Peach Crumble with Coconut and Almonds {Gluten Free}

A few weeks ago I baked this peach coffee cake, which has a toasted coconut, almond, and brown sugar crumb topping that I wanted to eat by the spoonful. (I might have even done so.)

I'm kind of obsessed with it and want to put it on everything. And because peaches are so good right now, it seemed like a good idea to use it as a topping for peach crumble. And, yes, yes it was a very good idea.

So, here's the thing. Until this moment, peach cobbler was, hands down, my favorite thing to make with ripe summer peaches. But now we also have this crumble. Um, and also peach coffee cake, which is how we got here in the first place.

And we haven't even gotten to peach pie yet. Or peach cobbler muffins.

And even though I would very much like for there to be a peach dessert of some kind in my life every single day, I am enough of a grown up to know that's not wise or practical.

So, I'm happy to report that this crumble and all the aforementioned peach pastries also work perfectly well with frozen peaches. No need to cram them all into the peak of summer. Unless of course, you want to.

Thanks to the freezer in your kitchen, peaches baked into a cobbler or a crumble or a cake, pie, or muffins for dessert can be had any time of the year. There is so much good news in that sentence.

How to make this crumble

This is seriously one of the easiest desserts you can make and the whole thing will be baked and bubbly and ready to eat in less than an hour. Because it's summer and we want something sweet and peachy, but also we have better things to do.

To make the crumb topping, start by toasting some sweetened shredded coconut. Heat the coconut in a skillet until about half of it is a rich golden brown. (Trying to cook the coconut until it's more than 50% golden brown usually results in some burnt strands.)

Set it aside to cool for a few minutes. This is a great time to peel and slice your peaches.

Add the nuts to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until they are chopped into very small pieces. Add the toasted coconut and sugar and pulse a few times to combine. Then add the butter, salt, and vanilla and pulse until the butter is blended in and the mixture looks damp.

Pro tip: The topping for this crumble calls for superfine sugar. If you don't have any, simply add some regular granulated sugar to your food processor and process for a couple of minutes until the sugar is ground to a fine powder.

After peeling and slicing the peaches, toss them around in some lemon juice and lemon zest then add the rest of the filling ingredients.

Spread the filling into a buttered square baking dish, sprinkle on the topping, and bake. Done and done.

It is now time to stand at the oven door waiting and drooling.

How to serve peach crumble

It's hard to beat a scoop of vanilla ice cream on cobbler, crisp, crumble, pie, cookies, or almost any other kind of pastry under the sun. Peach crumble is not an exception to this rule.

But, obviously, peach ice cream would be fabulous. Also, lightly sweetened whipped cream would be equally welcome here.

And by the way, we had some of the crumble you see here left over after taking photos and the next morning I spooned it over bowls of plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt for breakfast and it was absolutely delicious.

I need no excuse to eat dessert for breakfast, but if you do, consider this: the topping is very granola like so you basically have a yogurt, fruit, and granola parfait. You're welcome.

More fruit filled pastries

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Scroll down to leave a comment and rate this recipe. Happy Baking!