Fancy a sweet yet healthy snack for the weekend? As always my recipes contain no sugar or artificial ingredients, and this is another that you can easily make yourself or with your children. I recommend using organic ingredients if possible, as apples and blueberries are amongst the 'dirty dozen' fruits that have the highest chemical residues if not organic, and wheat flour also contains pesticide residues, so not really what we want to use if we intend to remain in good health!
The crust is like a cross between regular pastry and scone, with a slight nutty taste due to mixing in ground almonds as well. Combined, all these textures and flavours make for a really delicious treat, that is in no way lacking sweetness despite containing no sugar. Who needs it when you have deliciously sweet fruit?
What you will need: (makes 12)
150g fine wholewheat flour
50g ground almonds
100g butter
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
3 tblsp milk
2 apples (I used Gala)
75g fresh blueberries
Drizzle honey
50g chopped hazelnuts
Method:
In a large bowl mix the flour with the ground almonds, and then rub in the butter using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the baking soda.
Add the egg and milk and mix using your hand to form a firm dough.
On a floured surface roll out the dough to about 0.3cm thick, and cut out 12 circles using a pastry cutter.
Grease a muffin tin and then gently press the pastry circles into the tin. Pop into a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, until the pastry cases are golden and firm to the touch.
Peel, core and dice the apple into small pieces. Put into a saucepan with a little water and saute on low-moderate heat until the apple has softened. You can leave the apple in soft chunks, or mash a little using a masher/fork, whatever you prefer. If you have used cooking apples then add 2 tblsp honey to the apple. If you used sweet apples like I did then no need to add honey.
Fill each case with cooked apple and several blueberries.
Drizzle a little honey over the top (to help the nuts stick). Sprinkle on the chopped hazelnuts (or nuts of your preference). Pop back into the oven (180 degrees Celsius) for 10 minutes until the blueberries have oozed their lovely juice and they look all sticky and yummy :-)
Enjoy fresh out the oven, or cold, with or without custard or cream.
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Many thanks.
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