Low-Carb Berry Cherry Crisp (Grain-Free, Sugar-Free, Paleo, Vegan)
Juicy burst berries & cherries topped with a crispy crumb topping! This EASY fruit crisp comes together in minutes using healthy ingredients. No gluten/grains, dairy, eggs, sugar or artificial sweeteners. (Paleo, Vegan, Low-Carb/Keto)
WHY DID I WAIT
I don’t know why it took me SO long to make a fruit crisp! Was it because I hated cooked fruit for 30+ years?? lol, possibly!
A couple of years ago, I FINALLY decided to make baked fruit desserts. First, Blueberry Cream Pie, then Peaches & Cream Pie. Then Peach & Blueberry Cobblers (which my family went NUTS for!)
But I like this CRISP even MORE. I love it for so many reasons. Not only because it’s so quick and easy to make, but the flavors and textures are out of this world!
The blueberries burst into an AMAZING flavor explosion underneath the crisp topping that’s like a warm, freshly baked cookie! Just the right ratio of fruit to crumbs.
Traditionally, crisps are made with oats, regular flour, sugar and butter, which is one of the reasons I hadn’t tried them — I don’t use ANY of those ingredients!
But I found a way to replicate the crisp topping without using grains, dairy or sugar!
If you’re Paleo, Vegan and/or Low-Carb, DON’T WAIT to make this crisp. For real, get to it stat!
Disclosure: As an affiliate I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through referral links in this post (at no additional cost to you).
The 1-MINUTE Topping
Not only can you replicate the oat/flour/butter/sugar texture and flavor, but you can do it in one minute!
Seriously. ONE minute! Can you even believe this?!
Throw ALL your ingredients into a food processor (I use this one):
- Whole, dry roasted almonds (for a coarse crumb texture)
- Large coconut flakes (to mimic oats)
- Monkfruit or coconut sugar (to replace refined sugar)
- Almond flour (to replace wheat flour)
- Buttery coconut oil (to replace butter)
- Cinnamon & salt (for warmth and flavor!)
Push the button and pulse a few times. Make some nice big crumbs.
And that’s it! It’s ready to go on top of your fruit!
Speaking of fruit…
There are some things to consider:
I chose to use blueberries and cherries, but I would image this recipe works JUST as well using many other types of fruits.
Chopped strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, maybe even apples, pears, .. what else can you think of? It might work!
Cherries are higher in sugar (plus I REALLY love blueberries) so I only used 1/2 cup of cherries.
Feel free to use ANY fruit you wish. Just make sure it’s chopped roughly in uniform sizes for even baking.
Side note: the macros are essentially the SAME whether you use cherries as stated, or all blueberries (which surprised me!) But that’s what it said on Cronometer.com! 
CHERRY HACK
If you love cherries, but DON’T love the time it takes to remove all the pits, you’ve gotta try this amazing cherry-pitting HACK that a reader told me about recently.
A major time-saver!!
What you need is a medium size piping tip typically used for frosting (pictured above).
Place it right over the stem, push down and it grabs the pit and you can pull it right out!
AMAZING.
How to Sweeten without Sugar
Even though fruit is naturally sweet, and baking does intensify the sweetness, I still recommend adding some sweetener. Especially if your berries are more tart (if they’re super sweet, you can scale back your sweetener a little)
To make this crisp delightfully sweet without using any refined sugar, use powdered monkfruit or powdered coconut sugar. Other dry sweeteners that measure 1:1 with sugar should work, too.
If you don’t have the powdered form, you can make your own! You may have heard me talk about this 100x, but it’s so magical I can’t stop sharing about it!
To make your own Homemade Powdered Sugar:
- Place your monkfruit or coconut sugar granules in a small blender (I use this small but powerful Ninja blender with a smoothie size cup)
- Add enough so the blade will be covered during blending (About 1/3 cup or more)
- Blend for 10-20 seconds until powdered. et VOILA! It’s done.
Coat your fruit in the powder, place it in your baking dish and it’s ready for the topping!
Use Ramekins for Individual Servings
This recipe makes six individual portions, which is perfect for entertaining, portion control, and overall cuteness-factor 😉
I found these ramekins at Pier 1 for around $1.50 each. Score!
Since the’re ceramic, they are both oven-safe and dishwasher-safe. I baked my berry crisps on a baking sheet for ease of transport.
Confession: I only bought 4 ramekins, when I should’ve gotten six. For the other two servings, I used a medium glass bowl that fit 2 portions and was oven safe. It worked great, too!
Bake until BUBBLY
Golden brown on top, buttery crisp, and sizzling underneath! The EPIC combination of textures!
When these crisps reach the end of baking, the fruit inside will burst and the juices will start to bubble up. You’ll hear the sizzle!
Baking the fruit enhances and concentrates the flavor and creates an amazing soft fruit texture.
If you REALLY want to make it EPIC: add a scoop of my homemade dairy-free keto vanilla ice cream!! YASSS.
OMG GOOD (freshly baked OR as leftovers!)
Juicy, tender, FLAVORFUL, crispy, crunchy, crumbly!! I can’t get enough of this CRISP.
