A New View of Healthy Eating: 4 Steps to Bake an Organic Apple Crisp with Freshly Ground Spices

By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

After teaching a cooking class yesterday at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market, today I decided to give myself some self care time in the kitchen. I always love enjoying the aromatherapy of fresh herbs and spices, the mindfulness of chopping, and the natural aroma of desserts in my oven.  I decided to cook, for the first time since the launch of my new book, A New View of Healthy Eating, one of my very favorite desserts.

Enjoy today’s step-by-step photos creating the Organic Apple Crisp. For your reference, the complete recipe from the book is here for you, as well.

• Start with hand-ground spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom. The incredible mindfulness of grinding the spices, along with the distinct aromatherapy of each brings back memories of baking with my Mom and Grandmother when I was a kid.

• Slice organic apples, like these fresh apples which grew in Wilcox, Arizona. If you live in an area where you can “pick-your-own” apples, have fun picking and then come home and enjoy preparing this apple crisp.

• Practice your mise en place: Get all of your ingredients together for the apple crisp filling and topping, for mindful cooking.

• Place filling ingredients into a sauce pan and cook for about 20 minutes. Apples, spices, sweetener (local Arizona honey today), grapeseed oil, lemon and orange zest and juice. Near the end of cooking, I added a few organic raspberries to the crisp.

• Mix the ingredients for the topping: oats, chopped nuts (walnuts today), sweetener (Arizona honey today), grapeseed oil, and the ground spices.

• Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes.

• Enjoy!

EXCERPT from A New View of Healthy Eating: Aromatic Apple Crisp with Freshly Ground Spices

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

SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

Topping

• 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
• ½ cup grapeseed oil

Filling

• 8 apples, sliced
• 3 tbsp grapeseed oil
• 4 tbsp 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

1. Prepare your mise en place.
   • Hand-grind all spices in mortar and pestle.
   • Hand-squeeze and zest the orange and lemon.

2. Prepare topping.

• Mix all dry ingredients for topping until well combined.
• Pour in grapeseed oil and mix.

3. Cook the apple crisp.

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

4. Enjoy!

If you are interested in more healthy dessert recipes, A New View of Healthy Eating is available now. Order today and I’ll ship tomorrow!

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