Thank goodness for crumbles. Fruit crumbles are one of those things you can throw together without a recipe and 9 times out of 10 it’ll be fabulous. You’ve just gotta use a few necessary components. This time I’m making it with a peach and raspberries, but feel free to use cheaper fruits like apples, etc.
Cut up a peach in chunks and put in about 3/4 container of raspberries. I found these on sale for $1.50! I couldn’t resist. As for peaches, don’t buy it unless you can smell the scent. If it’s hard and doesn’t smell, don’t get it. I personally had the best peach of my life yesterday from Trader Joe’s.
Here’s the same trick I use for tons of different recipes…. A tablespoon or two of flax seed and a tablespoon or two of buckwheat. If you keep getting frustrated that I’m using ingredients you don’t have around your house, maybe you should go buy some of this stuff- it’s cheap, excellent for your body, and will last for-e-ver.
Anyway, put the seeds in a coffee grinder, spice grinder, or mini-food processor until it turns to powder.
Like this. The reason I’m using this method is because I’d rather not use flour, and flax is incredibly good for you.
Put about two tablespoons of the coconut oil in a bowl and microwave just until it melts. You can use regular oil here, but I didn’t want it to taste greasy. The coconut oil is just a nice touch with a very mild flavor.
However, if you don’t have coconut oil, feel free to use any oil you prefer. If you feel like being naughty, use butter… but you didn’t hear that from me.
Okay, I know I’m missing like 4 pictures here but I was distracted by roommate conversation. My bad. Add your flax & buckwheat powder, a hearty dash of cinnamon (and/or nutmeg if you prefer) plus a handful of instant oats to the bowl- don’t stir yet. Then pour the oil on top and carefully stir. You don’t want the raspberries to fall completely to mush yet.
*Side note…. I added a little bit of processed white sugar here because I was in a hurry. I know, shame on me. You have lots of choices for sweetness- you can either keep it unsweetened, use agave nectar, cane sugar, or better yet, honey. Whatever your heart desires.
Spread it out in a small baking dish. It should look something like this.
Cook on about 400* for 15-20 minutes or until the fruit starts to bubble a bit or it turns slightly golden brown.
I know, I know, I’m missing the final product picture. I was literally running out the door to go see Toy Story 3 and didn’t have time for a picture. The movie was great, by the way.
- 1 Peach – $.59
- 3/4 Container raspberries – $1.12 (on sale)
- A few tablespoons buckwheat and flaxseed – ~$.10
- Handful of oats – ~$.10
- Approximately 3 large servings – $1.91
- 1 Serving – ~$.64
How long would you say this keeps for? Always a factor for me since I’m only cooking for myself. This looks so good!
Well I for one followed along fine 🙂 and can’t find peaches or coconut oil or buckwheat powder in my house right now. So I am saving it for another day because coconut oil is fabulous!
Thanks for the amazing blog/website!
"Anonymous", sorry it was a confusing recipe for you. That should teach me not to get distracted with conversation while attempting to take pictures and cook at the same time 🙂
Listen, the whole point of this website is to 1) Prove to people that they can be healthy without spending a lot of money and 2) To give you the confidence to make your own decisions in cooking. You took note that I don't break every single step and ingredient down for you. That's because I don't cook that way, and I also think people like you really do have a great culinary intuition… even though you may be used to using step-by-step recipes for everything.
If you don't like the way I did something, or don't like an ingredient, or LOVE a different ingredient, by all means, please please do it! I don't want you to feel hindered by my instructions one bit.
Now to answer your questions:
When I said, "Add your flax…", I said "…to the bowl." at the end of the sentence. So I meant just putting those things into a mixing bowl with the fruit already in it (pictured first).
Most crumbles do have the fruit separate from the "crumble" goodness. I decided to add it all in, since what makes the crumble SO good in most recipes is the amazing amount of butter and sugar. Because we aren't using a lot of butter and sugar in the recipe, I wanted to get the moistness and sweetness from the fruit instead.
So, first you've got the fruit, then you add the powder, oats, oil, and stir carefully.
The last picture shown is actually what it looks like once you mix the fruit, oil, oats and powder together. The finished product looked almost exactly like the last picture, except a little bit browner since I had cooked it.
As for your last question, I'll try to be clearer with recipes… but I won't break it down too much. That's defeating the point for me and for all cooks. Cooking doesn't have to be a science- and it doesn't have to be very complicated. Use your intuition with this. If something doesn't seem right, then do it how you want. Once you start breaking out of a recipe mold, I really think you'll start to enjoy cooking more, instead of looking for every piece of the puzzle to already be solved for you. No offense there.
I found this recipe very confusing. At one point the recipe reads: "Add your flax & buckwheat powder, a hearty dash of cinnamon (and/or nutmeg if you prefer) plus a handful of instant oats to the bowl- don't stir yet." Add these ingredients to what? Are we supposed to add them to the fruit? That doesn't seem right, as every "crumble" recipe I've ever heard of involves putting the crumble stuff (i.e. butter, flour etc.) together and then scattering it over the fruit just before you cook it. Your recipe may or may not want the fruit in with the crumble stuff while it's being mixed, it's not really clear. This seems weird as hell, so I thought you must mean the flax etc, that goes to make the crumble is in one bowl, and the fruit is somewhere else, but then you wrote "Then pour the oil on top and carefully stir. You don't want the raspberries to fall completely to mush yet." So are you saying the fruit is in with the crumble mixture? That's the strangest crumble recipe I've ever heard of. Peering at your picture of the crumble before cooking it seems like I can make out a few bits of raspberry and a bit of peach, so maybe this is what you meant, but that seems weird as hell and with no finished-product pic it's hard to work it out.
Could you please be less ambiguous please? Cooking is difficult enough without unclear instructions.
I am in love with coconut oil! It's SO good for you (even though it gets a bad rap for being saturated), and is really the best (most stable) oil to use for cooking (such as sauteing… or… frying). Plus it gives great flavor to baked dishes, if you can even taste it at all. Long live coconut oil!