The Spoils of Unemployment - Raspberry Almond Crumble

As you may or may not know, I left my office job a couple of weeks ago, and I am currently REALLY enjoying being home for most of the day, working on music, building my coaching business, and also - cooking. The husband is delighted, of course. As we are both trying to eat on the healthy side of things, I have been trying to save us from the candy bars by making healthier desserts from various recipe websites that I like. Today, I made this:

A big hit in my house this evening!
Raspberry Almond Crumble
(adapted from The Detoxinista)

Ingredients:

For the crust:
2 cups almond flour
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

For the filling:
2 cups frozen raspberries
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the crumb topping:
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Step 1 - Make the raspberry filling: Bring the maple syrup to a boil in a smaller saucepan, reduce heat and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Then add the raspberries and vanilla extract and continue to cook for about 15 minutes. The sauce should thicken slightly, but don't cook it for longer than 15 minutes as that will break down the natural pectin, and it won't thicken properly. Transfer the raspberry sauce to a bowl and put it in the fridge to cool. The longer it has to cool, the more jam-like it will be, so if you can make the filling in the morning and let it sit in the fridge all day, that's ideal. I was not aware, so I ended up putting mine in the freezer for about 20 minutes which worked pretty good too. Make sure it's completely cool before you put it on the crust though.

Step 2 - Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350F and line a standard size oven-safe pie-thingy with parchment paper. In a food processor, combine the almond flour, coconut oil, vanilla extract, water and salt, process until it sticks together like a dough. Press the dough evenly into the parchment-lined pie-thingy. Bake for 12 minutes. In the meantime:

Step 3 - Make the crumb topping: Combine the walnuts, coconut, maple syrup, coconut oil, sea salt and almond extract in the food processor and mix until well blended, but still crumbly. This only takes a few seconds, for the record.

Step 4 - assemble yumminess: When the crust comes out of the oven, take your COMPLETELY COOL raspberry filling and spread it evenly over the crust. Then spread the crumb topping evenly over the filling, and put it all back in the oven to bake for another 15 minutes, until it's becoming nice and golden on top. Remove from oven, let it cool in the pie-thingy for a few minutes and then lift the whole thing out of there (via parchment paper) and put it on a cutting board or maybe a cooling rack to cool some more before you dig in.

We ate it straight up and it was delicious, but we thought some coconut milk vanilla ice cream on top (trying to stay dairy-free) would have been perfection!

Pure maple syrup is better as a sweetener than refined sugar, as it won't spike your blood sugar the same way the white stuff will, because of science and nutritional information which you can Google. Seriously, Google "Sugar vs. Maple Syrup" and it'll give you the breakdown. Has to be pure maple syrup though, not pancake syrup.

Hope you enjoy this recipe!

Love,
Maja