So I don’t want to toot my own horn too much, but this baby is gooooood. Real good. When I served it for dessert at a leisurely Sunday lunch, comments like “This is the best dessert I’ve ever had.” and “This is the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted.” were flung around. The pie dish was licked clean in under 10 minutes. Proof is in the pudding they say… So I had to share this super simple, yet satisfying crumble with you asap, because it’s perfect for Winter and yet it is grain free, gluten free, refined sugar free, dairy free and absolutely dead easy to make.
Ok so here’s the only problem. The way I cook is mostly instinctual. I throw a handful of this and then a pinch of that and I never really measure out quantities. Not so great for sharing recipes. I’m trying to be a bit more diligent with this… but yesterday that was not the case. The beauty about this crumble though, is that it’s pretty much fail-proof and you can be quite flexible with quantities. You can also adapt the recipe to meet your dietary needs. Maybe you can’t eat nuts? Then you could substitute the almonds for seeds or even coconut flakes. If you don’t have apples on hand, replace them with pears. Adjust the sweetness to your liking. Really you can play with this recipe so much and there are endless possibilities.
Here’s a rough idea of what I did yesterday. Let me know how it turns out for you!
BESPOKE BODY APPLE BERRY CRUMBLE
Ingredients:
2 apples chopped into smallish cubes – I used Royal Gala apples
1 cup of water
1 cup of blueberries – fresh or frozen
1 tablespoon xylitol
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup of almonds
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup brown rice syrup or maple syrup or xylitol syrup
pinch of sea salt
Whipped coconut cream to serve
Method:
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius. In a small pot place the chopped apples, water, some xylitol, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bring to a gentle boil and cook the apples until they are tender. Drain the apples and keep a little bit of the spiced water.
Place the blueberries, apples and the little bit of spiced water into a medium sized pie or casserole dish.
Now to make the crumble topping:
Place the almonds in a food processor and pulse until they reach a large grain size texture. Not too fine – you want a bit of crunch! Now add the chopped dates and pulse a few more times. Add the buckwheat flour, coconut oil and brown rice syrup and continue to pulse until a slightly sticky, crumbly texture is formed. You can add a tiny pinch of sea salt and a little cinnamon. Taste to check level of sweetness. Adjust to your liking. Now evenly crumble this mixture over your fruit.
Cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the topping is golden brown and slightly crispy. Serve warm with some coconut milk or cream or even dairy free ice-cream. Yum. ENJOY!
If you want to serve it with whipped coconut cream then do the following: place a tin of full cream coconut milk UPSIDE DOWN in the fridge. Leave overnight. Do not shake the can! When you’re ready to whip it, turn it the right side up. The coconut cream will have separated from the liquid. Scoop the solid liquid out and place in a cool metal bowl. Add a pinch of vanilla powder and xylitol if you like. Whip the cream with an electric whisk until stiff peaks form. This will keep in the fridge for a day or so.
I think they liked it!