Apple Cranberry Crisp

This is the first of many apple recipes this week with the plethora of apples I have in the house. In our unhealthy days I used to a make an apple cranberry crisp that was loaded with sugar. Sugar in the fruit and the topping. And, gasp, butter was included in the filling and topping. Needless to say something with that amount of fat and sugar is off the menu at our house for many reasons. However, my husband always loved that dessert so I decided to a make a clean healthy version of it.

I used a small amount of agave for the sugar. I subbed a reduced amount of canola oil for the butter. I increased the amount of cinnamon in the recipe and added powdered ginger for the antioxidants. Here is what I did.

Apple Cranberry Crisp
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 apples, cored and cut into bite size pieces
¼ cup frozen cranberries
¼ cup walnut pieces
¼ cup oatmeal, dry
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon agave
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger, powdered
1 tablespoon agave, for topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the apples, cranberries and walnuts and place in a two single serving ramekins.

Combine the oatmeal, 1 tablespoon agave, cinnamon, and ginger and mix to thoroughly and top the apple and cranberry evenly with the oat mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the apples and cranberries are soft.

To serve top each serving with a ½ tablespoon of agave.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 287.97
Calories From Fat (51%) - 146.54

Total Fat - 17.12g
Saturated Fat - 1.52g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 5.46mg
Potassium - 303.26mg
Total Carbohydrates - 34.86g
Fiber - 8.26g
Sugar - 15.92g
Protein - 3.97g

Comments:

First, need to caution you to keep an eye on this so the topping doesn’t get too brown, as mine did. A few minutes more and I would have burnt the topping. Agave browns much more quickly than sugar. Next time I would probably lower the heat to adjust for the browning factor.

The amount of agave you need is a factor of how sweet the apples are you use. For example if you use granny smith you will definitely need more agave.

Overall both my husband and I thought this was quite good. We both commented that it was surprising that we thought the dessert was sweet enough with only one tablespoon of agave in each serving. My, how our tastes have changed since we all but eliminated sweeteners from our diet.