Tag Archives: apple

Apple Blueberry Streusel Pie — vegan and gluten-free

apple blueberry streusel pie
apple blueberry streusel pie

If you are working your way through Veganuary and it seems difficult, don’t worry. You’re half the way there (congratulations!). If you are unfamiliar with the term, it refers to a challenge to try vegan throughout the month of January.

Eating vegan can be tough for some, especially when it comes to dessert. Many pastries include eggs and butter and can appear impossibly hard to make at high altitude. But, today I offer you sweet encouragement.

I wanted a recipe that wasn’t too complicated, so I decided to use a pre-made pie shell. Never having baked one, it was an experiment for me. In the vein of experimentation I decided to go with a gluten-free version as well. The results were surprisingly delicious.

The dessert recipe I found was vegan once I used the pre-made crust. No changes were needed for high altitude, but I did have to adjust filling quantities for the smaller ready-made shell.

After ingredient amounts were altered, I added blueberries because you can always use extra antioxidants, right? I then removed the nuts to make it very allergy-friendly. May this decadent treat get you through the rest of the month, and beyond.

Apple Blueberry Streusel Pie adapted from Apple Crumble Pie

for the pie
4 apples, cored, peeled, and sliced into 1/8” slices
1/2 cup fresh blueberries, washed and patted dry
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup gluten free flour
1.75 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup vegan sugar
1 store bought pie shell (I used a gluten free one by Wholly Gluten Free)
for the streusel topping
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup gluten free flour
1/3 cup unsalted vegan butter, melted and cooled slightly

Add the apples, blueberries, lemon juice, vanilla, and 1/4 cup flour to a large bowl. Stir carefully with a spatula to coat the fruit. Place 1.75 teaspoons cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and sugar in small bowl. Stir to combine, then sprinkle over the fruit. Stir carefully with a spatula until the fruit is evenly coated with the spices. Set aside while the oven preheats.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Take the pie shell out of the freezer to defrost per manufacturer’s instructions. Meanwhile, make the streusel topping.

Put the brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 3/4 cup flour in a medium bowl. Stir in the melted butter with a spatula. Break it up into small clumps using the spatula or your fingers. When the pie shell is defrosted, pile the fruit into it. Then sprinkle the topping over the fruit.

Place the filled pie shell onto a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Leaving the pie in the oven, carefully place a pie crust shield over the crust. Close the oven door and reduce the heat to 375F. Bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Place the pie with the baking sheet on a wire rack to cool for 3 hours. Cover leftovers tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge.

Until next time, happy baking!

Charoset-Inspired Dessert Bites

Charoset-Inspired Dessert Bites

This time of year I get a little excited for Charoset, the classic Passover relish made from fruits, nuts, spice, and grape (in the form of juice or wine). The combined tastes of those food elements dance playfully on my tongue. Some traditions make charoset into a paste rather than a relish, so I thought it would be fun to make a food item that melded the two forms. That is how I decided on dessert bites. A little pureed and a little chunky, with all of the wonderful flavors that I love.

This recipe is raw so high altitude baking wasn’t an issue. I merely wanted to create my version of this treat and share it with you. These bites make an energetic afternoon snack, a quick breakfast, or a healthy dessert. They would be appreciated for Passover or Easter, or anytime you want to savor the combination of apples, nuts, and grape juice.

Charoset-Inspired Dessert Bites inspired by Haroset Balls

1 cup dried apple
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup pitted dates
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup grape juice
1/2 cup raw walnuts
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/8 tsp powdered ginger
1/8 tsp powdered clove
2 TBS almond meal
powders to roll the bites in, optional

Line a tray or baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Place dried apples, apricots, dates, and raisins in a bowl and cover with grape juice. Let sit for 15 minutes so the juice can soak into the fruit.

Place walnuts and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until the nuts are roughly chopped. To the food processor, add the soaked fruit and any juices from the bowl. Add the spices and pulse until everything is finely chopped and well combined. Add the almond meal and pulse a few times to evenly distribute. The mixture will form a large ball in the food processor bowl.

Transfer the large ball to a bowl. Remove small amounts at a time to form balls the size of walnuts. Place balls on the lined tray and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. When firm, roll each ball into powder, if desired. I used ground up freeze-dried blueberries, dried raspberry powder, cocoa powder, goji berry powder, and maca powder. (Can you tell in the picture which bite has which powder?)

charoset dessert bites and toppings

Store up to 3 weeks in a covered container in the refrigerator. Yields: 24 sweet treats

Until next time, happy non-baking!

A Sweet New Year Apple Muffins

sweet new year apple muffin

sweet new year apple muffin

The Jewish New Year is celebrated this weekend. The holiday offers new beginnings at a time when hope is welcome. Traditionally, apples are dipped in honey, two symbols of the sweetness and joy of a new year. Although it may seem a long way off until the Gregorian calendar ends in December, now I give you a festive treat of apple muffins drizzled with bee-free honey.

