It always makes me chuckle how my sugar-free recipes get loads of attention on Facebook – much more than the deeper-and-perhaps(?)-more-meaningful ‘how to change your life’ stuff. But the fact is that what we eat impacts our mood (see ‘Are You Eating Yourself Miserable?‘). So I’m happy to share my insider-secret recipes with you – and here’s one of my favourites.
The thing is that sugar messes with your body, your mind and your emotions.
In fact, if I eat it these days (I’ve been ‘clean’ 😉 for about 2 years), I find that after a couple of days of it, say on holiday, I turn into a depressed witch. I feel miserable for no reason, I feel sluggish, I get grumpy and irritable. And I go up at least 2 dress sizes. It’s incredible. And then when I come off it again, it takes 3-4 days of detoxing and feeling like I have ‘flu before I feel human again.
It’s an enormous price to pay for a little bit of sugar.
And many people are reacting badly to sugar, but because they have it so regularly, it masks the symptoms.
So at home we avoid refined sugar in all its forms – be it traditional ‘sugar’ or even stuff like white flour and white pasta. It took us a while to retrain our taste buds, but it’s well worth the effort.
But the kids LOVE apple crumble and ice cream, so here’s a way you can still love it – and it’s super-easy to make.
Insider Secrets: Sugar-Free Apple Crumble
To start with, I go ‘French’ with my apple crumble – dessert apples only – no cookers. That means that, if the apples are fresh and haven’t been stored in cold storage for 18 months, they’ll be juicy and sweet and won’t need any extra sugar. Much as I love the flavour of Bramleys, I want to avoid the bucket of sugar they would need. So use eating apples.
I also avoid wheat as far as we can (‘Wheat Belly’ by William Davis MD was the final straw for me on this). For this recipe I’m using wholegrain spelt flour, which is deliciously nutty and is much better tolerated by most people’s tummies than refined white wheat flour. Obviously spelt is NOT gluten free. If you need truly gluten free you can substitute 50:50 buckwheat & rice flour or your own favourite gluten free flour (though watch out – many of the GF pre-packaged flours have sugar beet in them and have a higher GI than wheat!)
There’s no sugar in the crumble topping. Instead you get natural sweetness from the cinnamon AND a twist – the slight saltiness of the topping brings out the gorgeous sweetness of the apples – let me know how you enjoy it!
And I’m a lazy chef – though people rave about my food – and I avoid extra work wherever possible. So you won’t catch me peeling where I don’t need to or sieving purees. Sorry if that offends you 😉
This crumble recipe serves 6 polite guests or 4 if you have my kids and hubs round to nosh.
Ingredients For Sugar-Free, Wheat-Free Apple Crumble
About 6 medium apples – eaters, not cookers
8 oz (about 225g) wholegrain SPELT flour
5 oz (about 150g) COLD butter (not margarine – anything hydrogenated is your body’s idea of hell!)
1/2 teaspoon salt – make it good quality
1/2 teaspoon (level) ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon (about 1/2 ounce) runny honey
How To Make Apple Crumble:
- Pre-heat your oven to about 190C / 375F / Gas Mark 5
- Wash the apples. There’s no need to peel them if they’re organic (it’s tastier and healthier not to). But if they’re not organic, then the skins will have been sprayed, so peel them. Core them.
- Slice the apples into toddler-bite-sized pieces and put them in an oven-proof dish – about 7 inches across. There’s no need to pre-cook. Just push them down roughly into an even layer.
- Now sieve the flour into a big bowl and GRATE the butter on top of it – it helps if the butter is really cold. As I said, I’m a lazy chef, so grating is a fabulous short cut for making crumble topping. Rub the flour and butter together with your FINGERTIPS – no sweaty palms on this job – until it resembles a fine crumble.
- Sprinkle with the salt and cinnamon and mix it well.
- Pour the crumble mixture on top of the apples and press it down lightly, so there are no gaps. Drizzle the honey on top.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes, until the crumble topping is lightly browned and starting to show signs of cracking.
- Serve with blackberry ice cream – or fresh plain yoghurt with honey.
There you go – that’s all there is to it. Get the kids chopping the apples while you do the crumble topping and the whole thing is ready to go almost before your oven is heated up!
Let me know how you get on with this recipe – how did the ‘salty topping’ bring out the sweetness of the apples?
What are your favourite tweaks?
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Thank you!
With love, Namaste,
P.S. Please feel free to share this recipe with your friends via Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest etc! xx C.
Looks like a great recipe and everything you said about sugar is true and I can relate to, but you put honey in the recipe!! Honey is just as toxic to the body as white sugar, brown sugar , raw sugar – it’s all sugar! Leave out the honey, its unnecessary and leads people astray by giving the impression that there is nothing wrong with it.
Hi Janice,
Thank you for your feedback.
Different people react in different ways to different things.
Processed sugars are much more likely to create a negative response in people than things like naturally-sourced honey.
I’m not a formal nutritionist and don’t advise on health – but most traditions – even the ancient ones – do show that honey is a healthier sweetener, especially if it’s raw.
Many people have taste buds that need the extra sweetness and I believe each should be able to make an informed choice.
One man’s food is another man’s poison.
With love, Clare x