apple and raspberry “verrine” with yogurt and a gluten-free crumble (how-to video included)

Hello, dear neighbors ! If you come over for a summer meal, chances are I will end it with a light dessert that will include fruit and not require too much prep time. This is one of them. Serving it in  « verrines » (or, to put it simply, wide glasses) is very convenient when my guests have different tastes and / or different dietary restrictions. Last time I made it, one verrine had whipped cream instead of yogurt (for my brother’s sweet tooth 😊), three had regular (dairy) yogurt, one (mine) had dairy-free yogurt, and the last two had only apple sauce and raspberries. But in addition to fruit they they all included a cookie base and crumble topping, which was the only baking I had to worry about (and a minimal one at that), since both the apple sauce and the raspberries came from my trusted freezer. 

Ingredients to make 6 to 8 individual desserts :

– some apple sauce (mine is always homemade, organic and with no added sugar)

– a few raspberries

– some organic yogurt of your choice, dairy or non

for the crumble base and topping :

– 20 to 25g gluten-free oats

– 30g organic almond meal

– 15g sorghum flour (to give the cookie base a little crunchiness)

– 35g sugar (organic cane sugar or coconut sugar)

– 30 to 35g total combination of non hydrogenated margarine + ghee butter (or margarine only for a completely vegan dessert)

Preparing the crumble:

1. Mix all dry ingredients, add margarine and ghee butter, if using, and pinch with your fingertips, as you would for an ordinary crumble, until dough forms. The video below shows when to stop for a classic fruit crumble dish (recipe in French here).

2. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C / 355°F.

3. Roll out the dough about a quarter inch thick (half a centimeter), place on a lined baking tray* and bake between 10 and 12 minutes. Do not leave your oven completely unattended, dear neighbor ; keep an eye on the baking progress, especially if using coconut sugar !

4. Let the cookie base cool down before breaking it into coarse crumbs for the bottom of your verrines, finer ones for the topping.

*Note : you can also cut out circles from the dough prior to baking, making sure they are slighlty smaller than the bottom of your verrines and spread out wide on the baking sheet : the dough will expand as it cooks.

Assembling the verrines:

Place coarse cookie crumbs at the bottom of the glasses, add yogurt, apple sauce, raspberries, and add finer crumbs on top for a nice finishing touch.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe, dear neighbor. It just didn’t feel right, in the middle of a heat wave, with temperatures reaching 41°C (105°F) in our area, to be sharing a warm dish ! We have managed to keep our house relatively cool so far, but outside it’s another story : look at what has happened to some of our roses… We also found three young birds, all fallen from their nest, dead on the ground. Sad.

I had never seen rose petals burn this way.  Global warming is very real to them!

And all of this happened within 24 hours…

I am really glad I planted the basil in a pot this year.  This allows me to move it to a better spot if need be.  (Please ignore the weeds!)