DAY 16 - My Gluten Free Apple Crumble!

I took the little Diva for an eye exam today - we had to wait an hour and a half before we actually got seen. Yep we had an appointment. I understand that emergency cases get seen first regardless of appointment etc. and yes if I was in an emergency situation I'd be super happy they saw me first but it is EVER so hard to keep thinking these positive thoughts when your little Diva is BORED out of her mind and does NOT want to sit on your lap or do anything that doesn't include spinning in the middle of the room waving her took.  The spinning leads to dizziness, tripping and falling and also  to a rather tense mommy muttering under her breath about how she so doesn't love doctors or waiting rooms or sick people or dirty floors that diva's want to play on!!

We FINALLY got to see her doctor - the actual visit took all of 5 minutes. I thought we were in the clear - we had avoided a complete meltdown (on both the mommy and diva fronts). Then the doc put on his head gear (I realize I have no idea what the technical term is for the hat-less hat that optometrists wear is) and looked like some kind of demented diamond miner. The little Diva CRIED, SCREAMED and then I had to hold her flailing arms so that the optical miner could pry open her eyelids and peek at her eyeballs. Thankfully that was over in less than a minute and my little Diva clung to me as we hastily made out way of the building and back home. For the record her eyes are great and I won't have to put her through that trauma again until she's 3!

So lets move onto baking...

Have you ever gone to the store and bought a bag of delicious shiny apples only to  recoil in horror when you look at them a day or two after you got them home? No? Just me then... ok well - on with my story... so Yes - I took a look at my apples this morning and they looked like they had been dropped from a plane and then kicked around by a group of 5 year old kids hopped up on buckets of candy.

The only logical thing to do was to bake an apple crumble! I'm working hard on not wasting food - so this was a perfect opportunity to put this plan into action. Along the "no wasting" line - I'm also trying to buy more local veggies which is turning out to be pretty damn hard - mostly because I walk into a store thinking, "I need mushrooms, cucumbers and peppers" and walk out thinking, "Damn I forgot to check where these items where actually grown!" Anywho I'm confident that with time I will get better with this and if not then perhaps I have bigger things to worry about - for instance "mommy brain". I'm not sure if I'm technically still allowed to use this excuse because the little diva is almost 19 months old already - perhaps I should have adapted by now. Oh well!

Anywho so back to the apple crumble. Tonight was our "visit Dadoos and Dadda" night so I developed a gluten free crumble. Here, without too much further ado is my recipe:

transported and ready to taste!

Ingredients:
700g cored, peeled and chopped apples
1 cup coffee
1/2 cup raisins
30ml white sugar
5ml cinamon
2.5ml nutmeg
1/2 cup walnuts
60g earth balance butter
6 tbsp (90ml) dark brown sugar
150ml Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Flour
6 tbsp (90ml) Almond Flour

What to do:
Put the raisins and coffee in a pot and boil over medium heat for 5 - 10 minutes this ensures that the raisins will be nice and plump with great flavour. Drain the raisins and pour into a large mixing bowl. Add the apples, white sugar, cinamon, nutmeg and walnuts. Mix well and press into a greased 20x28 pyrex dish.

Yummers!

Next combine the butter, flour, dark brown sugar and almond flour. Using your hands quickly mix into a crumb consistence. I found this was a little difficult to do - make sure the butter is well chilled and work quickly - it can be done! Once this consistency has been reached - sprinkle this over the apple mixture.

I topped mine with a sprinkle of cinamon and put in the oven at 390 for 30 minutes. It turned out deliciously - we didn't serve it with cream or ice-cream but I'm sure it will go well with either! Just make sure that all of your individual ingredients are gluten free if you intend to serve it to someone with gluten allergies!!

Happy baking :)