The perfect holiday dessert or breakfast, this Holiday Pear, Apple, and Cranberry Crisp is gluten and dairy free, and vegan friendly. Made with fiber rich oats, almond flour, and honey or maple syrup, this Healthy Holiday Crisp can be made quickly and easily in your Instant Pot or right in your oven. This post contains affiliate links for products I’m obsessed with.
This is a sponsored post on behalf of Bob’s Red Mill. As always, all opinions are 100% mine. Thank you for supporting the brands that help make Confessions of a Fit Foodie possible.
Pear Apple Cranberry Crisp aka The Best Healthy Holiday Dessert or Breakfast
What’s your favorite part of the holiday season?
Mine is easy. Mine will always be traditions.
From baking cookies and driving around looking at Christmas lights, to our Advent Calendar and annual Christmas Eve party, I feel like one of my biggest goals as a mom is for my kids to remember the holiday traditions of their childhood with as much fondness as I remember mine.
Many of our traditions are new, since we don’t live near the big, Italian extended family that I grew up with. But they are ours and I love them.
Like Christmas Morning – since we spend Christmas Day just the four of us and my mom, it’s a day of lounging in PJs around the fire, opening presents, and eating a big, yummy brunch and leftovers from Christmas Eve in lieu of a fancy, formal dinner.
It’s the day when all is finally calm and I can truly soak up my kids and their holiday joy.
Our Christmas Brunch Menu
To keep the morning as simple as possible after many weeks of holiday prep, my Christmas Brunch Menu is full of quick and easy dishes, and I utilize make ahead recipes like Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole and my Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole Cups.
I also use my Instant Pot as much as possible, like for this Holiday Crisp! This crisp is the perfect recipe for your Christmas Brunch or dessert for Christmas Dinner, because it comes together really fast and fills your house with all the warm and comforting smells of the season.
I don’t have an Instant Pot. Can I make this in the oven?
Of course! I added oven instructions to the recipe card below.
Ingredients for Pear Apple Cranberry Crisp
One of the reasons I love this crisp is I always have all the ingredients on hand, so no special trips to the store when you have a million other things to think about.
- Fruit – Any combination of apples, pears, cranberries, even oranges diced up would work for this recipe! You want six cups total, so I did 3 cups of apples, 2 cups of pears, 1 cup of cranberries. When we did photos for this recipe, we added some oranges, too – SO GOOD!
- Fresh Orange Juice + Orange Zest – I added the zest from one orange, plus 1-2 T of fresh orange juice to my crisp to brighten up the flavor.
- Honey or maple syrup – You can use either one – sometimes I even use a mix of both! To keep this a vegan crisp, you should use maple syrup.
- Coconut oil – I tested this topping with both butter and coconut oil, and I honestly love the coconut oil more. This also keeps the recipe vegan.
- Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Oats – I always, always, always have these oats in my pantry! They are perfect for Overnight Oats, Muffins, and desserts like this yummy crisp!
- Bob’s Red Mill Superfine Almond Flour – I love sneaking in some extra healthy fat and protein with almond flour, but you could sub this for Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free flour if there is a nut allergy.
- Cinnamon – Not only does this add flavor, it makes your house smell like Christmas morning.
- Salt – Bring out the natural sweetness of the berries and the topping with just a little bit of salt.
Do I have to peel the apples and pears for this Instant Pot Crisp?
Nope! You certainly can, but there is no need to peel your apples or pears. The filling had such a pretty color and I swear the peel gave it extra flavor and sweetness. So, your choice, but I highly recommend this shortcut.
What kind of dish should I use to make this?
I used these adorable ramekins for portion control, but you could make this in a larger dish that fits in your Instant Pot like this casserole dish.
I have don’t love Cranberries (Or Pears or Apples). Can I sub anything for them?
Yes! That’s the amazing thing about this fruit crisp! You can sub extra apples, throw in some oranges, even add frozen cherries or berries! Add whatever your merry heart desires, because it will all be delicious!
Will my Instant Pot Holiday Crisp be crispy?
If you just cook this Apple Cranberry Crisp in your Instant Pot, it will not have a crispy top…it will be more like a crumble. But there are two things you can do to fix this!
- After cook time, you can broil your Instant Pot Berry Crisp for a few minutes right in the same dish!
- If you have a Mealthy CrispLid, you can use that to crisp up your topping without turning on your oven! This is how I did it, and I can’t say enough amazing things about my crisplid!
Want to learn more about the amazing Mealthy CrispLid and how it turns your pressure cooker into an Instant Pot? Check out my CrispLid review!
How to Make Coconut Cream
We often eat this crisp alone, but if you want to make it extra special, you can top with coconut cream. And it’s super easy to make your own dairy-free coconut cream!
Just start with a can of coconut milk and refrigerate it overnight. Then carefully scoop out the chilled cream into large bowl. Using hand mixer or stand mixer with whisk attachment, whip cream until light and fluffy for about 5 minutes. If you want a sweeter cream, add a few drops of stevia while whipping. For a pumpkin version of this cream, see this recipe!
Also, for a time saver, you can check your store for already prepared coconut whipped cream! It’s really easy to find now and it makes life so much easier.
More Healthy Instant Pot Crisp Recipes
- Instant Pot Peach Crisp
- Berry Crisp
- Instant Pot Apple Crisp
- Healthy Instant Pot Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
Thank you Bob’s Red Mill for sponsoring this post. It means so much to me to work with brands that I love and use in my kitchen daily!
Holiday Pear, Apple, Cranberry Crisp
Ingredients
- 3 cups honey crisp apples* diced
- 2 cups pears diced, be sure they are nice and ripe*
- 1 cup fresh cranberries halved if they are large*
- 1 orange for zest and juice
- 4 ½ tablespoons honey or maple syrup divided
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil melted
- 1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Oats
- 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Superfine Almond Flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons cinnamon divided
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Instant Pot
- In a medium bowl , combine fruit with 1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup, 1/4 tsp cinnamon.
- Next, make the topping. In a small bowl, combine honey/maple syrup with the melted coconut oil by whisking until smooth. Tip – if your maple syrup is cold, leave it out for a bit before combining, otherwise your coconut oil will solidify.
- In a medium bowl, mix oats, almond flour, cinnamon and salt together. Then pour the maple syrup/honey/coconut oil into the oat mixture and combine.
- Use an instant pot safe bowl, like my favorite casserole dish, or instant pot safe ramekins, layer your crisp together by first adding in fruit, then spooning the crisp topping over the fruit mixture.
- Add one cup of water to the steel insert of the Instant Pot, then place trivet insert (or sling) in the bottom. Cover casserole dish with foil, then lay on top of trivet. If you are using the ramekins, you can stack them on top of each other! Set IP for 7 minutes on manual/pressure cook.
- After cook time, do a quick release.
- In the meantime, preheat oven to broil.. When it’s safe to remove the dish from the Instant Pot, place it under the broiler for a few minutes, or until the topping begins to crisp. Watch them carefully, and remove just as the crisp topping starts to brown.
- Let the Crisp sit and rest for around ten minutes before eating. Enjoy by itself or with coconut cream!
Oven
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Follow steps 1-4. Then cover crisp with foil and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the fruit is bubbly. Remove foil and let the topping crisp up. You can broil for a few minutes to get it even crispier.
- Let the Crisp sit and cool for around ten minutes before eating.
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