Whole Grain Peach Crisp

Call it a crisp, call it a crumble, nothing makes my house smell more inviting in late summer than a delicious baked fruit dessert.  Peach crisp is one of my all-time favorite treats, and I love making it in August and September.

Peach crisp came into my childhood as a recipe off the side of a Bisquick box.  Later as an adult living in Italy, I no longer had the recipe- which was not a problem, since I couldn't buy Bisquick at my local supermercato! 

I trolled recipe websites for crisp and crumble recipes claiming any association with Betty Crocker, my go-to American dessert reference.  I found a recipe to start with, then made a lot of changes.  For healthier baking I use whole grains and alternative fats and sweeteners.  But the most radical change of all...I've taken out the peaches!

Yep, my favorite peach crisp doesn't have peaches.  After one experiment subbing nectarines for peaches, I've never made peach crisp with peaches again.

I love the hint of acid that yellow nectarines bring to the crisp.  Choose nectarines that are a touch harder than you would normally eat them, but still plenty juicy.  

So long as they're not overly ripe, nectarines are fast and easy to peel with a potato peeler.  

The recipe calls for six cups of sliced fruit, that's usually equivalent to about 6 large nectarines.  

A crisp, or crumble as it's sometimes called, is essentially like a French apple pie.  Fruit slices are coated with a mixture of flour, sugar, and spices, then topped with a butter and sugar streusel blend.  The pie crust is eliminated, and I don't miss it in the least!  To improve the nutrition served up with this yummy treat, I add oats and walnuts to the crumble topping.

This is a very homey dessert, and it adapts beautifully to alternative baking ingredients.  There are no rising agents to worry about, so feel free to sub flour types for your health needs.  For instance, replacing the wheat flour with oat flour would work well if you need to eat gluten-free.  If you need to cut down on the sugar, leave off the crumble topping, stir the walnuts directly into the filling, and bake the filling alone, with slightly reduced cooking time.  You'll miss some of the indulgence, but none of the amazing baking aroma.

And it really is worth the effort to make this dessert just for the awesome smell of it baking in the oven.  Another perk- when a few weeks go by, welcome autumn and apple season by replacing the nectarines with tart apples.  You'll fall in love with baked fruit all over again.

For the filling:

6 C firm nectarines peeled and sliced

2 T whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 C Turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)

3/4 t cinnamon

3/4 t nutmeg

For the crumble topping:

1/3 C Earth Balance butter substitute

2/3 C (shy) brown sugar

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t salt

1/2 C rolled oats

1/4 C whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 C chopped walnuts

Peel, remove the pits, and slice the nectarines.  Arrange slices in a single layer in an 8x8 square oven safe dish.  No need to grease the pan.

Dust the slices with the remaining filling ingredients and stir gently to coat the fruit slices with the dry ingredients.

Combine the dry ingredients for the crumble topping (except for the walnuts) into a small bowl.  Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork.  Stir the walnuts into the topping.

Spread the crumble topping over the prepared fruit.  Bake uncovered at 350 for about 55 minutes.  Peaches should be bubbly, topping golden brown.

Serve warm with ice cream on top for maximum indulgence and joy.  Pictured above with a vanilla flavored frozen almond milk dessert.

Recipe Roundup

Last week I experimented with three new recipes.  All three were good, and two were instant favorites.

First up, Smashed Chickpea & Avocado Sandwich from Two Peas and Their Pod.  This is the sandwich that was so yummy, I chose it over grilled cheese.  I love the play of salt and lime juice with the avocado and chickpeas.  Not only was this a great sandwich spread, it made an awesome dip.  A very rare recipes for which I didn't and wouldn't change a single thing.   

Favorite of family and friends last week were my Star Wars Day dueling lightsaber cupcakes.  Give them a try (light sabers optional).  I got the recipe for 100% Whole Grain Chocolate Cupcakes from Texanerin Baking.  I chose to top them with a Nutella-style hazelnut chocolate spread instead of the espresso frosting.  The combination of hazelnut chocolate spread with these cupcakes was just too yummy.  Erin gives a couple variations in this recipe, I used whole wheat pastry flour, turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw), and canola oil.

