven-safe ramekins.

Then top with the crisp topping. Because this isn’t a traditional crisp with butter and flour, it will not be very crumbly. I carefully and evenly placed the crisp topping onto each ramekin with my fingers and a fork.

Then baked for 20 minutes. You’ll know they are ready when the fruit is bubbly and the crisp is lightly browned. Cool for a few moments on a towel or cooling rack and serve. For a non-vegan version, fresh whipped cream or even ice cream would pair well with these lovely crisps. However, on their own they are a delicious, healthy treat and they showcase the delicious flavors of the fruit. Despite the non-traditional ingredients in the crisp, I was pleasantly surprised with how crispy the topping turned out. (And for all the coconut haters out there, you could probably up the almond meal if you wanted to ditch the shredded coconut.) Here’s the peach crisp.