Grain Free Apple And Blackberry Crisp
I love this crisp with a splash of homemade almond milk or a good dollop of coconut yogurt and a cup of tea.
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Preheat oven to 350 F
Ingredients
5 Apples Peeled and Diced
1.5 Cups Blackberries - Frozen or Fresh
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ginger
Pinch of Salt
1 TBSP Ground Flax seeds
Mix these ingredients together and put in an 8x8 baking dish, flattening them out so it makes a smooth-ish surface for the topping.
1.5 Cups Mixed Nuts: Almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts… whatever you have.
1 Cup Mixed Seeds: Pumkin, sunflower, hemp… whatever you have.
1/2 Cup Shredded or flaked unsweetened coconut
1/2 Cup Coconut Oil (optional but adds delicious crispy texture and healthy fat to your meal)
1 + TBSP Maple Syrup or Coconut Sugar. Add to your taste, but go lightly. Less is better!
Add all these ingredients to your food processor and pulse just until chopped up into random chunks and then spread evenly over your apples and blackberries.
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Instructions
Follow the instructions above, then pop into preheated oven for 45-60 minutes. Until top is golden and the bottom is bubbly and tender. Tested by poking some apple with a butter knife… that’s how the pros do it for sure.
Let cool for at least a little, then scoop out and enjoy!
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Tips and Suggestions
This crisp is delicious with all kinds of fruit, so please mix it up and use what you have.
Serve it as dessert while it’s still warm with yogurt or ice cream or with a good splash of homemade almond milk.
Sometimes if I’m serving this for dessert I will drizzle it with a final bit of maple syrup. Just half a tsp or so, but it brings it all up a notch, and is especially yummy if you’re serving it with the homemade almond milk. Which is so much more flavorful than store bought I can’t even tell you! It’s also incredibly easy to make.
This also makes a great breakfast. For my kids I serve it with a boiled egg on the side or a few slices of sugar/nitrate free bacon.
Let me know how you make it your own! And please feel free to share these recipes with anyone and everyone if you enjoy them. It makes a huge difference to me.
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Final Thoughts and a Story
Apple and blackberries are a lovely combination that reminds me of long summer days as a kid picking blackberries for my mom. The smell of them so sweet and strong it hung in the air like edible perfume, but the bushes almost evil with their thorns like daggers.
They grow in such a prolific abundance where I grew up, that whole fields will end up with a jagged sweet blanket of blackberries. The vines reaching for still more space, swallowing up old abandoned cars and forgotten chicken coops. They are an invasive weed no doubt, but it’s hard not to love them anyway.
Apples and blackberries go so well together; perhaps that is because it’s a combination I grew up with. We would spend one day picking berries, shredding our arms and legs and tearing our clothes. Then the next day driving around in our boat looking for abandoned homestead with apple and pear trees that were straining under an abundance of ripe fruit.
We could smell their ripeness from the beach, and I will tell you what, it’s a bit like finding pirate treasure to come across an abandoned orchard bursting with juicy ripe fruit.
Childhood memories almost always come back to resourcefully looking for food.
Food was survival for us really. Like everyone I suppose, but we had to work for it. We had to track it down and hunt for it and preserve it. I suppose that is where gratitude began for me, and also a deeper connection to where and what we eat.
Anyway, I know it’s a rare thing indead for someone to read stories linked to recipes, but if you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading!
Let me know your thoughts, and if you enjoyed the addition of the story.
And please don’t forget to share this recipe with wild abandon. I picture healthy and healing recipes spreading like wild blackberries next to quiet roads. Bringing joy to families as they bite into end of the summer pirate gold.
Kindness for days,
Gwen
