It's desert time! An apple a day keeps the doctor away right?
Using fruits for desserts provides an extra opportunity to add more fruit into your diet. Fruits contain naturally occurring sugars, which gives the dessert natural sweetness, so less added sugar is needed. They also provide a variety of nutrients such as fibre, vitamins and minerals. For example, apples contain vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, potassium, magnesium and boron.
Classic crumble is usually made from plain flour, butter and sugar. Using Weet-Bix and light margarine instead can lower the saturated fat content and increase fibre content. Rolled oats and nuts also provide fibre and a range of nutrients such as healthy fats.
I hope your ready to get messy with this recipe!
SERVES: 8
PREP TIME: 15 mins | COOKING TIME: 1 hour
Ingredients:
Pastry
2 cups wholemeal plain flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
120g light margarine
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp water
Olive oil spray
Filling
1 tbsp light margarine
2 tbsp water
4 large apples, peeled and chopped
5 stalks of rhubarb, trimmed, sliced
100g brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Crumble
4 week-bix, lightly crushed
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup almost nuts, lightly crushed
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp light margarine, melted
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Methods
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and spray a 23cm tart tin with oil (shape does not matter, I used a round porcelain pie dish)
MAKE PASTRY. Sift flour into a large bowel. Stir through wheat germ and then add margarine. Use fingertips to rub in thoroughly. Add egg yolks and water and form a dough. Roll dough on a lightly floured bench and line the tart tin. Prick the base all over with a fork. Blind bake for 15 minutes (umm? what is blind baking? scroll down for definition)
MAKE FILLING. Place all FILLING ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer then continue to cook on ow heat for 8-10 minutes or until soft. Then set aside to cool.
MAKE CRUMBLE. Mix all CRUMBLE ingredients to form the crumbs in a large bowl.
Pour the filling into the baked pastry case and sprinkle the crumble over the top. Bake in the oven for another 40 minutes or until cooked through and golden (I would recommend watching the time as my weet-bix burnt slightly)
Serve and enjoy!!
This was my first time making this apple and rhubarb tart and it was delicious. But the beauty of cooking means you can experiment with many different ways of cooking the same dish. Here is a few different things you could try to change it up a little:
Replace apple and rhubarb with other fruits in season (e.g. berries, cherries, pear, peaches, plumbs, fig, apricots, etc), canned or frozen fruits.
Try using walnuts, pecans or even sunflower seeds instead of almonds
What is blind baking?
Are you just as confused as I am when you saw "blind bake". Never fear... I have done the "googling" for you!! (you're welcome)
Baking blind (or pre baking) is when you bake a pie crust or other pastry without the filling. This step is important when the base needs to be fully cooked or has a longer bake time than the filling. Blind baking is also helpful to avoid the filling becoming soggy if the filling if too wet.
There are many different ways of blind baking. Here is what I did:
After base is pressed into the pie tin, line the tart crust with baking paper (like picture)
Fill the pastry with rice to ensure the crust remains in its shape while baking
There are so many things you can fill the pastry with when blind baking. I used rice but you can also use dried peas, lentils, beans or pulses. They even have pie weights (called baking beans) for this exact step!! Who knew!!
Enjoy xx
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