The Bloods and the Crisps
I am in an endless gang war with fruit desserts. When I hit with a not-too-sweet pie, they come right back with a mushy cake. When I eliminate needless, flavor choking sugars from a crumble, they drive by with a tart so sickeningly sweet that it momentarily makes my heart stop.
Needless to say, I never have trouble declining fruit desserts (despite my supremely aggressive sweet tooth) because I hate them 98% of the time. My idea of a great fruit dessert is one where the filling still has some texture and isn't so overpoweringly sweet that it lacks any fruit flavor. Sadly, that's pretty hard to find when it comes to pre-made fruit stuff of any kind.
As far as I'm concerned, you can take any recipe for a fruit dessert and cut the sugar in half. AT LEAST. Some things this doesn't work so well for, like cherry pie, because those fruits are actually really tart and need some TLC but everything else is fair game.
That's why I decided to make a fruit crisp that wouldn't send me into a diabetic coma. In fact, the recipe has almost no added sugar -- and I bet if you don't tell anyone, they'd never know.
This is an amazingly easy dish that is perfect for using up apples and pears that are past their prime. The crumble topping does have some butter in it, but since everything else is so healthy, it's really not that bad. Plus, there has been some recent research about the health benefits of dairy fat, so eat up.
Even though this recipe is super simple, if you bake it in a fancy dish it comes out looking really nice -- AKA you could totes serve it for Thanksgiving and nobody would have to know it only took you 15 minutes of hands-on work. Plus, it'll be a welcome change from the heavy classics like green bean casserole and sweet potatoes with marshmallows (I still don't get the appeal of either of these things but wtf do I know apparently everyone else loves them).
Ingredients:
For the filling:
4 or 5 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced into wedges
2 or 3 pears, peeled, cored and sliced into wedges
1/2 c. raisins
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
For the topping:
1/4 c. oatmeal
1/4 c. flour
6 tbs. butter, cubed and very cold
1/8 c. brown sugar
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine the apples, pears, and raisins in a large bowl. Sprinkle the spices evenly over the fruit. Mix well to combine. Remove to an 8x8 baking dish.
2. In a food processor, combine all the ingredients for the topping. Pulse until the butter is evenly distributed, and about the size of peas. Sprinkle evenly over the fruit filling.
3. Bake until apples are soft, but not mushy, about 35 minutes. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream or plain.
