Christmas is not necessarily the time for thinking healthy. All the same, it is possible to create some food-related Christmas spirit without consuming 2000 calories per bite. Using fruits that are already packed with their own natural sugars is a great way to start and for a crunchy crumble, look to oats! Oats not only contain easily digestible fibers but are known to break down bad cholesterol and are loaded with calcium. This baked pear fantasy is a great finale to a fabulous Christmas dinner: a conscience-pleasing dish and a nice hot cup of tea. Pile it all into one large baking dish, create individual servings for a small group, or make mini-bites in a mini-muffin tin for a Christmas cocktail party. For a little extravagance, feel free to top your crumble with vanilla frozen yogurt or low fat vanilla ice cream when serving!
Baked Pear and Walnut Crumble
Crumble ingredients:
1 cup oatmeal
½ cup wholewheat digestives
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ cup butter, room temperature
Pear mixture ingredients:
4 ripe pears peeled, cored and quartered
2 lemons, juiced
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
- Mix crumble ingredients in a bowl, adding the butter last before combining everything with your hands.
- In a pan, cook pear pieces in butter and brown sugar, adding vanilla extract and lemon at the end.
- Finally, either put pear mixture in a baking dish and top with crumble, or fill mini-muffin papers with a little pear each and some crumble on top.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until the crumble on top is browned.
- Serve with vanilla frozen yoghurt, light vanilla ice cream or simply yoghurt mixed with honey.