For the muffin, I tweaked a recipe already in my repertoire. I traded peaches for apples, used applesauce as the liquid, and scattered apple pieces over the tops — all chosen for the most apple flavor. For the vegan honey-like drizzle, I adapted a recipe I learned at Rouxbe Online Culinary School. The end result was like dipping apples in honey, but in muffin form.

A Sweet New Year Apple Muffins adapted from my Cardamom Peach Morning Muffins

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup agave syrup
3 TBS canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup + 2 TBS non-dairy milk
1.25 cup apples, peeled and diced into small cubes, divided
vegan honey (recipe to follow)

Preheat oven to 375F and line a muffin tin with paper liners. In a large bowl, sift together the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, whisk together the agave, oil, vanilla, applesauce, apple cider vinegar, and milk. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until the batter is just smooth. Gently stir in 1 cup of apples.

Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of apples onto the tops of the muffins. Bake the muffins for 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool the muffin tin on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then gently remove each muffin and place on a rack to cool completely.

While the muffins are cooling, make the vegan honey. When the muffins have cooled, drizzle each with a generous spoonful of the warm honey. Store in an airtight container, at room temperature, for 1 day.

Vegan Honey

1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup agave syrup
1 tsp vegan sugar
thinly sliced orange, organic
thinly sliced lemon, organic

Combine the syrups and sugar in a medium saucepan with high sides. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Add the sliced fruit. Lower the heat and cook at a low boil for 15 minutes, stirring a few times. Adjust the heat as needed to maintain a low boil. Once the desired consistency is reached, pour the syrup through a mesh strainer into a jar, discarding the fruit. Cover and refrigerate leftovers for up to 2 weeks.

Until next time, happy baking!

Crispy Apple-Pear Crisp

Crispy Apple Pear Crisp

Crispy Apple Pear Crisp

Happy National Dessert Day, everyone! Although I often feel that every day should celebrate dessert. And when the leaves are starting to change, as they are near my home right now, I think we should celebrate fall as well. In addition, it’s apple season and I procured local apples for my creations. So, where am I going with all of this? Apple crisps – my inspiration for today’s recipe.

It seems that everyone has a recipe for apple crisps, including me (see my Ginger Apple Crisp). But I wanted to take the recipe in a different, crispy-er direction. To achieve this, I scoured the internet and all of my many cookbooks. Ultimately I ended up at America’s Test Kitchen, the resource who does hours after hours after hours of testing for you. They found that if the topping is added after an initial apple cooking, then the top stays crispy. I took this hint, and my 20 pounds of apples (yes, you read that right), and crisped away.

When I decided to make a very large tray of the treat to make a dent in my crate of apples, my hubby’s reply was, “Apple crisp for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!” That required peeling a lot of apples. (Maybe I should have had him peel them). If you don’t want to do quite that much work, or if the recipe seems too large for you, then you can halve the ingredient amounts and make your crisp in an 8 x 8” pan.

Crispy Apple-Pear Crisp adapted from “Naturally Sweet” by America’s Test Kitchen

Topping
1 cup slivered almonds, chopped
1 cup vegan sugar
1/2 cup + 2 TBS vegan margarine, melted
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
Filling
5.5 pounds mixture of apples and pears, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/2” wedges
1/4 cup vegan sugar
1 TBS fresh lemon juice
1 TBS arrowroot powder
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
Vegan Ice cream, optional

For the topping: Place oven rack in middle position and heat oven to 400F. Toast almonds until lightly browned, then place on a wire rack to cool slightly. Leave oven on for filling. Working in batches, grind topping sugar in a spice grinder until fine and powdery. Whisk ground sugar, melted margarine, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl. Using a rubber spatula, fold in flour and oats until mixture resembles a cohesive dough. Add in almonds and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

For the filling: Toss fruit, filling sugar, lemon juice, arrowroot, cinnamon, and salt together in a bowl. Transfer to a 9 x 13” baking pan, cover with foil, and set on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Bake until apples are juicy and tender, about 1.25 hours, rotating sheet halfway through baking.

lots of peeled apples and pears

lots and lots of peeled apples and pears

To assemble: Remove filling from oven and stir to redistribute juices. Take topping from the fridge and crumble it over the filling, leaving a few 1/2” topping pieces. Bake uncovered until filling is bubbling and topping is a deep golden brown, about 15 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool 20 minutes before serving. Top with vegan ice cream, if desired.

Until next time, happy baking!

Ginger Apple Crisp

Ginger Apple Crisp

Ginger Apple Crisp

I know that I haven’t posted in some time. The world got crazy, but I had committed to getting back to baking and blogging at the start of the year. And then I cut my hand. (I was cleaning the food processor, but that’s a long story). It wasn’t severe, but it make food prep a little more complicated and it turned typing into a frustrating game. But the Decadent Vegan Baker is back and ready for action. So, without any further ado, I bring you this week’s vegan, high-altitude baking experiment.

