Homemade Spiced Apple Crumble

The weekend is all about baking and creating great recipes. My boyfriend’s all-time favourite desert is Apple crumble, so I decided to make him a spiced apple crumble to warm our hearts on a cold Saturday night.

Ingredients

For the crumble:

100g of plain white flour (Doves Farm)

75g of unsalted butter (cubed)

75g demerara sugar

25g gluten free rolled oats

25g of chopped nuts

½ tsp of cinnamon to top

For the filling:

2 Bramley apples

3 Granny Smith apples

150g of golden caster sugar

1 Tsp of corn flour

4-5 tbsp of water

1 ½ tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of nutmeg

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees or 150 fan assisted

Peel, core and cut the apples into cubes and place them in a bowl

Add the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and corn flour to the apples and combine

Add the 4-5 tablespoons of water to thin the mixture

Place the apples in a deep oven proof dish (preferably a Pyrex dish) and place in the oven for 10 minutes

While the apples are cooking, in a separate bowl add the plain flour and butter (cubed). Rub the mixture together until it resembles breadcrumbs

Add the sugar, chopped nuts and oats and combine with hands

Remove the apples from the oven and stir

Top the cooked apples with the crumble mixture and then sprinkle cinnamon  to top

Place back in the oven for 25-30 minutes

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before serving

I like my apple crumble served with icecream – but serve as you wish. This went down really well with Peter for a Saturday night treat! 

Peck Nutrition Orange Almond Cupcakes

The lovely ladies from Peck Nutrition got in touch a few weeks ago and asked me to try one of their nutritious recipes. Of course I jumped at the chance to try out something new, and of course...something healthy! 

The below recipe is for an actual cake, but I decided to make muffins instead, as when I make a cake, it never gets eaten!

I needn't have worried with these though - they all went! They even passed the boyfriend test - and he is a harsh judge! 

Ingredients 

125ml of olive oil

150g of soft brown sugar

3 eggs

250g of ground almonds

3 tbsp of toasted flaked almonds

200-250g of grated raw carrots

75g of golden sultanas and raisins

60ml of rum

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp ground nutmeg

Juice of ½ orange

Zest of 1 orange

1 tub of quark (250g)

1 tub of extra light cream cheese (250g)

1 tbsp vanilla

Runny honey to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Grease and line the base and sides of a 9 inch round removable cake tin.

Toast the flaked almonds being careful not to burn and set aside.

Grate the carrots and wrap in kitchen paper and squeeze out excess water. Place carrots on

plate.

Put sultanas and raisins in a small sauce pan with rum and bring to boil quickly. Turn down and then let simmer for 3 minutes. Then turn off heat.

In a large bowl whisk the sugar and olive oil until creamy and mixed with air and bubbly. The mixture should go slightly paler.

Mix in the vanilla, eggs and whisk well.

Next add the ground almonds, nutmeg, grated carrots, sultana/rum mixture, orange juice and zest. Fold together with a spoon.

Pour the mixture into separate cake muffin cases and smooth.

Sprinkle the toasted flaked almonds over the tip.

Bake cake for 30-40 minutes or until the risen and springy to touch. When you insert a skewer into the centre, it should come out clean.

When cooked cool, and remove from the tin and place on serving plate.

For cream place quark and cream cheese in a bowl with vanilla.

Beat until mixed.

Then add runny honey until sweet/to taste.

Check out Peck Nutrition on Twitter here , Instagram here or Facebook here. They really are worth checking out, they have hundreds of recipes that are suited to your nutritional needs with lots of advice and support. 

Help these ladies help you! :) 

Thank you for letting me try one of your recipes, the cakes were moist, tasty and truly delicious and I have already handed it to a few people I know who like to bake Gluten Free. Even my dad ate a few of them and he is a hard person to please!

T :) x