For me, and the work of mothering Mother, it all starts in the kitchen. Well, maybe I should back up a little and say it starts when you are choosing the ingredients and prepared foods for the kitchen supplies. There is great joy in preparing food and sharing it with others, and I have experienced the joy of eating food prepared by friends and family.
Yesterday was a birthday for a mothering Mother associate. Baking a cake would be easy, except that Katie is gluten-free. Cake without gluten, well, what is holding it all up?! The texture and taste of non-gluten grains invite disappointment for those who are accustomed to gluten flours.
I had been working on a recipe for fruit crumble. After reading a bit about gluten-free online, and looking at other recipes, and checking in with Katie, I went ahead and made a small substitution for flour in the crumble topping, and it worked out beautifully! Even the adolescent teens were in for additional servings. And Katie could enjoy the “fruits of my labor” without any post digestive affects.
The autumn weather is around us. Warm up with some grounding grains and fruits!
Shanthi Shanthi
Katie’s Crumble
Fruit
6 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 teaspoon sucanat*
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Topping
6 Tablespoon unsalted butter, cold
1/4 cup sucanat
2 Tablespoons turbinado sugar** (or skip this and add more sucanat)
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons rice flour (or soft whole wheat flour)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats (large or small flakes)
Place the sliced apples into an 8″x11″ pyrex dish (or something similar, but not metal). Pour over the lemon juice and then sprinkle the sucanat and cinnamon over the apples.
The topping can be made in a food processor, or by hand with a pastry cutter. In a bowl combine the butter, chopped into many pieces, the sucanat, flour of choice, cinnamon and salt. Cut the butter into the flour until the butter is small crumbs. If using a food processor, turn the machine on and off frequently to create this consistency. Add the oats and combine process lightly so that the oats are mostly whole.
Cover the apples with the topping. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. Cover the crumble with a cookie sheet or something reusable, lower the heat to 325°F and bake a further 15 minutes. The apples are cooked when the apples in the center of the crumble are soft.
Remove from the oven. Let cool. Enjoy! The crumble does not require refrigeration, only covering. I often store it in the oven, eliminating the need for wasteful food wrap.
Alternative Fruit Filling
Earlier in the fall we enjoyed this crumble with a mixture of fruits that were here at home. I combined apples, pears and plums. The mixture of the flavors gave a mystery to each bite, and the red in the plum added wonderful color. This topping works with many fruits.
*Sucanat is an unrefined sugar that is available at most health food stores. The name sucanat is a brand name for this whole cane sugar. It is dark in color and contains the natural molasses that is in the sugar cane
**Turbinado/Demerara Sugar is a partially refined refined brown sugar. It is found under these two common names.