Wild Blueberry Crisp (Gluten-Free, Egg-Free)

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This blueberry crisp uses wild blueberries which is loaded with potent, zingy flavor that perfectly complements the sweetly spiced streusel-like topping. Clean eating and healthy too, you’ll enjoy this fruit crisp down to the very last bite!

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Here’s why you’ll love love love this recipe:

• It’s clean eating, gluten free and egg-free.
• You can use fresh or frozen berries.
• It comes together in no time and is SO easy to make.
• This recipe is flexible and scalable, which means you can adjust just about everything from the size/servings to the sweetness to suit your personal taste.
• It contains heart-healthy oats, almond flour, and coconut sugar.
• You can prep and freeze it in advance and then bake it when needed.
• You can enjoy it hot or cold and it makes a great breakfast option!
• It’s amazing on its own or you can pair it with a creamy scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream!

Wild -vs- Regular Blueberries. 🫐

This recipe uses wild blueberries and I absolutely recommend using them over regular ones (though you totally can if you like). Here’s why I prefer wild blueberries over regular ones:

• They contain a ton more concentrated blueberry flavor because they contain less water content than regular blueberries.
• They are packed with twice as many antioxidants.
• They contain about 70% more fiber than regular blueberries.
• Wild blueberries are smaller in size so you get more berries per pound.
• Since they have more anthocyanins (the chemical that gives them their color) they are way more vibrant.
• Wild blueberries are grown…well, in the wild! They aren’t planted and have existed for over 10,000 years in the fields of Maine, therefore they are great for the environment and have a low carbon footprint compared to regular/cultivated blueberries.
• If you live outside Maine, chances are you’ll be using frozen wild blueberries which are picked at the peak season in the summer and frozen immediately. Most regular blueberries are picked before they’re ripe and then shipped around the world where they ripen enroute which makes their flavor and sweetness far less potent.

Crisp -vs- Crumble -vs- Cobbler -vs- Fruit Pie?

The differences between the three are honestly very easy to define. While they all contain a fruit filling…

• A crumble has a streusel topping made with butter that is cut into sugar and some type of flour.
• A crisp has a streusel topping but it also contains oats and/or nuts.
• A cobbler has a top crust made of a dollops of dough placed over the fruit filling (in a cobble stone way, hence the name!).
• A fruit pie contains a pie crust on both the top and bottom with the fruit filling in the middle.

Now, let me show you how to make this easy dessert!

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Gather the Following Ingredients:

• Blanched Almond Flour: Opt to use a finely blended almond flour.
• Old Fashion Rolled Oats: Heart healthy, oats adds a great texture to our crisp. I’m using an old fashion rolled oats because it not only holds up well but cooks perfectly.
• Coconut Sugar: A great low GI sugar with great caramel notes, coconut sugar works amazingly in our topping.
• Butter: Salted or unsalted, the choice is yours. Ensure your butter is chilled so we can work it into the topping to give us great crumble chunks. The butter is perhaps the most important element for your crumble topping as it gives it great flavor it also helps it to be crisp and keeps it from being a dry powdery mess.
• Chopped Pecans: This adds phenomenal texture to our topping once baked and it also adds a nutty and sweet flavor.
• Salt: I’m using a pink Himalayan salt but you can also use sea salt. The salt is divided for use in the topping as well as in the filling.
• Cinnamon: A great spice that works well in the streusel topping that pairs well with…
• Nutmeg: The second spice and flavor of our streusel topping.
• Wild Blueberries: Fresh or frozen, these little berries are so potent in their flavor profile and bursting with antioxidants and vitamins and minerals. If you’re using frozen berries, there’s no need to defrost them! This recipe calls for 15oz of wild blueberries which is conveniently one of the package options from Wyman’s of Maine.
• Sugar: I’m using finely blended raw cane sugar since it has a more neutral flavor than coconut sugar which really allows the blueberries to shine, but if you prefer you can use coconut sugar.
• A thickener: I’m using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-1 Flour but you can also use cornstarch, arrowroot starch or potato starch if preferred.
• Lemon Juice: Aside from the little citrus pop of flavor, the lemon juice works in the filling to help add extra pectin making our filling even more luxuriously jammy.
• Vanilla Extract: A tiny touch of vanilla complements our blueberries and enhances their natural flavor.

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Here’s How Easy It Is to Make This Crisp:

We’ll be making it in 2 parts, the filling and then the topping. Let’s start with the filling.

To a large bowl, add your berries. drizzle the lemon juice and vanilla over then and toss them to coat using a spatula.

Then combine the gluten-free flour or starch with the finely blended raw cane sugar and salt and sprinkle it over the berries. Toss them to coat all the berries.

Pour your coated berries into a greased baking dish or cast iron skillet in an even layer. That’s it! Now it’s time to work on the topping.

In the same bowl your berries were in (because who likes making unnecessary dishes?!) add the almond flour, oats, coconut sugar, and cubes of cold butter. Cut the butter into the mixture to create a crumbly streusel topping. You can use your fingers (my preference), a fork or even a pastry cutter. Add in your cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt along with your chopped pecans and fold it all together. And that’s it, our topping is done!

Sprinkle your topping over your berries in an even layer and your crisp is ready for the oven or to be stashed in your freezer until you’d like to bake it. And when you are…

Into an oven (fan) preheated to 350F, bake your crumble for 35-45 minutes until the berries towards the center of the dish are nice and bubbly. If you notice your topping browning too much, loosely cover it with a piece of foil but remove the foil for the last 5 minutes to allow the topping to crisp up nicely. Once you take it out you’ll notice it’s not as thick as it was going in, that’s because our blueberries have cooked down into a gorgeously jam-like layer.

Let your crisp cool for 30-45 minutes so that it can fully set. If you cut into it right away the texture won’t be right.  But once it’s set, you can enjoy it warm, room temperature, or even cold (it makes a great next-day breakfast option!). And for even more decadence, enjoy a piece of warm blueberry crisp with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream on top. 🤤