Healthy Pear Apple Crumble

Home-made fruit desserts like this healthy pear apple crumble, are a great way of staying healthy during the Christmas season. Pears are special and delicious, but some people may find them boring as they are not as tangy as apples, however, their white to cream flesh is just as juicy and sweet. 

I never peel my pears, simply because most of their antioxidants are hidden in the skin. A great way to tell whether fruit is rich in antioxidants is by exposing it to air or oxygen by slicing it open. If the fruit quickly turns brown, it means that it is oxidizing. This suggests that there are fewer antioxidants in the fruit, which is the case in the pears. However, if you expose blackberries to oxygen, the colour stays the same which suggests that they are loaded with anti-oxidants. A good tip is to add lemon or lime to slow down the process of oxidizing. This way the anti-oxidants in the fruit stay longer, at least until the fruit is consumed. 

Why cinnamon? 

I added plenty of spices to enhance flavour and add more antioxidants to keep us nice and healthy while enjoying the deliciousness of this crumble. One of my favourite spice is cinnamon, it is sweet and has the ability to create magic to any dish. It should be part of our daily lives, purely because it is loaded with great positive properties. 

Cinnamon is one of the natural plant-based spice which is harvested from the inner bark of the cinnamon tree. It is harvested once the tree matures, where it is scraped out of the tree and shaped into long rolls to dry. It is then pulverised and then packaged. 

Which cinnamon is better? 

There are different types of cinnamon, however, in this post, I would like to inform you about the two main types of cinnamon which are most commonly used.  The Cassia cinnamon comes from the Chinese plant called Cinnamomum cassia and Ceylon cinnamon comes from the Sri Lankan plant called Cinnamomum zeylanicum. While both cinnamons are great and full of flavour, the Ceylon cinnamon is considered to be the “true” cinnamon.  This is because it possesses many health benefits compared to the cassia cinnamon. It also contains low levels of a chemical compound known as coumarin compared to cassia. Scientific studies have shown coumarin to be toxic to our livers in the long run.

Reasons to make this pear apple crumble 

• Free from refined sugars
• Sweet and spicy
• And super delicious 

How to make this pear apple crumble. 

Ingredients 

For the base:

• 6 pears, sliced 
• 2 apples, sliced 
• 1 tablespoon Ceylon cinnamon 
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice 

For the topping: 

• 2 cups of oatmeal (I used a combination of jumbo and normal oatmeal) 
• 1 tablespoon Ceylon cinnamon  
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2-3 tablespoon coconut sugar 

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180℃/ gas 4
• Mix all the base ingredients in a bowl and transfer to a medium baking dish.
• Mix all the topping ingredients and pour over the pear and apple mixture, until the fruit is evenly covered. 
• Bake for about 30 minutes, until the topping is slightly browned.  Remove from the oven and let it cool down before serving. 
• Enjoy! 

Leave a comment below if you like this recipe post!