Made with a combination of fresh peaches, oats, spices, and a touch of brown sugar, this gluten-free peach crisp recipe offers a healthy take on a summer classic. And it’s super delish!

gluten-free peach crisp with a scoop removed in a cast iron pan on a gray background

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved stone fruit. There’s nothing that says summer like a sweet and juicy peach, nectarine, or plum! And our little ladies seem to have inherited my passion for summer’s bounty.

Despite our collective enthusiasm for stone fruit, we found ourselves with a glut of fresh peaches recently after going overboard at Costco. So, this gluten-free peach crisp recipe was born. Fruit crisp is not something that I grew up with. It’s very much an American thing that I’ve come to love over the years, especially as the weather transitions to Autumn.

Crisp, Crumble, and Cobbler: What’s the difference?

Fruit crisps, crumbles, and cobblers are all classic American desserts with a fruit base. The topping is where they differ:

Fruit crisps: Have a crunchy topping, usually made with oats, flour, sugar and butter. Sometimes the crunchy topping on a fruit crisp contains nuts but it’s not essential to meet the criteria for a fruit crisp.
Fruit crumbles: Crumbles have a streusel-like topping that does not contain oats. Instead, the topping is made out of flour, sugar, and butter.
Fruit cobblers: The topping on cobblers is similar to cake and is dolloped on top of fruit to resemble cobbled stones when cooked.

In my opinion, fruit crisps are the best of the three because the crunchy topping is such a nice contrast to the soft-baked fruit. I also love that fruit crisp is also made with a wholegrain (oats) because most of us could do with a little extra fiber in our diet! (More on the health benefits of oats here).

gluten-free peach crisp made with oats in a cast iron pan on gray background with peaches behind the pan

How to Make Gluten-Free Peach Crisp

Unlike other baked desserts, peach crisp is incredibly easy to make and doesn’t require much fuss or fancy equipment to produce a crowd-pleasing dish. Put simply, making peach crisp involves three steps before it goes in the oven:

Preheating the oven and greasing the pan
Preparing the peaches and;
Making the topping.
It’s as easy as ‘dump in the pan and bake’ and made entirely with common pantry ingredients and fresh peaches!

Ingredient Substitutions for Gluten-Free Peach Crisp

Missing an ingredient or two? Here are the substitutions that work well in this recipe:

Peaches: Peaches can be substituted for nectarines in this recipe. I’ve made it with both and either way it’s delicious!
Arrowroot: I used arrowroot in this recipe but cornstarch can also be used as a thickening agent.
Oat flour: Oat flour can be substituted with gluten-free all-purpose flour or regular all-purpose flour if you tolerate wheat.
Butter: To make the recipe vegan, swap butter for vegan butter such as Earth Balance.

Why This Recipe is Healthier Than Other Peach Crisp Recipes

I’ve made a couple of tweaks to this recipe to upgrade the nutrient composition without compromising on flavor or deliciousness.

Added sugar: By using ripe peaches, I’ve cut back on added sugar in the fruit layer.
Saturated fat: A crisp topping isn’t quite the same without butter but I’ve used it sparingly so this recipe contains less saturated fat than other peach crisp recipes.
Fiber: This recipe contains more old-fashioned oats than the average crisp recipe for a little extra fiber.

That’s it from me today. Enjoy this delicious, late-summer peach crisp recipe. We’ve been eating it on repeat here.