THREE APPLE RECIPES

Happy Fall everyone! I am sure everyone has a bucket list of Fall "things to do".  A big one for me is apple picking!! I got the honor to do it with one of my favorite humans the other week. We drove upstate and explored nature, went fishing, searched for indian spears and told stories…oh, and picked about 40 beautiful apples. He left them at my house and I was a little overwhelmed with possibility. Here is a post that includes 3 apple recipes; all gluten free, and all ranging in flavor, density, and texture! Yummy! Oh, and what is the best part??! All the flours and ingredients are trash free/zero waste!  You can get them all in bulk  or make them (leftover almond meal into almond flour). The apple cores can be composted and now everyones happy and so is our earth. <3 

MELTED APPLE CRUMBLE!!! (warm, gooey, and the perfect amount of sweet)

The coolest thing about this is that all of the ingredients can be bought zero waste and trash free. Find a co-op or bulk section in your grocery store and they have everything you need. It always helps me to remember why you are going to these lengths to not create trash/live minimal. We are in the day and age that we can no longer afford to live life without responsibility. If we want to continue to enjoy our earth and the fresh air, we need to act like our choices depend on it….because IT DOES. This new industrial world has somehow created an easy space in our minds to be careless with what we buy when that is truly all that matters. Every action has a reaction. Lets make them count!

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INGREDIENTS:

Base and top crumble:
2 cups almond flour or half with coconut flour too (I make almond flour myself, click HERE to do it too!)
1/2 cup maple syrup (or honey or whatever sweetener you have! mix and match!)
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (any spices you want)
3 tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Apples:
1 1/2 cups diced and cored apples (Compost your cores!!)
1/3 cup maple syrup or anything you prefer (sweeten to taste)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (any spice you would like)

RECIPE:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a loaf pan with coconut oil or olive oil.
2. Mix ingredients of base/crumble in big bowl and set aside. Toss the apple mixture in bowl and set aside.
3. Spread most of your mix on the bottom of your loaf pan, patting down lightly to form the bottom crust. Save some mix for your crumble topping!
4. Pour your apple mixture and even out throughout pan.
5. Take the rest of your mix and spread throughout the top of the apples. Pat down lightly assuring the crumble gets in between the apples!
6. Bake for 30-50 minutes depending on the texture you want. If you want it more crumbly and fall apart gooey do less and if you want more of a bar texture, do more! Enjoy! 

SIMPLE APPLE CAKE

A cake that's sweet and fluffy, yet moist! The lemon zest adds a perfectly light and unique zing.
This was one of my favorites because of how light, fluffy, yet moist it was. I tried THIS recipe and it was absolutely amazing so I tweaked it to to fit what I could get in bulk and what I already had in my kitchen. It has lemon zest so it makes for a really beautiful and unique flavor. It would be really yummy with some home made frosting but I did without because I thought it would be a simple and perfect breakfast treat with some earthy and milky tea.

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So for this recipe you are going to need to make apple sauce! Which is easy!
Apple sauce:
1. Take at least 4 apples ( I used about 10 so I had plenty of leftovers for a snack)
2. Dice them all up (compost your cores!)
3. Throw them in a big pot with about a cup of water. Not too much but just enough for the apples to boil down with them.
4. Put in maple syrup or honey or brown sugar with any spices! I used cinnamon and nutmeg.
5. Cover and wait. Stir occasionally.
6. BOOM. Its done when you have a mushy or mostly mushy consistency. YUM.

INGREDIENTS:
2 eggs
2 cups apple sauce
Zest from one meyer lemon (or regular)
1/2 cup maple syrup (or any sweetener you have)
1/3 cup coconut oil or olive oil
2 cups brown rice flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt



RECIPE:
1. Puree all the wet ingredients with the lemon zest together
2. In separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients.
3. Pour wet ingredients slowly into dry ingredients and stir til combined.
4. Pour straight into your pan and into the oven!
5. Bake about 50 minutes or until the cake springs back up when you lightly touch it.

APPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE!!

This was my room mates favorite by far. Its not a dessert sweet loaf but it has mild hues of warm slight sweetness. There is a caramelized apple layer that pleasantly surprises you. Its dense and perfect literally for a snack or breakfast or dessert. It's so delicious when warm with butter on top. Remember to buy all your ingredients bulk or at the farmers market, or at your local co-op!

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Bring your treats in a glass tupperware for a picnic to share! I brought a couple forks too. <3

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 banana or 1 egg (for binding)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup or 3/4 cup of maple syrup
1 cup almond milk
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups diced apples
cut some apple rounds for the caramelized bottom. Maybe 8 slices

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F
2. If you have recyclable cake paper then cut til it fits bottom of loaf pan and grease sides
otherwise
Grease bottom and sides of pan with coconut oil/olive oil
3. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl
4. Add in wet ingredients until smooth
5. Fold in apples.
6.(Read and follow instructions below for caramelized apple rounds)
7. After you put in your apple rounds and sauce, then pour batter over it.
8. Bake for 55 minutes or until ready.
9. Let cool and work edges away from pan with spatula or smooth knife, then flip onto plate!

Before you put the batter into the loaf pan:
Caramelized apple rounds for bottom of pan
1. In a small bowl whisk together
      1/2 cup butter or coconut oil
      1/3 cup maple syrup or agave
      1 tablespoon vanilla
      1 tablespoon cinnamon
2. Set up your apple rounds at the bottom of your pan
3. Pour mixture evenly on apple rounds at the bottom of pan.
 

Gluten free super moist banana bread with home made almond flour

So in my last post I talked about making almond flour from leftover almond pulp. We are now going to put it in use! I am so excited to write this post because the bread turned out SO great! I had reviews from many saying this was the "best and moist one I've made yet." Which I was offended at first because I use to make a banana loaf about once a week, haha. 

Also, this is a zero waste recipe, duh! You can get everything from the bulk section of a grocery store/co-op (bananas, maple syrup, cinnamon, baking soda), the farmers market (eggs, apples), and make it yourself (applesauce, almond milk, almond flour)! Just make sure to bring your own totes, cloth produce bags, and your reusable glass spice bottle. Also remember to compost all your banana peels and food scraps!
 

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What I love about this banana bread is its earthy color. The almond flour made it so beautifully brown that it almost looks deceivingly overcooked. But it is so moist, soft, and flavorful. Perfection!
The recipe is as follows:

• 2-3 bananas
• 1/2 cup applesauce (you can sub with yogurt or sourcream)
• 1 tablespoon almond milk (or any other milk)
• 3 eggs 
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/2 cups homemade almond flour (click here to find out how)
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch (you can sub this or not use it at all)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan of small/medium size with coconut oil or olive oil.
2.  Mix together all dry ingredients : almond flour, baking soda, tapioca starch, cinnamon.
In separate bowl mix all wet ingredients: eggs, applesauce, bananas, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and a dash of almond milk.
3.  Whisk wet ingredients with dry ingredients just until combined. 
4. Put in oven for 35-50 minutes. Check after 30 minutes to see status. It should look nice and brown all around. Poke with fork in the middle and check to see if its still wet. Remember if it is a moist bread you don't want the fork to come out super dry.
5. Eat it, share it, love it!

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 I use a fairly smaller in depth loaf pan so my loaves always come out looking long but short in depth. It works as a nice portioned treat for me, especially with butter, fig jam or other preserves. All my friends told me it doesn't need anything though. It was moist and sweetly balanced as is! YAY!