This vegan apple crumble is full of sweet, cinnamon-spiced apples and plenty of crunchy crumb topping. It’s made with just 4 healthy ingredients, gluten and grain free, and naturally sweet!
Happy Monday! Hope you’re having a great start to your September. As I’m writing this post I’m sipping a decaf oat milk latte with the back door open, and a crisp 55 degree breeze sneaking in through the screen door. Throw in some vegan apple crumble, and I’m basically living a fall dream, right? Especially when that crumble requires just 4 healthy ingredients I already have in my kitchen.
I’m still letting apple shine for September before all things pumpkin take over. We started the month with a simple, super tasty no bake breakfast, so today we’re getting a little more dessert-y!
Let’s talk about vegan apple crumble.
Ingredients for vegan apple crumble
- Apples: you’ll slice the apples thinly so that they’re totally cooked after baking.
- Medjool dates: you’ll blend the dates with water to make a paste, which gives the crumble more natural, fruit sweetness. Dates are also used to sweeten the crumble topping.
- Cinnamon: cinnamon gives the warm fall flavors, and goes so well with apple.
- Walnuts: walnuts are the base of the crumble topping and they give healthy fats and amazing crunchy texture.
Tips for making vegan apple crumble
- Bake the apples first. You’ll slice and bake the apples on their own first, then add the crumb topping and finish baking. This is just to make sure the crumble topping doesn’t burn before the apples have cooked.
- Don’t dirt your food processor to make the crumble topping. Instead, you’ll simply crush up the walnuts with clean hands, to pieces as large or small as you like. Next, chop up some dates, which give the crumble topping sweetness and a nice gooey, chewy texture, and you’ll just chop them into small pieces. They’ll stick together a bit, so just break them up as best you can when you mix the crumb topping together. Mix in some cinnamon and sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the apples, then bake for another 10 minutes, until the topping is nice and toasty. AND you don’t even have to clean your food processor, which is always a plus.
This vegan apple crumble is so so satisfying for dessert, and the fact that you only need 4 ingredients is just a plus. My husband Joe LOVES apple desserts and also loves crumble, so needless to say he’s a fan of this one. Also, this is the best way to use up the bounty of sweet, perfect apples you get if you go apple picking each year like we do!
Whatever the reason, just trust me and try it. Because you can never go wrong with soft, sweet, gooey apples, topped with plenty of cinnamon spiced, crunchy crumb topping.
Xo,
Sara
Vegan Apple Crumble
Ingredients
Apple Base
- 3 apples, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup date paste – 8 pitted medjool dates blended with 1/2 cup hot water, then measure out 1/2 cup paste
- 1 tbsp cinnamon – if you want a more subtle spice flavor, feel free to decrease this amount
Crumble Topping
- 2 cups walnuts
- 1 tbsp cinnamon – if you want a more subtle spice flavor, feel free to decrease this amount
- 8 pitted medjool dates
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix the peeled, sliced apples in a large bowl with the cinnamon and date paste until everything is thoroughly combined and all the apples are evenly coated with the date paste.
- Pour the apple mixture into the bottom of a glass pie dish, and bake for 20 minutes.
- While the apples are baking, prepare the crumble topping by breaking up the walnuts with your hands, to pieces of your liking. I like mine only slightly broken up so they maintain some crunch – just use clean hands and give them a squeeze to break them up.
- Chop the dates into small, bite-sized pieces. They'll stick together a bit and that's okay, just do your best to cut/break them apart.
- Mix the walnuts with the cinnamon and chopped dates, and stir to combine.
- When the apples are done, sprinkle over the crumble topping, breaking up any large chunks of dates into smaller pieces and make sure everything is spread evenly over the apples.
- Bake the completed crumble for another 10 minutes.
- Top the crumble with vegan vanilla ice cream, a sprinkle of unsweetened yogurt, a bit of peanut butter, or whatever your little heart desires!
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator.
Sara, you are blowing me away with the apple posts! This looks so good! I’m jealous of your fall-like weather. We had to turn the a/c back on because it’s in the 90s and humid. Boo. But apple crumble and a latte would certainly help!
Thanks Kristi!! And yesss I cannot wait for the permanent fall weather (which is crazy cause normally I’m all about the super hot summer weather), but I may have spoken too soon because it’s supposed to be almost ninety here tomorrow, booooo. But yes all the crumble to make it feel like fall regardless of the weather! And a latte recipe will be coming in just a few weeks… 🙂