And you know what! I like it even better the next day when it’s COLD. Soooo dang GOOD because the topping solidifies into a crispy COOKIE. I freaking Love it So Much.
If you make this recipe, leave a star rating below and be sure to tag me on Instagram #prettypies so I can see!
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Low Carb Berry Cherry Crisp (Paleo & Vegan)
Equipment
- Food Processor
Ingredients
Fruit:
- 1 1/2 cups blueberries
- 1/2 cup cherries - pitted and chopped
- 2 Tbs powdered monkfruit - (see notes)
Topping:
- 1/2 cup almonds
- 1/4 cup large coconut flakes
- 1/4 cup monkfruit granules - or coconut sugar for non low-carb
- 1/3 cup fine almond flour
- 2 Tbs buttery coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of pink salt
Instructions
To prepare:
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Place fruit in a mixing bowl and sprinkle with powdered monkfruit. Stir to coat.
- Divide fruit among 6 ramekins.
To make the topping:
- Pulse together all ingredients in a food processor for a few seconds until a coarse crumb forms.
- Scoop roughly 1/4 cup topping onto each ramekin.
- Bake for about 20 minutes until fruit is bubbly and topping is lightly golden.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving. Serve warm or chilled (with a scoop of homemade ice cream if you like!)
Notes
To make your own Homemade Powdered Sugar:
- Place your monkfruit or coconut sugar granules in a small blender (I use this small but powerful Ninja blender with a smoothie size cup)
- Add enough so the blade will be covered during blending (About 1/3 cup or more)
- Blend for 10-20 seconds until powdered. et VOILA! It's done.
Disclosure: As an affiliate I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through referral links in this post (at no additional cost to you).
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Lakanto Monkfruit from:
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Buttery Coconut Oil from Thrive Market {use my referral link to save an extra 25% on your first order}
Approx. Macros
- Cal 191
- Fat 15.5 g
- Carb 23.7
- Fiber 3.7
- Sugar Alcohol 12.3
- Net Carb 7.7
- Protein 4.2
22 Comments
Hayley
Hi there! I can’t wait to try this. Would I be able to use Snappy coconut oil for this? Thank you!
Emily
Yes you can, although that one doesn’t have butter flavor added. But it’s good without it too 🙂
If you happen to have butter extract, you can add a dash of that in.
Hope you enjoy!
Frances
How did you get 7.7 net carbs
Coconut sugar isn’t low carb/keto friendly
Emily
Coconut sugar is listed as an alternative. I used monkfruit granules.
Macros were calculated using Cronometer.com 🙂
Sandra
Looks delicious but how did you get from 23.7 carbs to 7.7 net carbs?
Emily
(Total carb) – (fiber) – (sugar alcohol) = net carbs.
The monkfruit sweetener contains ~12.3 g sugar alcohol. Forgot to list that in the macros. Hope that clears things up.
Patricia
So, where did you g your cherry pitter? I could not find it on Amazon
Emily
I used an icing tip from my cake-decorating kit You can find it here on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2YxLMNS
Sara
Sugar free means there is no sugar. Fruit is sugar.
Emily
To me it means a sugar-free sweetener was used. All plants have sugar (carbohydrates) in them, but not added sugar. 🙂
Chris
Of we didn’t want to use any sugar or artificial sweetner..could we just use something as a thicker..any idea
Looks delicious by the way
Emily
Thanks!
Sure! You can sub 1-2 Tbs tapioca starch instead of sweetener to coat the fruit as a thickener. I would probably add a little squeeze of lemon juice along with it.
Hope you enjoy!
Linda
Love this! I have used this with many fruit combinations & spices. The ramekins make it look so classy when you serve this. Never disappointed. Thanks Emily
Emily
Yay! You are so welcome.
Betsy Harmon
I tried these last Saturday night for company. Everyone couldn’t believe there was NO added sugar and the crumbles, to die for. Made this again last night and doubled the crumbles. Once again, it was a huge hit!!
Not sure what I’ll try next, maybe an ice cream!
Emily
Awesome!! It’s my favorite thing when people can’t believe the ingredients, haha. I can’t believe there’s no sugar myself!
Double crumbles, that sounds brilliant! So glad everyone liked it!
Let me know what you try next
Judy
I do keto and 7.7 g net carbs is rather high if you’re keeping your net carbs below 20 per day. So I’m thinking maybe use a little less monk fruit sweetener and a little less of the fruit for even a lower count net carbs. Thanks for the recipe! Looks yummy.
Emily
Monk fruit is zero net carbs so feel free to use as much as you need 🙂 But you can definitely use less fruit or make smaller portions to reduce the carbs if you’d like. Hope you enjoy!
Noelle
I thought this was delicious! I lived the topping. You have given me an alternative to pie to make for my husband. Thanks!
Emily
So glad you enjoyed! You are welcome! 🙂
Ryan
Amazing and easy. I used some frozen fruit I already had. Raspberries and blueberries. I nuked then for about 10-15 seconds enough to coat with the monk fruit. Also I used Swerve since that’s what I had and these are seriously delicious.
Emily
So glad you liked them! Thanks for your review 🙂