{"id":76820,"date":"2016-06-03T04:10:30","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T08:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=76820"},"modified":"2016-06-03T04:10:30","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T08:10:30","slug":"try-guilt-free-dessert-pear-chocolate-crumble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/06\/03\/try-guilt-free-dessert-pear-chocolate-crumble\/","title":{"rendered":"Try a guilt free dessert with a pear and chocolate crumble"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lemon<\/a><\/p>\n

My four daughters all have a sweet tooth, and I blame genetics. I can sidestep French fries, chips and salty stuff pretty easily, but chocolate makes me drool. So if you love sweets, at least know you are in good company.<\/p>\n

But, healthy-eating friends, let’s have some straight talk about dessert: it’s full of sugar, which means we can’t have dessert every single time we want it.<\/p>\n

In our house, we eat (real) dessert only on weekends. During the week, I serve plain fruit or unsweetened yogurt after dinner, saving the sweeter treats for family meals where we linger around the table, connecting.<\/p>\n

Even weekend desserts, though, are not a free-for-all sugar-fest. I follow one simple guideline to keep my family’s sugar consumption in check: I make all our own desserts.<\/p>\n

There are three major advantages to this rule. First, while sugar can wreak havoc on our health, weird chemicals\u2014fake flavours, colours, preservatives\u2014scare me even more. If I make the food myself, I can skip the strange ingredients I can’t pronounce, and that’s a win for our health.<\/p>\n

Second, having to cook my own treats (usually) stops me from mindlessly eating something I brought home from the store. Permission to eat anything that is homemade is simultaneously enough freedom to indulge our cravings sometimes and enough brakes to keep us from scarfing down a random box of cookies. Lastly, if I make the desserts myself, then I have control over the recipe. Usually, I reduce sugar and simple carbohydrates and add protein and fiber, which all slow down the sugar rush.<\/p>\n

For instance, this week’s pear and dark chocolate crumble turns almond flour and oats in a tasty topping that isn’t loaded with empty calories, and a tiny splash of almond extract brilliantly tricks the palate into thinking this dessert is sweeter than it is. Splurge on some high-quality dark chocolate chips (or just chop up a bar)\u2014you’ll be amazed how satisfying a small bit of dark chocolate can be.<\/p>\n

Pear and dark chocolate crumble<\/strong><\/p>\n

Start to Finish: 1 hour<\/p>\n

Yield: 6 servings<\/p>\n

For the filling:<\/p>\n

2 tablespoons lemon juice<\/p>\n

1\/4 teaspoon almond extract<\/p>\n

4 pears, peeled and diced<\/p>\n

1 granny smith apple, peeled and diced<\/p>\n

1 tablespoon brown sugar<\/p>\n

1 teaspoon corn starch<\/p>\n

For the crumble topping:<\/p>\n

1\/3 cup almond flour<\/p>\n

1\/2 cup oats<\/p>\n

1\/3 cup dark chocolate chips (recommended: 63% cacao)<\/p>\n

1 tablespoon brown sugar<\/p>\n

1\/4 teaspoon salt<\/p>\n

3 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes<\/p>\n

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix the lemon juice and almond extract. Add the fruit and toss to coat. Sprinkle the sugar and corn starch on the pears, and stir until mixed in.<\/p>\n

Spoon the fruit into a 1.5 or 2-quart baking dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. In a small food processor, place the almond flour, oats, chocolate chips, sugar, and salt. Pulse once or twice to mix.<\/p>\n

Top with the butter and pulse 8 or 9 times until mixture looks like wet sand. (Chocolate chips may still be quite large and that’s perfect.)<\/p>\n

Spread the oat and almond mixture over the fruit and gently press down into the fruit. Spray the top of the crumble with a little nonstick spray. Bake until fruit is tender and bubbling, and topping is golden brown, about 40-45 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.<\/p>\n

NOTE: one granny smith apple is used to add depth of flavour and texture, but another pear can be used instead.<\/p>\n

Nutrition information per serving: 254 calories; 113 calories from fat; 13 g fat (6 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 13 mg cholesterol; 107 mg sodium; 37 g carbohydrate; 6 g fiber; 23 g sugar; 4 g protein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My four daughters all have a sweet tooth, and I blame genetics. I can sidestep French fries, chips and salty …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":76821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[808,11036,11037,167,11038],"class_list":["post-76820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-food","tag-chocolate","tag-chocolate-crumble","tag-dessert","tag-food-2","tag-pear","mauthors-melissa-darabian","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}