Our house is anything but gluten-free, but I'm always on the lookout for a tasty cookie with no refined white flour or sugar, and for deserts that combine some worthwhile nutrition with the treat.  These Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies from Kneadtocook have no refined flours and are full of protein.  I followed the recipe as written, using almond butter, and the cookies turned out well.  Next time I would add 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  To get the best cookie taste, a pinch of salt to contrast the sugar would have really added some extra kick to the flavor.  I have a feeling most almond butters contain a little salt, but my almond butter had none, so check your almond butter before deciding whether or not to add salt.  Aside from needing that kiss of salt, a decent, chewy, gluten-free cookie.  The batter is very sticky- make sure to use Silpat or parchment paper as indicated!

This week's new recipes on the horizon include an interesting spice blend to roast and grind.  It will then become part of an intriguing new spiced cashew snack.  Should be fun!

Portable Post Run Recovery Snack

Wanted: a healthy snack that can survive an eight mile run while bouncing up and down under the hot sun in a very unrefrigerated pocket.

Having a small snack after a serious run is supposed to do all sorts of helpful things to aid in muscle recovery so that we can feel well and get back out on the trail again sooner.  Problem is, we walk almost a mile to and from the trail.  By the time I get home to prepare a fresh snack, we've missed the half hour window where that post run recovery snack can make the most difference.

We had to find a portable snack that we could eat on our walk home.  It couldn't be too messy, it had to be nutritious.  The obvious choice was to buy a nutrition bar, but we wanted fresh, home made food, not something loaded with preservatives that came out of a box.

So today we auditioned Soft & Chewy Sugar-Free Granola Bars from OhSheGlows.com.

Thanks to the Vitamix this recipe was very easy to put together.  I used the dry container to grind the oat flour and the wet container handily made the paste of dates and water.  The bars turned out great- not too sweet, palatable, and gentle on the stomach.  We put both bars in a little Ziploc in my husband's pocket (yes, Ziploc snack bags are BPA free- I checked!)

The only snafu in our experiment was that the two thin bars I packed came out of our 8 mile run completely fused into one big bar.  Kind of romantic, in a sugar-free, nutrition bar kind of way.  We just broke the two-become-one bar in half and enjoyed!

On the importance of white powder

I loved this article from Epicurious: Baking Soda Vs. Baking Powder.

My first ever kitchen disaster happened in high school home economics.  I made baking powder biscuits.  Um, actually they turned out to be baking soda biscuits by mistake.  What came out of the oven was black and inedible.  I was completely shocked that a little bit of white powder could make such a dramatic difference.  Thank goodness for classmates who shared their tasty treats!  It was a lesson I'll never forget, and a reminder that baking is just as much a science as an art.

Not only does this article explain the chemical difference between baking soda and baking powder, but it gives some fantastic advice for those who like to tinker with recipes.  If you plan to play around with some improv in your baking, this article is a must-read!

The Frosting That Saved Valentine's Day

Healthy frosting is an oxymoron, but there are a couple times each year I have to try to make it a reality, and Valentine's Day is one of those times. When my first attempt at healthy frosting ended in disaster, this recipe for 1 Minute Chocolate Frosting from CDKitchen came to the rescue.
This frosting sounded too good to be true. Simple ingredients whose healthier alternatives I had on hand, and only one minute to make? It actually took me over an hour because the frosting boiled for one minute, then needed a long time to cool. That said, this one hour chocolate frosting was very forgiving of alternative ingredients and saved my hubby's Valentines Day treats!

Boiled frosting is a great option for attempting frosting with more wholesome sweeteners because it takes granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar. I could easily substitute turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw) for the white granulated sugar, I subbed Earth Balance for the butter, and used organic almond milk instead of dairy milk. All those changes, and the frosting still turned out great! Although I beat it in the mixer as per instructions, I don't think it really needed to be beaten, at least not with my mix of ingredient substitutions. It was already spreadable when just cooled and stirred.
Here is my altered recipe:
1 cup turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup Earth Balance
1/4 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
I dumped everything in a sauce pan and brought to a roiling boil, which I then kept going for 1 minute. I was supposed to put the vanilla in after the boil, but putting it in at the beginning didn't seem to hurt. I transferred the molten frosting to a bowl and let it cool for at least 45 minutes. At that point it was ready to stir (or beat) and spread sparingly for a fun, but not too unhealthy treat.