Gluten-Free Cherry-Coconut Crisp

Every week, Shauna Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef -- and Gluten-Free Girl Everyday -- will be sharing smart tips and smarter recipes that will please even the most devout gluten-eaters among us. Come one, come all -- we're going flourless. 

Today: Shauna Ahern loves the good life, without gluten. Right now, that means ripe cherries and coconut.  

It's summer, folks. You don't need me to tell you that, right? It's hot and humid and sticky and hard to sleep at night for the heat. But the compensation for these hot days? Ripe cherries. When they're baked into a crisp with coconut flakes and almond flour, the heat doesn't seem so bad. 

You certainly don't need gluten to make a great fruit crisp; flour in this baked good is merely a vehicle for butter or other kinds of fat. Cherries and almonds love each other, so I worked with a bit of almond flour to give it a hint of that almond taste. I chose to add rice flour into the mix, too, but if you're avoiding grains, feel free to use all almond flour in this crisp. 

Coconut sugar is one of my favorite sweeteners. Sustainably grown and made by collecting the sap from the flower of a coconut tree and boiling it until it solidifies, it has a great faint coconut taste that is a perfect match for this recipe. (If you can't find coconut sugar, feel free to combine brown sugar and white sugar instead.) 

Serve this to your friends on a summer evening when the air is finally cooling, and I guarantee you not one of them will miss the gluten. 

Cherry-Coconut Crisp

Serves 8

2 1/2 pounds pitted ripe cherries
70 grams coconut flakes
3/4 cup coconut sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
80 grams sweet rice flour
60 grams almond flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
115 grams (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes 

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photo by Shauna Ahern