Autumn Harvest Crumble

Autumn is officially here; time to break out those cozy sweaters and leggings!

(That last sentence was directed towards the ladies; gentlemen, please don’t break out your leggings!)

This season is probably one of my favorites out of the four. Autumn possesses so much beauty in its falling leaves, gold-orange-brown color schemes, and those crisp, shorter days. Not to mention activities such as visiting the pumpkin patch, camping, and getting back to actually getting back to the stove and oven to cook meals, where I had not have done that in a while. During those intensely warm summer days, no one wants to slave over a fiery hot stove! So during that time, my cooking consisted mainly of whatever fresh veggies I could find in our drawer, paired some kind of meat-so usually, salads.

But now as it shifts into those colder months, we crave heartier things like soups, stews, and casseroles.

Not to mention satisfying, warm desserts like baked goods, pies, and crumbles in lieu of rather refreshing and cold treats, like ice cream…wait, no, I don’t care how cold it is, no weather could ever restrain me from eating one of my favorite foods!

While I may never stop enjoying ice cream, even in the depths of winter, it is nice to change it up a bit and take advantage of the beautiful autumn crops, throw them together, and make an even more beautiful (okay, maybe not so beautiful) but delicious dessert!

I had pondered upon making a standard apple crumble, a dish loved and familiar to all, but when I saw golden raisins on clearance during my grocery store visit, I somehow ended up bringing home a box of the sweet little dried fruits with no idea or intention of what I would do with them.

Raisins don’t particularly appeal to many by themselves, so why not throw them into a crumble along tart granny smith apples and dried apricots? It had sounded to be a clever idea in my head, but how would it taste?

Fruity, slightly tart, and wonderful.

Ingredients:

3 large or 4-5 small granny smith apples, peeled and thinly sliced

¾ cup water

½ cup dried apricots, halved

¼ cup golden raisins

¼ cup raisins

¼ cup coconut palm sugar

2 tbsp. apple juice (may be omitted)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. maple syrup

¼ tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. cardamom

1/8 tsp. sea salt

For the Crumble topping:

1 ½ cup almond flour

2 tbsp. ghee, melted (you may substitute coconut oil for the ghee for a vegan option)

2 tbsp. maple syrup

1 tsp. cinnamon

Dairy-free vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional, but highly recommended. I like to use the So Delicious brand coconut milk vanilla ice cream.)

1. Preheat your oven to 350° F.

2. Grease a 10 ½” cast iron skillet or baking dish with ghee or coconut oil.

3. To a large saucepan of deep skillet, add water and coconut sugar. Bring to a quick boil.

4. Stir in apples, apricots, golden raisins, raisins, lemon juice, spices, and sea salt. Reduce heat and simmer/sauté fruit until the apples start to become tender. Add in the 2 tbsp. apple juice or additional water if needed.

5. Turn off the heat and stir in 1 tsp. maple syrup.

6. Remove fruit mixture from the saucepan/skillet to your cast iron skillet or baking dish.

7. Now to make the crumble topping. Simply add almond flour and cinnamon to a bowl and combine. Then, stir in the melted ghee and maple syrup, to get a nice, crumbly mixture. If the mixture seems to wet, add additional almond flour, and if it seems to dry, add additional ghee.

8. Sprinkle crumble topping evenly on top of the fruit and transfer to the oven to bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the topping begins to brown. You may also desire to broil the crumble for about 2-3 minutes after baking, to get a nice, golden brown crust. But be careful, it can easily burn!

9. Remove your autumn harvest crumble from the oven and let cool ever-so-slightly.

10. Serve with a scoop of your favorite dairy-free vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

Question of the Day: “What is your favorite thing about Autumn?”

~I love the beauty, the busyness of the season, and of course, the fact that it all starts building up to my favorite holiday: Christmas! A little too soon? Sorry…only 91 more days!