by Sharm | Nov 20, 2016 | Decedent Desserts, Entertaining, Food & Drink, Health, Recipes
Not only is this healthy apple tart gluten free, it is also egg and dairy free as well. My daughter was having some health issues last year and a food sensitivity test came back to avoid dairy, eggs and gluten.
These results came in just before the holidays so was I in bind to figure out how to make a gluten, egg and dairy free Thanksgiving. I mastered some killer brussels sprouts with bacon, almonds and cherries and a gluten, egg and dairy free butternut squash and quinoa stuffing and an amazing herbed butter to season my turkey with. My friend over at Delish Girl made this healthy apple tart for our dessert and was sweet enough to pass along the recipe. I took a stab at making it again for a later holiday gathering and it turned out delicious and is absolutely gorgeous!
The dairy free healthy caramel sauce that gets drizzled on top is also delicious over some dairy free or regular ice cream or use as a dipper for fruit. You can put it your coffee for a healthy home-made caramel macchiato, drizzle over a brownie or anything else you like. You can find the recipe for the healthy caramel sauce here as you will want to make it ahead of time.
This recipe works best in an 8″ or 9″ tart pan with a removable bottom. If you have a larger tart pan, I would double the crust recipe so it can evenly cover the sides and bottom of pan. You want a fairly thick crust so it holds its shape when sides are removed from pan.
I know there are many out there who are on special diets but still want and crave those comforting holiday foods. This healthy apple tart would be a great addition to your Thanksgiving or holiday table and your gluten free guests will love it. Enjoy!
Healthy Apple Tart with Caramel Sauce
1 cup of finely ground almond flour
⅓ cup tapioca flour
2 tablespoons of coconut sugar (or sweetener of choice, such as unrefined cane sugar, organic evaporated cane sugar, maple sugar)
¼ teaspoon unrefined salt
⅓ cup cold butter, or non-hydrogenated palm shortening (for a dairy-free version, use one of the palm shortenings listed above – firm coconut oil could also work, but is a little more finicky)
2 tablespoons cold water
3 large Honeycrisp apples
Juice from half a lemon
¼ cup coconut sugar ((or sweetener of choice, such as unrefined cane sugar, organic evaporated cane sugar, maple sugar)
2 tablespoons tapioca starch/flour, arrowroot flour, or organic cornstarch
2-3 tablespoons of caramel sauce
Directions
Make caramel sauce, and set aside to cool (can make a week ahead, if desired)
In a food processor, combine the almond flour and tapioca flour with the salt and sugar.
If using butter, cut into cubes and add, or measure the palm shortening out and place in the food processor.
Pulse until the shortening or butter is blended into the flour in small pieces (biggest pieces should be the size of a small pea). Pulse after each addition of tablespoon of cold water. (You want the dough just to be moist enough that it sticks together when you pinch the dough into a small ball. I found that two tablespoons was just enough.
Press into the tart pan, making sure that there is a good ¼ inch or so of dough pressed along the side all around the tart pan. This will help make the tart more stable once cooked. Place in fridge. (you can prepare this hours ahead of time, if desired, just cover).
Preheat oven to 375F.
Peel the apples, core them, and then thinly slice. Toss them in a medium sized bowl with the lemon juice, sugar, and tapioca starch. Take the tart pan out and artfully fan out the apple slices in the pan in a circular pattern (if using a circular pan). You want the apple slices to be angled, but not flat (as you wouldn’t be able to fit many slices in that way). Leave any remaing juice from apples in bowl. DO NOT pour it over the top as it will make the tart too soggy and will not bake properly.
Take the previously prepared caramel sauce, and brush on caramel sauce over all of the apples. Set tart pan on cookie sheet and
place in oven. Cook for 40-70 minutes or until the apples are fork tender, and the crust is cooked. I covered with foil at 40 minutes to keep the crust from over browning.
Take out of the oven and cool thoroughly before removing the sides of the tart pan. Slice, and enjoy plain, or with whipped cream or ice cream, served with extra caramel sauce. Enjoy!
by Sharm | Nov 20, 2016 | Decedent Desserts, Entertaining, Food & Drink, Health, Recipes
This delicious healthy caramel sauce is gluten, egg and dairy free. It is delicious over apples, ice cream or whatever you want to drizzle it over.
It is the sweet ingredient in this recipe for my healthy apple tart that is also gluten, egg and dairy free.
It is so easy to make and can keep for a week or two in the fridge. Enjoy!
Ingredients
2/3 cup granulated coconut sugar
1/2 cup honey
4 tablespoons coconut oil or butter
Dash or two of unrefined salt (more for a “salted caramel taste”)
1 cup full-fat coconut milk
2 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
In a small saucepan, put in the coconut sugar, honey, and coconut oil or butter, along with the salt. Heat over medium heat, stirring to evenly melt the honey and coconut oil or butter.
As soon as it’s starting to bubble, set the timer for two minutes. Stir the bubbling mixture once or twice during these two minutes.
Very carefully stir in the coconut milk until it is mixed in.
Once it has returned to a low simmer, simmer for another minute or two, or until the mixture has thickened up again (it won’t be super thick while hot…but will thicken up considerably as it cools. You want it to be thick enough to coat a spoon, but still thin enough to be very easy to drizzle. Don’t heat longer than two minutes).
Take off of the heat, and stir in the vanilla. Let cool to desired temperature before serving. If you want a warm caramel sauce, simply reheat before serving.
Will keep at least 1-2 weeks refrigerated. Makes 2 cup.
by Sharm | Jun 20, 2016 | Decedent Desserts, Entertaining, Food & Drink, Recipes
This recipe was inspired as part of the Whole Foods Amabassador program I take part in. Every month there is a different theme and this month features grilling stone fruits. These grilled peaches adorned with the smokey sweet grilled cherries are super easy to make. Adding the salty goat cheese, sweet honey and crunchy almond mix from Sahale makes an amazing flavor and texture combination.
