I’m not much of a chocolate or dessert person, but anything fruit-y is ALWAYS a yes. Apple pie is where it’s at! And as a kid- this is a bit shameful- I always and only ate McDonalds Apple Pie. Even I knew it was odd, McDonalds > any other pie, but thank god I grew up. Once middle school hit, it was only homemade, and once high school hit, I discovered the wonders of berry crisp! Heaven in a bite, no?
Now in college, we have desserts available every.day. I’ve tried a small bite a few times, but its pretty meh. The bakers here are good, but it’s nothing I like (I like more spices, and not the traditional butter-sugar-white flour stuff),. except when they make crisp! Today, I got a small thing of berry crisp, it was so good, and knew finally it’s time to make my own.
To put this in perspective, I went and bought the ingredients back when I was home on Fall Break. A month ago! And I’ve had a hankering for it since before then. Clearly, it’s been a long time coming!
To make this, it had to be easy. I mean, my dorm has like 3ft2 of space. I’m.Not.Kidding. Thus this comes together with: 1 dish, 2 utensils! I give options to use more dishes (it makes it easier, but… I’d rather less dishes). (also, just realized its 3 utensils if you count the tablespoon to measure 😉 )
Now, crisp is usually made with butter, sugar, and refined white flour. This, however, contains no added sugar, uses whole grain flours, and uses a bit of coconut of to tie it all together!
In my Organic Chemistry class & lab, we’re touching a bit on the properties of food, such as antioxidants. I’m also in a interdisciplinary class called Naturally Spicy, which is about spices, their history, their chemistry & what makes them up. It is actually also taught by my ochem professor, who is from India, so she grew up using so many spices! Right now, I’m studying cinnamon and a bit of it’s antioxidant benefits. These come from phenolic rings that make up the active compounds in cinnamon. In fact, consuming spices with foods does increase some of the antioxidants levels in your body,
Now before recommending this crisp for the antioxidants, I checked to see if they were still available and powerful after heating. It turns out that cooking berries (specifically blueberries here) does impact the amount of antioxidants available, but you still get a sizable amount of them. AKA, don’t not eat berries because they are cooked! Fresh is best, but frozen, dried, and cooked are just as good. However, subjecting frozen blueberries to temperature fluctuations does impact the amount of antioxidants! I’ll be more wary of that next time I go to the store. Also, the amount of antioxidant decrease is impacted by cooking temps and methods: try not to microwave them for a long time and try not to cook over 350 (oops). Here’s more about cooking & antioxidant level in general.
Moral? Make. EAT. nom nom.
And that’s it! Eat it piping hot out of the oven, serve with a cold glass of milk, some greek yogurt, or ice cream/fro yo of choice! Eat leftovers (is that a thing?! double the recipe!) –OR MAKE IT FOR- breakfast!
And a final note: I recently bought this NuWave oven (shown in the demo), and it’s pretty fantastic! It’s a convection, conduction, and infra red oven all in one,, but that means it does cook at really high heats.
~Masala Girl
are you a dessert-y person? a crisp person?
ever tried a NuWave?!