The inspiration for this recipe is from a recipe I found on Yummly. Since I’m not good at making pies, I made it one night in substitute for an apple pie. It turned out really good. I’ve realized since that I’m a cobbler girl and not a pie girl. And that’s okay with me. I’ll leave the apple pies to my mother-in-law and I’ll stick with cobblers. To me pies feel like work, and they never turn out right for me anyway, but cobblers…. they feel easy and fast. So, I made this recipe few more times and as I do with all my recipes after I’ve interalized it, I start tweaking it and making it my own – adding my own flair.
Well in this case, the flair was removing an ingredient. Sugar. I was avoiding sugar over the holidays (great time for that right?) and needed a sugar free dessert for myself. So, I made this without sugar, and guess what. It was really good. Keep reading to find out what to do. But, I’ll give you a hint first… The key to this recipe is the cream.
Sugar-Free Apple Cobbler:
This recipe is free of sugar, eggs, wheat, corn and nuts.
Ingredient List: apples, butter, white spelt flour
, cinnamon, cloves, salt, heavy cream, baking powder.
First, grease a casserole dish, cake pan or pie plate with butter.
Peel, slice and chop 4 large apples. Choose a sweet, red variety like Fuji or Braeburn. No Granny Smith’s here please.
Sprinkle 2 tsp. cinnamon, a dash of cloves and 1/2 tsp. of salt over the apples and stir to coat.
Next, melt half a stick of butter in a large (cast-iron if you have it) skillet. Toss in the apple and begin to saute them over medium heat in the butter.
Sprinkle 2 tbls. of white spelt flour over the apples and stir until all the flour is combined with the butter and apple juices. This will make a roux which will thicken your cobber base.
After a few minutes of cooking pour 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream over the apples stirring and simmering until thickened. Remove from heat. The sweetness of the cream combined with the apple juices adds just enough sweet to make this naturally sweet and delicious without needing sugar. (Note: if you wanted it a little sweeter you could substitute 1/2 of apple juice for 1/2 cup of the cream.)
Now, for the topping. This is basically like making homemade biscuits.
In a large mixing bowl add 3 cups white spelt flour (you could use any flour of your choice here, but I think baked goods come out particularly well with this spelt flour), 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt. Stir to combine and then cut in 1/2 stick of butter using a pastry blender. Pour in 1 cup of heavy cream and stir quickly until it all just starts to come together adding a dash more cream if the mixture is too dry. Try to avoid overmixing. The cream here too adds a touch of sweetness so that you don’t need to add sugar to the pastry.
Spoon your apple mixture into your greased casserole dish. Now, using a large spoon or cookie scoop add dollops of the dough. Don’t worry about filling in every space with dough as it will rise as it cooks and all the nooks and crannies will get filled in.
Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes or until your biscuit topping is golden. Serve with whipped cream if desired. It’s delicious! Enjoy!
Note: If you are diabetic and trying to avoid sugar, the fat (cream and butter) in this recipe will help you metabolize the carbs from the apples and dough.
So I reverted back to my childhood this week. I woke up one morning thinking about how my mom used to make us teddy-bear pancakes. She would pour the batter in such a way as to create a tummy, head with ears, and arms and legs. She decorated the face of our pancakes with raisins for eyes and mouth. I don’t much like raisins, so I gave into temptation and used chocolate chips instead. Not the healthier choice I admit. But tasty. Growing up we always had such fun eating him in pieces. And I got to watch my kids do the same thing. “Oh no, I’m eating his leg. He doesn’t have any legs.” “Uh-oh, I ate his ears.” Such fun. I remember my brothers and I doing the exact same thing. And in the midst of cooking teddy bears my two-year-old, who has a thing for Mickey Mouse at the moment asked for a “Miss Mouse” pancake as she calls it. So we made a few of those too (pictured).
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Remembering Maggie Lane 