Saturday, September 5, 2009

Dessert: Apple Crumble

Let's face it. I have a major sweet tooth. When I stopped eating sugar, I essentially substituted fruit. It's not a perfect solution, and I am working on it. However, sometimes I just really NEED something sweet, and if I can create it to be Paleo-ish compliant, so much the better.

The other day, I wandered by a bakery and saw an Apple Galette, which is basically an open-face tart, on display. I decided to try and create a Paleo-ish Apple Galette. What resulted was something less formal, but very tasty.

Believe it or not, I didn't measure anything. Like I said, methods are shown here, not exactitude (which I personally think is hilarious, since I have to be so exacting in my job!)

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Apple Crumble

- almond flour
- butter or coconut oil (I used butter)
- apples (I used 3)
- vanilla paste, or a scraped vanilla bean, or vanilla extract
- pumpkin pie spice
- "B" grade maple syrup


Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Grab some kind of Pyrex casserole dish. Get about 1/2 inch of almond flour on the bottom of the dish. Cut up a bunch of butter into small chunks- I probably used about 4 - 6 oz of butter. Dot the almond flour with chunks of butter, and kind of work them into the flour with your fingers a bit, as you would for a crumble topping.



Slice the apples thinly. I didn't bother to peel them. Layer them on top of the almond flour. Periodically (maybe halfway through your apples?) shake on some more almond flour, and also sprinkle on a generous amount of pumpkin pie spice.


At this point, I took a tablespoon of vanilla paste and drizzled it over the top of the apples. Layer the rest of your apple slices on top of this. On top of that, sprinkle some more almond flour, add pumpkin pie spice, dot the top with butter, and then take about a tablespoon of maple syrup and drizzle it over the top of everything. (The brown dots on the top of this are maple syrup).



Stick the apple crumble in the oven for about 30-45 minutes, until the almonds take on a golden color and it smells awesome in your kitchen.



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So, why is this Paleo compliant? It's NOT, really - Paleo diet does not encourage the eating of fruits and nuts together (something about sugar / fat absorption, I believe), but I think if you're going to have something that constitutes cheating, at least make it still "clean" foods (that is, no grains, unprocessed, etc.)

Eat and enjoy. And you don't even have to tell your guests what the hell's in it - they'll be too busy eating. :)

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