Vegan Caramel Apple Crumb Pie

This vegan caramel apple crumb pie is full of sweet, cinnamon-spiced apples, gooey date caramel, and it’s topped with an addictive crumb. Gluten free, fruit sweetened, and made with just 10 healthy ingredients!

Welcome to PIE WEEK!

Now that we’re over the halloween hump, it’s time for the two best holidays of all: thanksgiving and CHRISTMAS.

I promise not to unleash all things Christmas for at least a couple more weeks. But you can be damn sure I’m blasting Christmas music as you’re reading this. My start date for that is November 1st and I am so not sorry. Anyway, thanksgiving deserves time, too, so we’re focused on pies for a whole week!

Growing up, pie was probably my last choice when it came to desserts, and I don’t consider myself great at making them. But this year, I decided that had to change. Pies don’t have to be super complicated and fussy, and they don’t have to be loaded with unhealthy crap, either.

A quick note while I’m on this topic – it is ABSOLUTELY possible to make a traditional, exact replica of the pies you remember from your childhood, but in a vegan version. There are now thousands of vegan recipes online and substitutes for everything, and you’d never know the difference. If you want the sugar/fat/oil-filled, super decadent pie, you can for sure find one that’s vegan. And if you want that, you do you, boo! One crazy rich, unhealthy sweet a year won’t kill you.

But, the pies I’m showing you this week are not traditional. So, don’t compare these to traditional ones, or expect some super flaky, buttery crust, or over the top, artificially sweet fillings. What you CAN expect is a still super decadent tasting, perfectly sweet, soul-satisfying pie. I enjoy making sweets that are created with whole food, healthy ingredients, so I can feel good about having a BIG slice (or four).

Anyway, let’s talk about healthy pies! This week I’m sharing 3 brand new pie recipes, all totally vegan (duh), healthy, and super simple. Cause that’s what we need on the big day, right? Tons of other bomb food to make, let’s keep dessert simple but oh so sweet and delicious.

So, let’s start pie week off with a freaking bang, with a heavenly vegan caramel apple crumb pie.

Ingredients for vegan caramel apple crumb pie

• Almond flour: almond flour gives the pie crust it’s slightly nutty flavor and cookie-like texture.
• Rolled oats: you’ll blend the oats into flour, which helps to hold the pie crust together and gives it a bit of chew.
• Date sugar: date sugar gives the pie crust natural, fruit sweetness.
• Ground flaxseed: you’ll make flax eggs by putting the ground flax in a bowl with water in the fridge for 20 minutes, until it gels up a bit. This helps hold the pie crust together and provides some great nutrition, too.
• Apples: apples are the star here, so you’ll use 3 whole apples.
• Medjool dates: you’ll blend the dates into a paste for a gooey filling, and some will sweeten the crumb topping, too.
• Cinnamon: truly the best complement to apples in the fall.
• Raw walnuts: walnuts give amazing crunchy texture to the crumb topping and provide healthy fats.
• Lemon juice: lemon juice helps complement all the sweetness in the crumb topping and gooey filling.
• Vanilla extract: a little vanilla rounds out the flavor in the crumb topping.

Tips for making vegan caramel apple crumb pie

• Measure out the oats first, then blend into flour. I always list the amount of oats used BEFORE they’re blended for flour. So in this case, you’ll measure out 1 cup of whole, rolled oats, then put that 1 cup into your blender to make flour.
• At first, the crust will look too dry to mix. When you first combine all the crust ingredients, it will look like there’s hardly any moisture compared to all the dry ingredients, but just knead and press it together with your hands, and it’ll come together into a thick dough.
• Be patient when pressing into the pan. Pressing the crust into the pan evenly will take a few minutes, so just be patient! I find it’s easiest to plop the dough ball into the pan, tear some off to use later for the sides, and start by pressing the dough evenly along the bottom of the pan with clean hands, then going back and pressing the remaining dough up the sides for the edges of the pie.
• Use a glass pie pan. I use a glass pie pan, and the almond flour has some natural oil, so I didn’t find I needed to spray/line the pan, but if you’re using a different type of pan you may need to so that you can get it out easily after baking.
• Don’t forget to poke some holes before baking. Once the crust is in the pan, poke some holes in the bottom with a fork. The holes are to help the bottom of the crust from puffing up in the oven.
• Chop the apple into really small pieces. I like chopping the apple into small squares (rather than big, long slices) so that it cooks faster and is easier to eat.
• Don’t blend the crumb topping too much. You want to pulse the crumb topping ingredients, but don’t blend so long that you lose the big pieces and crunchy texture that’s so good on top of the pie.
• Let it cool completely. Make sure to let the pie cool in the pan for 1 hour before slicing. There’s a lot of crumb topping so it’ll be a little messy regardless, but letting it cool helps the filling set up a bit.
• Be careful when slicing. Use a gentle hand when you’re cutting and removing the pie from the pan. The crust is a little delicate, so just be sure to cut all the way through it, then use a spatula or fork to pull the edges away from the side, and it should pop out just fine.

This vegan caramel apple crumb pie seriously could not be more perfect for thanksgiving dessert. The crust is just sweet enough, slightly crunchy, almost cookie-like. The apple filling is SO gooey and sweet, and the crumb topping gives such amazing texture. The topping alone will have you going back for bite after bite, or just picking it straight off the top of the pie every time you walk through the kitchen. Not that I know anything about that from experience.

My days of pie-hating/disregarding apples for dessert are LONG gone after this gem. I’ll be back later this week with 2 more incredibly decadent pies!

Xo,

Sara