Tinkering with recipes

[misbegotten]

Any thoughts on how to make this recipe more calorie friendly? I could use margarine instead of butter, I guess. And Splenda For Baking instead of sugar?

Apple Crisp

Select a tart, crisp apple to balance the sweetness of the topping. Gravenstein, Pippin, and Braeburn are good choices, but local apples in season may be the best choice of all.

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Have ready an unbuttered 2-quart earthenware or glass baking dish, 2 inches deep.

Peel and core:
8 medium apples (about 2 1/2 lbs)

Cut the apples in half and then into 1-inch chunks. Spread them evenly in the baking dish.

Combine:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Add:
8 Tbsp (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.

Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Or do this with a mixer or in a food processor, taking care not to blend the butter too thoroughly. Scatter the topping evenly over the fruit. Tap the dish on the counter once or twice to settle in the crumbs.

Bake until the topping is golden brown, the juices are bubbling, and the apples are tender when pierced with a skewer, 50 to 55 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Any other suggestions for healthier recipes for apples? We have a bushel of Honeycrisp to use up.

Comments

[danakate]

I'd make it more calorie friendly but cutting back on the flour, butter, and sugar in general. Maybe start with 1/2 cup instead of 3/4 cup and scale back the butter/margarine to use just as much as you need and not what the recipe calls for.

[misbegotten]

Good ideas. My oven screws up everything baked anyway, so it will turn out as apple mush rather than apple crisp no matter what.

[fred_mouse]

My variant on what you have described would be approximately apple crumble, where the topping is a mixture of rolled grains (traditionally oats, but I can no longer stomach them), crushed nuts, and spices. Leave the apple cook long enough that the juices make the topping soft and a bit caramelised (this is quite robust for a variety of oven temperatures and cooking times).

Alternative options - 1. baked apples - core, score a line around the middle horizontally, stuff the centre, cook in medium-hot oven ~1 hour. What you stuff the centre with depends on your limitations. We always did sultanas when I was a kid, these days i use a mix of whatever dried fruit I have, or nuts if I'm upping the protein (and keep in mind that feeling 'full' can be related to the amount of protein, so sometimes having it in the dessert rather than the main meal means you fill up on other things first - so big salad, then fruit/nut dessert works for me when I'm not trying to keep teenagers fed). I suspect that it could be filled with other fruit. We often put a bit of honey across the top, makes them brown better, and makes the juice in the bottom of the pan sweeter. However, I've also seen people put a bit of water in the pan, and then baste regularly with that to get the shine on the apples.

2. It might seem a silly suggestion, but apple sauce. This can then be used when cooking cakes as part/all of the sweetener, and works to replace eggs, if you end up cooking for people who don't eat them. I make mine with apples and water, no added sugar. This means that I can't really store it in jars (unless I get the bottler out, so that I get heat and air-tight seals), but it keeps well in the freezer. I also use it on breakfast cereals to provide sweetness, rather than eating sweetened cereal.

3. Apple lasagna - layers of apples and lasagna sheets. This is one I have only seen, and not cooked, so I don't know if there are tricks to it, but my understanding is that lasagna sheets are less energy dense than flaky pastry (or shortcrust, for that matter), and so you get an apple pastry that is lower calorie count.

[fred_mouse]

For the stuffing the apple - berries strike me as an option, although I've never tried.

Also, my entire comment needs a disclaimer - I'm Australian. The closest we get to a 'cooking' apple is a Granny Smith, which is more a tart eating apple than the cooking apples I've encountered elsewhere. So my 'sugar free' apple recipes may not work with other varieties, and you may need to modify accordingly.

[misbegotten]

Heh. When Honeycrisp are out of season, we buy Granny Smith. We like them tart.

[fred_mouse]

I would have said I liked my apples tart, until I, in all innocence, bought green apples in Canada one visit and attempted to eat one! Relative to that, Grannies are quite sweet!

[misbegotten]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions!

cleaning out my inbox...

[fred_mouse]

You are welcome. Rereading the recipe you put up - another version my mother made was to just use breadcrumbs and spices as the topping. Was slightly less sweet, but the apple juice would make the breadcrumbs soft underneath, and the heat would make it crunchy on top.

[fred_mouse]

On the margarine vs butter - if I'm substituting out for butter, I use cooking oil, rather than margarine, because I don't end up with the same 'wrongness' of flavour. However, I've never particularly liked margarine, so if it is something you like, then you probably won't notice the off flavour. Instead, I use one of rice bran oil, grapeseed oil, or macadamia oil, depending on what I'm cooking. For a crumble, probably rice bran oil.

[misbegotten]

I don't care for margarine either, so the alternate suggestions are very helpful. Thanks!