I made a large batch of these as I had my sister and her family visiting for the weekend.
These peaches served as dessert after an amazing balsamic and rosemary marinated grilled chicken we grilled out for dinner.
Impress your guests with this beautiful dessert. I wish to thank Whole Foods for supplying me a gift card to purchase the ingredients. Be Sure to check out the tips below from Whole Foods Market on the best way to grill up stone fruits.
10 Peaches
2 Pounds Fresh Cherries
1 Package 10.5 ounces Goat Cheese
1/2 cup nut of choice, chopped
Honey to taste
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
These peaches are so easy to make, but can be tricky if your peaches are not quite ripe enough as was the case for me. When picking them out they felt ripe, but as I got home to cut them open they would not pull away from the pit so I sliced off each half as close to the pit as I could and it worked fine. With all of the topping on the peaches you would never know there was not a pit indention.
Directions:
First thing you will want to set out the goat cheese to start softening. Then preheat your grill. Next wash and prepare your fruits
For Peaches:
Cut peaches in half and brush cut side with olive oil.
For Cherries
Pit Cherries. Using a cherry pitter is going to be the easiest way to do this but if you do not have one you can use a chopstick or straw to poke it through.
Heat grill and place cherries on a grill pan and peaches cut side down. Cook until peaches are slightly soft and have the caramelized grill marks. Give them a quick turn and grill on the other side for just a couple of minutes. Give the cherries a little stir a few times during cooking to get all sides cooked
While peaches are cooking, chop up your nut of choice. I had some single serving packages of honey almond Sahale nuts that needed used up so I used those but you can use any nut you like.
Once peaches and cherries are done. Remove from grill and place on serving platter. Using a medium size scoop, place a dollop of goat cheese on each peach. Top with a grilled cherry and chopped nut mix. Drizzle honey on top to taste.
This makes 20 halves so can serve 10 – 20. You can always cut the recipe in half for a smaller group.
Tips on using stone fruits.
• Why they’re cool: Peaches, plums, nectarines and apricots – and don’t forget cherries! These delicious fruits ripen in summertime, and can be used in creative ways in the kitchen and on the grill.
• Grilling need to know:
Pick out a stone fruit that is ripe and firm, so it doesn’t fall apart under heat. Check out this video.
•Use moderate heat to caramelize the fruit, leaving grill marks – this is called the Maillard reaction, and by caramelizing the fruit hundreds of new flavor compounds are created. Check out this video on
•To prevent sticking, clean the grill grate well, and wipe lightly with a paper towel and neutral-flavor oil such as canola or grapeseed oil.
Awesome recipe: Smoky Nectarine Punch
by Sharm | Oct 12, 2013 | Decedent Desserts, Food & Drink, Food Finds, Hotels, Products & Reviews, Restaurants, Travel & Resorts
With over 70 locations in the United Kingdom and Europe and 2 locations in the U.S. in Boston and New York, the British Cocoa Grower and Chocolatier Hotel Chocolat is now launching their USA website.
In celebration of the launch, Hotel Chocolat graciously sent me some samples to try and I must say they were quite a treat. The samples were amazing, which included The Sleekster Everything Collection and Caramel Cheesecakes. The Everything Collection was a delightful array of luxurious chocolates made with bean to bar chocolate and the highest quality of ingredients including whole macadamia nuts, buttery shortbread cookies, rich caramel and more. The Caramel Cheesecakes were creamy and delicious. The elegance and quality of these chocolates made me curious to find out more about this Hotel Chocolat.
Turns out, they are one of the world’s few chocolate makers that actually grow their own cocoa. In addition, they also own a few restaurants and the Hotel Boucan in Saint Lucia, which is now on my bucket list. Who can resist a vacation in a tropical rainforest surrounded by chocolate, not me!
For serious chocolate aficionados you might be interested in the Hotel Chocolat Tasting Club, where you can sign up to have new and different tasting selections sent you every few weeks.
With over 20 years of experience as the UK’s largest online chocolate retailer, those of us in U.S. can now enjoy the luxury chocolates and stylish gifts Hotel Chocolat offers. Visit the Hotel Chocolat website for more information on ordering chocolates or one of the many other ventures Hotlel Chocolat is famous for.
by Sharm | Apr 8, 2010 | Articles, Decedent Desserts, Food & Drink, Local Restaurants, What You're Missing KC!
Cupcake A La Mode
What a cute and yummy store!
We stumbled upon this while out at the Park Place shopping center in Leawood. I couldn’t resist getting my great niece Kennedy her first cupcake even though she is only 11 months old. It was just so girly and pink and perfectly sweet! Just like her!
Since the writing of this post the Leawood store has closed but the Country Club Plaza location is open.
When you first walk in to Cupcake A La Mode it has the feel of a classy and chic boutique and then when you see the case of those heavenly cupcakes you know you are in for a treat.
With over 15 flavors to choose from we had a bit of a dilemma on our hands. But after much deliberation we chose a variety: the French Vanilla OOH LAH LAH, the Peanut Butter Kiss and the Pink Lemonade. They also have gourmet coffee creations so a Vanilla Latte was added to go along.
The cupcakes are moist and delicious.
I can’t wait to go back and try some of the other flavors.
Don’t miss out on this treat, it is the perfect cure for when that sweet tooth starts aching!
http://www.cupcakealamode.com/
Country Club Plaza, MO
4639 Wornall Road
Kansas City, MO 6411
(816) 960-1911
And as always if you think there is something I am missing in the KC food scene, Email me
In Good Taste,
Sharm
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