Okay, this one wasn’t very difficult. I decided to ease into things with an apple crisp. Generally apple crisps pop up in autumn, but where I live the weather is warm, then cold, then warm again, so it felt appropriate. The tweaks I made were to follow my personal desires, which I inspire any baker to do. Crisps are a good backdrop for making changes because they don’t involve the scientific perfection of something like a cake.

I added ginger to give the crisp a spicy zip. I also chose coconut sugar as the sweetener to change the flavor profile a bit, and because my brown sugar had become a doorstop. You can use gluten free flour instead of the all purpose flour if you prefer. If baking gluten free, then look for gluten free oats.

Ginger Apple Crisp adapted from Gluten Free and Vegan Apple Crisp

Filling:
6 apples, peeled and sliced
1/4” crystallized ginger, chopped fine
1/2 cup vegan sugar
1 TBS lemon juice
2 TBS all purpose flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
Topping:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup coconut sugar
3/4 cup oats, run through a coffee grinder until course
6 TBS vegan margarine, cut into small pieces (I used Spectrum vegetable spread)
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, mix apples, ginger, vegan sugar, lemon juice, 2 TBS flour, and 3/4 tsp cinnamon. Place in a 9 x 13” glass baking dish. In a medium bowl, combine 3/4 cup flour, oats, cinnamon and brown sugar and stir. Add margarine and cut in with two forks until combined. Don’t worry; it will still be lumpy.

Spread topping over filling. Bake for 25-30 minutes, uncovered, until topping turns golden brown. Let cool and then serve. I topped mine with vegan vanilla ice cream.

Note: You can halve the recipe and bake it in an 8 x 8” baking pan for the same amount of time as listed in the recipe.

Until next time, happy baking!

Cinnamon Apple Cake

Cinnamon Apple Cake

Cinnamon Apple Cake

Occasionally I decide to jump into the deep end and bake gluten-free. Gluten-free baked treats are difficult enough to make well, but when they are also made vegan at high altitude then they can spell disaster. But, a friend said she missed cinnamon rolls so I was on a mission.

The recipe I found was for a vegan cinnamon bread so I tried it but with high altitude alterations. The problem was that I didn’t like the gummy texture so often found in gluten-free baked goods. I also had a new bundt pan I needed to break in, so I scaled the measurements up to fit the larger pan. The cake version was not gummy, helped by the fact that I split the apples up and put one in the batter and one in the topping. The cake turned out very elegant. Oh, and it was tasty … very tasty.

Cinnamon Apple Cake adapted from Apple Cinnamon Swirl Bread
2 1/4 cups gluten free flour
1/4 cup + 1 TBS organic sugar
1/4 cup + 1 TBS organic brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
generous 1/2 tsp baking soda
generous 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
generous 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup + 2 1/2 tsp nondairy milk
1/4 cup + 2 TBS + 1 tsp canola oil
1/4 cup + 1 TBS unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup + 1 TBS maple syrup
4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 red apples, one grated on large holes of a grater and one diced small
cinnamon topping
5 TBS organic sugar
2 tsp cinnamon powder
Preheat oven to 350F. Thoroughly grease and flour a bundt pan. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, oil, applesauce, maple syrup, vinegar, and vanilla. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and whisk gently until batter is just combined. Mix in one grated apple.
In a small bowl, combine remaining sugar and cinnamon for topping. Scoop batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle one diced apple then cinnamon topping over batter. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely in pan. Invert onto a serving plate.

Until next time, happy baking!

Apple Cinnamon Brunch Muffins

Apple Cinnamon Brunch Muffins

Apple Cinnamon Brunch Muffins

Upon looking over at the apples in my fruit bowl, I realized they weren’t getting eaten fast enough. I needed to bake them into something quick so I decided to make Apple Cinnamon Brunch Muffins. That, and I had just bought Alisa Fleming’s book “Eat Dairy Free” and wanted to make a treat from it.

The recipe was already already vegan and had high altitude suggestions, so I didn’t need to come up with substitutions for that. But, when I pulled out the ingredients from my pantry I realized that I didn’t have enough light brown sugar. To remedy that I used a combination of light brown sugar, dark brown sugar (which had too strong a taste to use on it’s own), and organic granulated sugar. The mix worked out great, and made muffins that were delicious with vegan sausage and tea.

Apple Cinnamon Brunch Muffins adapted from Wholesome Apple Cinnamon Muffins
1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk, warmed to room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup canola oil
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup organic granulated sugar
2.25 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1.25 tsp ground cinnamon, plus additional for topping
.75 tsp baking powder
.75 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.25 cups small-diced apple (cored and peeled)
1 TBS light brown sugar
Preheat oven to 400F and line 12 regular-size muffin cups with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine non-dairy milk, applesauce, oil, and apple cider vinegar. Let sit for 10 minutes and then whisk together. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugars, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add diced apple and stir to coat. Add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
Divide batter among muffin cups. In a small bowl, mix together 1 TBS light brown sugar and a generous pinch or two of cinnamon. Sprinkle spiced sugar over muffin batter. The cups will be full. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in the tins before removing the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Until next time, happy baking!

waiting (patiently) for apple cinnamon muffins to cool