Apples are Red, Sugar is too sweet...

Well, I was supposed to make dog biscuits this weekend, but we ended up invited to dinner on Sunday night with the order to bring dessert. Now yes, I did have all weekend to make both dog biscuits and dessert but, well, the weekend was rather packed with activities. In fact, I could use a vacation from my weekend.

Dessert here at Meals with Michelle means no sugar. Rob has type 2 diabetes which, thankfully, is kept in check with diet and exercise, but obviously sugar is a big no no. So we have discovered the next best thing, Agave Nectar (Agave is also the source of 100% agave tequila, my favorite!). It is a great natural sweetener which does not elevate blood sugar when eaten. We happened upon a lovely cookbook called Baking with Agave Nectar by Ania Catalano in a fun little food shop in downtown Milford, CT. The shop owner had just baked some of The Amazing Black Bean Brownies from the book, we tasted them, and well they are incredible, chocolaty taste, smooth fudge texture, and no sugar!

My Mom (hi Mom thanks for reading!) had made the Apple Walnut crumble from Ms. Catalano the last time Rob and I were visiting and we loved it, so I decided, since I happened to have almost all the ingredients on hand, that that was the dessert for Sunday evening. Ingredients you will need: 6/7 apples (I used Granny Smith nice and tart!), 1 lemon, Agave Nectar (3/4 cup total), 3 tbsp arrowroot powder (or corn starch or white flour), Cinnamon (4 1/2 tsp total), 1/2 cup cold water, 1/3 cup canola oil, 2 cups walnuts, 1 cup rolled oats, and 1/2 cup barley flour ( I used spelt flour and it tasted great!). Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees.

First, we are going to make the filling. Peel and slice the apples, and toss them in a bowl with the lemon juice, 1/4 agave nectar, 3 tbsp arrowroot powder or substitute, and 2 tsp cinnamon. Make sure the apples are well tossed and coated with the mixture. Put into a 9X13 baking dish, and pour the 1/2 cold water over the filling. Put aside while we make the topping.

First separate the walnuts into 1 cup coarsely chopped, and 1 cup ground in a food processor. Keep the food processor out and use it to grind the 1 cup ground oats as well. Mix the walnuts, oats, and barley flour together in a bowl and set aside. Next whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup agave nectar, 2 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and the 1/3 cup canola oil, then pour into the bowl of walnuts and flour. Mix together until well blended and crumbly looking, it will be very sticky! Crumble the topping over the apples in the baking dish. Baking the oven for 30-35 mins until the topping is nice and brown. (Mine took 40, but I checked it at both 30 and 35 minutes marks).

We ate this without any ice cream or frozen yogurt and it was super yummy, but if you would like to add in the ice cream, the more the merrier. If you skip the ice cream, you will probably want a glass of milk!

And voila that is my meal dessert.