rhubarb, gooseberry, apple and strawberry crumble with almond, date and seed topping (sugar free and grain free)

In the days before the small people came on the scene then there were more options in the evenings. A lot more options, movies, wine-bars, beer gardens, comedy, impromptu trips to Paris on the Eurostar, even (and I can hardly bring myself to write the word because I feel like such an oldster saying it these days) ‘clubbing’. I used to take that stuff for granted. These days, things are a little different. But, there’s still dessert.

Yesterday I attempted a grain-free / sugar free crumble. I was kind of surprised – it was perfectly sweet enough and actually rather lovely. For the fruit I used chopped rhubarb, apple, gooseberries and strawberries (straight from the freezer.. my thinking was that adding a few strawberries would sweeten it enough to skip the usual spoon of sugar I would add to the fruit). I also put a little water in with fruit.

For the topping I just rubbed a little (maybe 30g) chopped butter with some chopped dates, ground almonds (maybe a cup , maybe two.. things were rather vague yesterday) a spoonful of ground seeds (sunflower, chia, flax, sesame, pumpkin.. I have these in the fridge anyway – they weren’t essential, you could leave them out or just something else). The chopped dates gave the topping sweetness and crunch. Baked it for quite a while ..maybe almost an hour around 160 (sorry, failed to time it again.. )

Please note, the ramekin is just for the photo – my bowl was way bigger than this…. with some yogurt (ice-cream would also have been good)… and if it really just sounds a little too wholesome then you can secretly poke a chunk of dark chocolate into the midst of it while it’s hot and the chocolate will melt into a little puddle in the middle.. it’s not exactly as exciting as an impromptu trip to Paris, but it’s a pretty good end to the day.

This post is an entry for Sweet NZ , hosted this month by www.timeforalittlesomething.com 

gluten free banana strawberry loaf… (sugar free too if you skip the chocolate chunks)

I’ve been talking about trying to make gluten-free banana loaf for a while. My fear was that the bananas would be too heavy, and make it impossible to get a decent texture, without the fluffiness that comes with gluten. Well, tonight I was feeling a little reckless. I felt mentally prepared for a total baking disaster, and decided to experiment.

In the spirit of experimenting, I decided to go sugar free as well as gluten free. Although, of course, I ruined this at the end by stirring in some chocolate chunks.

So here’s the recipe – it’s a bit random but it really worked. Put 2 bananas, 50g of melted butter, a good squeeze of honey, 3 eggs and a handful of strawberries (I used defrosted frozen ones) in a blender and give it a good blitz. Then beat in 1 cup ground almonds, 1 cup brown rice flour and a tsp of gf baking powder. Add chocolate chunks if you can’t bear not to.

Baked in a loaf tin for around 30 mins, until nice and brown on top, and a knife came out clean.

*The picture in the background is a Gordon Crook – who, as well as being an amazing artist, was also an enthusiastic, prolific and experimental baker. Often in my thoughts as I take a leap into the great baking unknown.