Healthy Apple Crumble with Tarallini and Mascarpone

What’s better than an apple crumble for dessert on a cold Winter night? Well, a healthy apple crumble with pears, bananas and mascarpone sounds even better, don’t you agree? Once you make it and taste it you won’t believe how good this is, even though it has much less sugar and butter than the traditional apple crumble.

Ingredients (makes 5 large portions)

350 gr traditional tarallini
70 gr roasted almonds
3 apples
3 pears
1 large banana (or an extra apple or 2 pears)
90 gr butter (we are using dairy free) room temperature
8 teaspoons brown sugar (5 for the fruit mix, and 3 for the crumble)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon mascarpone per person
lemon juice (half a lemon – optional)
milk as needed
honey

Preparation

Take the butter out of the fridge.

Start by washing your fruit. Then peel and cut the apples into small chunks (cut every quarter into half).

Follow by peeling and cutting the pears into quarters.

Transfer to a large bowl, add the brown sugar (5 teaspoons) and cinnamon, and mix to combine. You can also add the lemon juice at this point.

You have the option to pre-cook the fruit into a pot so that it is tender before transferring it into your casserole. Or you can do as we did, and transfer it to the casserole without pre-cooking it. Do it the first way if you prefer stew like fruit, or the second way if you like your fruit to have a bite.

Next, prepare your crumble. Take the tarallini and blitz them; transfer to a bowl.

Then take the almonds and blitz them too; add them to the tarallini.

Add the remaining brown sugar (3 teaspoons) and mix everything together.

Add the butter into small pieces over the tarallini and almonds mixture. Use a fork to cut the butter into the blitzed ingredients, until you get a crumbly texture.

Transfer your fruit to the casserole, and add the banana into medium pieces (banana is optional).

Then, add the crumble on top spreading it evenly to cover all the fruit.

Bake for 15 minutes at the upper level of your oven; then transfer to a lower level.

At this point, if you have opted not to pre-cook your fruit, add half to 1 cup milk and cover with foil. Leave to cook for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes switch off the oven, keep it closed for the fruit to continue cooking for another 15 minutes.

It’s finally time to take your healthy apple crumble out of the oven, leave to cool for a few minutes, and serve with a tablespoon of mascarpone, some roasted almonds pieces, and a drizzle of honey.

Tips

If you’d like to add some sourness to the natural sweet taste, feel free to drizzle some balsamic. Here you can find various options including a few fruit balsamic vinegars. If you follow a sugar free diet or are trying to cut sugar, this healthy apple crumble can be made without sugar, and still yield a tasty result. If you would like your crumble to last longer in the fridge, substitute the banana with an extra apple or pear.