My dear friend just had a birthday, and I had the pleasure of making dinner for her party. It was a little tricky, because she's been on a yeast-free diet for a couple of weeks, and that leaves out a lot of foods. I was up for the challenge though, and it was really a lot of fun for me. Dinner itself was fairly simple. We had bean tacos, with sprouted corn tortillas, refried beans, calabacitas (squash), avocado, lettuce, tomato, and salsa. We all loved how such an uncomplicated dish could be so complex in favors, and so satisfying, plus it was easy for everyone to customize their own plate. I'll make them again soon and show you how good they are. We ate it all up before I thought to take a picture.
Dinner was easy, but dessert was the real challenge. How does one make a tasty birthday treat without any sugar? After my lemon bar adventures, I was feeling a little bit over-sweetened myself, so I came up with something that surprised us all. These little Apple Tarts were really tasty, but maybe only for people who are already used to not eating sugar. I'm sharing the recipe here because I think some of you will like it just the way it is, and also because I think there's great potential to create a more mainstream, sweeter version that will still be wonderfully healthy.
Apple Tarts
For the crust:
1 cup cooked buckwheat groats
1 cup raw cashews/macadamia nuts - soaked in water for 20 minutes or more and drained
3 T ground flax seed
pinch of salt
Chop the nuts in a food processor. Add the other ingredients and blend for a few seconds. You'll have a nice dough that sticks together well. Press about 1/4 cup of filling into the cups of a lightly oiled muffin tin. It will fill about 7.
Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
For the filling:
Chop 2 medium apples into small cubes. Sprinkle a generous amount of cinnamon over the apples and mix well to coat them.
Fill each of the partially baked crusts with apples. Any extra filling can just be baked in one or two of the empty muffin cups. Bake for another 30 minutes.
Variations: to make this sweeter, try adding soaked, chopped dates to the crust mixture, and maybe a little maple syrup to the apples. You might also fill these crusts with other fruits, chocolate mousse, or even the lemony filling from the Lemon Bars recipe. Mmmm!
