Mince Pie Apple Crumble (Vegan Gluten-Free)

This Mince Pie Apple Crumble is the best combination of mince pies and apple crumbles served piping hot with lashings of vanilla ice cream. It’s easy to make, naturally vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar-free (you wouldn’t tell it’s healthier).

I love a good mince pie this time of year and I love a good apple crumble any time of year, so why not combine the two for a festive classic you can bake way after the holiday season ends. This dessert is packed with warming flavours, sticky apple pieces and topped with the best nutty and oaty crumble topping, it’s a new family favourite.

How is this Mince Pie Apple Crumble so special?

We all love this dessert at home as it’s:

• Warmly spiced and cosy
• Sticky and sweet
• Fruity and nutty
• Wholesome yet indulgent
• Comforting and warming
• Naturally vegan and gluten-free
• Healthier and lower sugar
• The perfect family dessert or for entertaining

Skip ahead to the recipe card below to make this dessert right now or read on as we discuss the recipe in more detail.

What ingredients go into this dessert?

You’ll find that the ingredients are partly traditional and partly with a nourishing vegan spin.

For the fruity base:

• Mixed dried fruits: use one with peel for the best mince pie flavour. Either use a packet mix or make your using your favourite dried fruits like currants, raisins, cranberries, sultanas, figs, dates, orange peel, cherries…
• Orange: we use both the juice and zest for this recipe to give the festive flavours.
• Coconut sugar: this keeps the recipe refined sugar free although any sugar will work like light brown sugar, demerara sugar, caster or granulated.
• Vegan butter: this adds a lovely sticky, smooth and melt-in-your-mouth texture to the fruits. It is best with butter but you could try coconut oil or vegan margarine spread, too.
• Cinnamon and mixed spice: for the classic mince pie flavours.
• Vanilla: for the warming notes.
• Apples: to make this a Mince Pie Apple Crumble. For the next texture and taste, peel the apples then slice them very thinly.

Warming together all the ingredients minus the apples to make your mincemeat filling then stir in the apples and allow it to rest while you make the topping.

For the nutty oaty crumble:

• Oats: instead of flour this recipe uses oats and mixed nuts. Pulse them to a fine meal, like a flour consistency for added fibre, taste and goodness to the crumble topping.
• Mixed nuts: you can use any nuts you like including walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, peanuts, cashews, almonds or macadamia. You could also use seeds to keep this nut-free.
• Coconut oil: this binds together the crumble topping and along with the cashew butter adds the stickiness.
• Cashew butter: this adds the buttery taste and texture to the crumble topping, without the butter. It’s naturally sweet but not too sweet which is why it’s great for baking with. You can use another nut butter like almond or hazelnut or use seed butter like tahini or sunflower seed butter to make this nut-free.
• Coconut sugar: as above, you can use any sugar to sweeten the crumble topping.

Pulse together the oats and nuts before adding in and pulsing again to make a crumbly mix. Sprinkle it over the fruity base and bake until golden and delicious.

Is this crumble topping different to “regular” crumble?

Yes, you will notice that the texture is different to a classic butter, sugar and flour mixture. This one may clump together more and seem “wetter” but just break it up with your hands and spread it over the fruit. Once it’s baked it turns so crumbly, sweet and golden, it tastes so much better than “regular” crumble.

Is this Mince Pie Apple Crumble gluten-free and nut-free?

To make this gluten-free, make sure your oats are certified gluten-free. To keep this dessert nut-free, swap the nuts in the crumble for seeds and the cashew butter for seed butter.

Can I use other fruits?

As this Mince Pie Apple Crumble is quite traditionally based on a mince pie, I would not stray to far and play around with the fruits. But I can imagine pear instead of apple would work really well and adding some fresh berries to the mix could also be great – like my Strawberry Mince Pie Tart.

How long will this last?

I could eat this crumble for breakfast, lunch, dinner and then for dessert but it does serve 6 good sized or 8 smaller sized portions. Any uneaten crumble will keep in the fridge for 3-5 days in a sealed container or in the freezer for up to 1 month.

If you love this Mince Pie Apple Crumble and want some more dessert inspiration, how about trying my:

• Vegan Dessert Board
• Apple and Cranberry Crumble
• Coconut Caramel Granola Tart
• Peanut Butter Banana and Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding
• Salted Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake

I look forward to hearing what you think of this Mince Pie Apple Crumble so please let me know in the comments below. If you do make this for dessert, I would love to see so please tag me in your creations, I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  so please say hello!

With mince pie apple crumble love x