Rhubarb and Apple Crumble

This is probably a rather healthy desert – I mean, it’s pretty much muesli disguised as pudding! (Although, probably anything could disguise itself as pudding if it sprinkled a bit of sugar on itself). With lots of fruit, seeds, and oats, it does provide a chunk of nutrition. And sugar… for energy…? The trick with crumbles is to use lots of apple; they’re nice and sweet, cheap, and bulky, so provide a good base to full out the crumble, and use smaller/more expensive tasty fruits for the flavour.

INGREDIENTS

3 Apples
2 branches Rhubarb
3 Plums (or another branch of Rhubarb)
1 Tblsp Sugar
3/4 C Flour
1/4 C Margarine
1/2 C Oats
1/4 C Brown Sugar
2 Tblsp Pumpkin Seeds
2 Tblsp Sunflower Seeds
A pinch of cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

Peel the apples, then slice them up as well as the rhubarb and plums. Chuck them in a pot, sprinkle with the sugar and cover with some water. Bring to the boil, and let it do so until the rhubarb is nice and soft.

While you’re waiting for the fruit, in a food processor (or with your fingers) blend together the flour and marg to form crumbs. Then blend in the oats, brown sugar,  seeds, and cinnamon.

Drain the fruit, layer onto a dish, then sprinkle the crumbs on top. Bake at 200ºC until it starts to brown on top.

  *Authors note: If I wasn’t writing this for Tahini Sauce, which claims to be “low in sugar, low in fat”, I would probably also grate some chocolate onto the fruit before putting the crumbs on, and mix in some maple syrup.

Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding

When I was a teenager I would go to my cousin’s place each weekend for a girl’s night and we’d make pudding. We’d eat pudding instead of dinner then wake up and eat delicious pudding again for breakfast. These isn’t healthy or low in sugar and as such is categorised under Evil Food – Look away! But I must share it, for I’d be remiss if I didn’t give this to the world.

Actually, I have more such recipes. Do you want me to share my unhealthy recipes as well as healthy stuff? Let me know in the comments.

This is my version of the Edmond’s Cookbook pudding, and one of those things I’ve simply done without for the last seven years since becoming vegan.

When you bake it, it will look black. It’s not burned. That’s the deliciousness. To reassure you I’ve put a picture of the baked result so you don’t freak out and toss the lot without realising it was actually baked to perfection. I would serve this up to loved-ones or impress people with this at a party.

It takes me about 5 minutes to get this in the oven.

By the way, the cake recipe is also a generic recipe I often use for ultra-quick cupcakes and cakes. You can just bake it as is, it’s quick, cheap and easy.

INGREDIENTS

Cake

1 & 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup water

Sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
1/4 cup cocoa
2 cups boiling water (yes, you do want that much) 

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Prepare cake batter first. Mix dry cake ingredients. Add in wet cake ingredients. Stir until smooth. Oil a deep dish and pour the cake batter in.

Then in a separate bowl mix the dry sauce ingredients and sprinkle this evenly over the cake batter. Using the back of a spoon gently drizzle the 2 cups of boiling water over the sauce mix. It will look weird and watery. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

Check regularly and push a knife in to see if it’s done. It will be sticky, it’s pudding, but you should be able to taste it and tell the difference between uncooked and cooked cake batter. It should look black and has a somewhat “burned” appearance, though it’s not. The ideal texture should be like chunks of cake with pockets of sauce randomly distributed through. It’s spectacular. Serve steaming and hot with vanilla soy icecream.