Peach Crumble with Oats
This easy and popular peach crumble with oats is versatile and classic served warm with a scoop of ice cream. Sweet juicy peaches topped with a buttery, cinnamon-y, nutty topping – a delicious taste of summer.
Make it with ripe summer peaches or any other fruit combination like our apple and blueberry cobbler.
At every event, the fruit crumbles that my friend, Cath Kreuter, brings get rave reviews. Sometimes she makes strawberry and rhubarb, sometimes apple, sometimes berry. It doesn’t matter – it’s a simple and great recipe.
Cath makes her peach crumble with fresh seasonal peaches. Bonus – it’s pretty healthy and low calorie for a dessert.
The crumble topping is crispy and buttery, making it a perfect contrast to the soft filling. In fact, I can just as easily call it a peach crisp with oats.
Bottom line: It’s pure pleasure to dig into a humble peach crumble with ripe summer peaches straight from the farmers market and a comforting, yummy crisp topping.
How to serve peach crumble with oats
I like to serve the peach crumble warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Room temperature is fine too. Comfort food at its best.
If you are looking for a no-bake fruit dessert with a crumble topping, try our No-Bake Berry Crumble.
How to tell if a peach is ripe
The best way to tell if a peach is ripe is by touch and smell, not color. Ripe peaches will have a fragrant sweet smell and a slight ‘give’ or softness when gently squeezed. The color around the stem should be a deep yellow.
You can help ripen peaches by leaving them on the counter – not touching each other – until they are soft. If you are not ready to use them when they are rip and soft, put them in the fridge.
Tailor To Your Taste
Feel free to play with the fruit crumble ingredients to adjust them to your taste. For example,
- Use more or less sugar. You can even eliminate the lemon juice and use less sugar if you are concerned about sugar;
- Increase the amount of cinnamon or add a pinch of nutmeg
- Try whole wheat flour instead of regular flour
- Add blueberries to make a blueberry peach crumble
- Serve the peach crumble with whipped cream, vanilla yogurt or ice cream.
Shortcuts
- If fresh peaches are not in season, you can use frozen peaches that are picked at their peak ripeness, peeled and sliced. Defrost them before use and discard most of the juices. Alternatively, use another fruit in season that doesn’t have to be peeled such as berries.
- It is not essential to peel the peaches.
Make Ahead
- To freeze: Prepare and bake peach crumble. Cool and cover tightly in an airtight container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge. Warm for about 20 minutes in a 350F/177C oven for about 20 minutes or until heated through.
- To store leftovers: Peach crumble can be left on the counter, loosely covered, for up to 2 days.
Difference between fruit crisps, crumbles and cobblers
The difference between a peach crumble recipe and peach crisp is minimal. A crisp recipe is – er – crispier 🙂 and a crumble may or may not contain oats. A fruit cobbler, however, is quite different with its thicker dough or biscuit topping.
Any fresh fruit can be used for all three, although it’s better to go for firmer fruits for the cobbler.
If you’re interested, here’s a good article on the history and differences of crumbles, crisps and cobblers by Bon Appetit.
Other easy peach recipes to try
At peak season I inhale juicy ripe peaches. If you love peaches, here are a few easy and great ways to use them.
- Grilled peaches
- Peach jam recipe without pectin
- Easy peach tarte titin (for beginners)
- Panzanella salad recipe with peaches
- Peach chutney (30 minutes)
Or check our full list of seasonal peach recipes.
Please leave a 5 star rating ***** with a comment in the recipe card below if you like the recipe, Thanks so much!
Peach Crumble With Oats
Ingredients
Peach filling for an 8 x 8 inch (20.3 x 20.3cm) square pan
- 8 -10 medium-large ripe peaches, Note 1 (about 3-4 pounds or 6 -7 cups peach slices)
- 1/2 medium lemon (about 1 1/2 tablespoons)
- 1/3 cup (75g) brown sugar (or 1/2 cup if you prefer sweeter)
- 2 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Crumble Topping
- 3 tablespoon melted butter
- 1/3 cup (27g) oats (old-fashioned oats or quick oats)
- 1/3 cup (42g) all purpose flour (or whole wheat)
- 1/3 cup (75g) brown sugar (or use 1/4 cup for less sweet)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup (44g) pecan pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F/204C
- PREPARE PEACHES: Carefully drop whole peaches in a pot of boiling water. Let them sit for 1 minute. Drain and run under cold water. Peach skins will slip off easily. Make about 10-12 slits vertically around each peach all the way to the pit. Gently pull peach slices off the pit. Put sliced peaches in a large bowl. Or use this technique to blanch, peel and slice peaches.
- PREPARE FILLING: Add all other peach mixture ingredients to the bowl. Gently mix to combine well. Pour into an 8 x 8 inch (20.3 x 20.3cm) oven-proof baking dish. Make sure there is at least 1 inch/2.5cm or more of empty space to the top of the dish to avoid mixture bubbling over in oven. If there isn't, use a slightly larger dish.
