Experience Nutrition: Aromatic Apple Berry Crisp: Delicious Plant-Based Desserts by Melanie Albert, Part 3 of 4

By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author

Excited to share with you the Aromatic Apple Berry Pie to enjoy creating with your family and friends. This dessert is an incredible aromatherapy culinary experience with hand-grinding spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom.

We created this dessert with 4 different varieties of apples at our hands-on Holiday Dessert cooking class at The Farm at South Mountain, and it was “perfect”. Such a beautiful, warming fall / winter dessert.

Links to the other plant-based dessert recipe prepared at the class:

Aromatic Apple Berry Crisp with Freshly Ground Spices

This apple berry crisp is one of my all-time favorites. From mindfully hand-grinding and enjoying the aromatherapy of freshly ground warming spices, along with the aromatherapy of the apples sautéing in the spices, to memories of eating pies when I was a child, this dessert is outstanding. Enjoy the process of setting up your mise en place, cooking, and enjoying this dish with your family and friends.

Topping

Simple Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats
½ cup almonds, walnuts, or pecans, sliced
¼ cup maple sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, fresh ground
1 tsp nutmeg, fresh ground
1 tsp cardamom seeds, fresh ground
1/4 cup grapeseed oil

Simple Steps

Hand-grind cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.
Mix all dry ingredients for topping until well combined.
Pour in grapeseed oil and mix.

Filling

Simple Ingredients

5 apples, sliced
2 pears, sliced
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blackberries
3 tbsp grapeseed oil
¼ cup maple sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, fresh ground
1 tsp nutmeg, fresh ground
1 tsp cardamom seeds, fresh ground
½ tsp cloves, fresh ground
1 orange, juiced and zested
1 lemon, juiced and zested

Simple Steps

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place sliced apples and pears in a large sauté pan.
Turn heat to medium and add remaining filling ingredients.
Cook apples and pears for 15-20 minutes until slightly soft; stir occasionally.
Pour cooked apples with sauce into 8-inch by 8-inch baking dish.
Top with oats topping, raspberries, and blackberries.
Bake on middle oven rack for 30-35 minutes.
Plate and enjoy!

So glad Nathalia from Brazil was in town to capture some fun photos from our Dessert Cooking Class at The Farm. Thanks!

The beauty of the apples…and, all the mindful chopping…

The zesting and juicing of the lemons and oranges.

The aromatherapy of the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom…And, beautiful teamwork!

A few additional fun photos from the class…

Apple cutting knife skills with Melanie Albert.

More cinnamon aromatherapy.

The beautiful apple crisp, and a batch of hummus…ready to be enjoyed.

Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.

Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019

Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right

Join our Simple Daily Plant-Based Eating Tips Facebook Page

Purchase Melanie Albert’s award-winning cookbook, “A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods”

PUBLIC COOKING CLASSES IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Phoenix friends…hope you or your kids can join us at one of our hands-on intuitive cooking classes this season… Vision Board & Appetizers, Foods for Addiction Recovery, Spring Farm-to-Table, Raw Farm-to-Table, and Kids Food Art.