- MAKE CRUMBLE: Add all crumble ingredients in a small bowl and combine well. Sprinkle crumble mix evenly on top of the fruit.
- BAKE AND SERVE: Place peach crumble on a baking sheet lined with foil (for easy cleanup in case of bubbling over). Bake for 15 minutes at 400F/204C. Reduce the oven temperature to 325F/163C. Bake for 20 more minutes or until topping is nicely browned. Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream or whipped cream.
Recipe Notes
- Type of peaches: If you can, buy freestone peaches (as opposed to clingstone) as the peach slices will easily come away from the pit. Otherwise you will have to cut the slices off the pit.
- Recipe variations to try
- Use more or less sugar. You can even eliminate the lemon juice and use less sugar if you are concerned about sugar;
- Increase the amount of cinnamon or add a pinch of nutmeg
- Try whole wheat flour instead of regular flour
- Add blueberries.
- Serve the peach crumble with whipped cream, vanilla yogurt or ice cream.
- Make Ahead
- To freeze: Prepare and bake peach crumble. Cool and cover tightly in an airtight container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and warm in a 350°F (177°C) oven for 20 minutes or until heated through.
- To store leftovers: Peach crumble can be left on the counter, loosely covered, for up to 2 days.
Nutrition
This peach crumble recipe, first published in 2016, has been updated with edited pictures and additional information.
Wow! I was gifted some beautiful peaches this week, so even though I never bake, I looked for the perfect way to highlight them before they turned. I am so grateful I found your post today. Normally, I bristle when people thank the chef then list out the 15 substitutions they made, as I usually try to stay true to the vision. I did make one substitution as I did not have fresh lemons for juice, and did not want to use the fake stuff. I had a small amount of bagged raspberries in my freezer, probably less than .25 cup, but the tartness worked in place of the lemon. It did stain the peaches a lovely color that dulled during cooking, but that’s minor. So the filling was really lovely but the crumble! Your mixture was perfect and the star of the show as it perfectly complimented the peaches. The entire dessert was easy to recreate and was the perfect complement to a beautiful end of summer dinner. It was a wonderful dessert; thank you.
What a lovely end-of-summer review! Thanks so much Rachael – and thanks for sharing your tweaks.
Oh my gosh– this recipe is DELICIOUS! I was very nervous because I had never made a crisp before. The pecans & oats are a great add. I read a comment about the lemon juice making it too sour so I only used 1 Tablespoon. I was worried I didn’t have quite enough peaches so I added 1/2 cup blueberries. Nothing bubbled over the top and I didn’t peel the peaches which is totally fine! Will try this with other fruit as soon as we finish this one!
I am planning on making this recipe today but noticed in the top description summary it says cook time is 25 minutes but the instructions say 35 minutes (15 + 20). Is the 400° cook time 15 minutes or 5 minutes? Thank you.
Hi Stephanie. I am so sorry – thanks for the catch! The recipe instructions are correct. Bake for 35 minutes (15 minutes at one temp, then another 20 minutes at another temp. Sorry for the confusion. I will fix the summary times in the recipe card right away.
Thank you for the rapid reply! For some reason, I didn’t see it until today –after I made it. I was very careful and checked it every 5 minutes at 400°. It came out perfectly!
No problem. I’m just happy the crumble came out so well 🙂
excellent!
Love this recipe. The crumble topping is really good. Excellent with ice cream and very easy to make.
Thank you Lori. Thanks for leaving a comment – much appreciated 🙂
Loved it. Though I used canned peaches, and blueberries. Cornstarch in the fruit instead of flour. And I doubled the oats and cut back on the flour. Superb!
Thanks for sharing your tweaks 🙂
Just put this peach crisp in the oven. It’s looks so yummy and this recipe was very easy to understand. Wish me luck and hope it taste as good as it looks in the over.
Laurie
Good luck Laurie! Let us know how it turned out.
It’s a good base recipe but had some issues the first time around. I measured the exact lemon juice, but it was way too sour. Next time I will omit the lemon but stick to the regular sugar, maybe a bit less. Next, the topping totally burnt in the first 10min at 400F. I added a foil for the remainder but it was still totally burnt and inedible. Thankfully, I made double the topping based on other crisp recipes I saw, so I just removed the entire top layer. Next time I will keep the double topping but use another crisp recipe for bake time and temperature. That said, I like the ratios of nuts/flour/oats/butter and the melted butter method is much easier and tastes great. For anyone curious, coconut sugar instead of brown sugar tastes great, I followed the volume amounts (which was less weight than the brown sugar packed) and taste was perfect.
Sorry to hear you had some troubles, especially since it’s our second most popular summer recipe and no one has mentioned burning before. Perhaps your oven temperature is a bit off? (most are). Glad you liked the recipe though and we hope you’ll try it again – perhaps using a lower oven temperature next time as you mentioned.