Saturday, September 21, 2013

Vegan MoFo Day 21 - Sweet Saturdays - Apple-Blueberry Grunts

I'm not sure how everyone else is faring at this stage of the month but honestly Vegan MoFo is starting to wear me down. My intention was to post daily throughout Vegan MoFo, yesterday was the second time in less than a week that I've missed a post. Rather than throwing in the towel I'm aiming to get through the rest of the month with as many posts as I can manage. I'm going to give myself a breather tomorrow and skip Summary Sundays and the following Sunday I'll be posting a round-up of bookmarks from the month.


This week for Sweet Saturdays I actually baked something to please myself which meant it involved fruit and wasn't overly sweet. The main apple eater in our house has always been the young man - the time he spends at home has decreased recently due to a lady friend in his life which resulted in our fruit bowl overflowing with apples. There were a few different recipes I could have used them up in but I turned to Blueberry Grunts in Vegan Yum Yum last night as I've wanted to try it for years and it seemed like an easy recipe to make.


I modified this recipe a bit, obviously I included apples in my version. The sugar that was added to the apples and berries was decreased by a substantial amount and a small amount of sugar and cinnamon was added to the biscuit topping. As the baked apples and berries turned out to be a little too runny, I added a touch of a cornflour paste to thicken them up slightly. The only thing I would do different next time around is to use a slightly larger baking dish, the one I chose was a square 20cm dish and the quantity of biscuit topping was too much for this so I've indicated to use a 24cm dish in the recipe below. Alternatively this could be baked in individual ramekins.  

This dessert was not quite sweet enough for the man but it was perfect for me so if you have a sweet tooth you may wish to increase the amount of sugar. My preference was to enjoy this on it's own although it could also be served with some nut-based cream or a scoop of non-dairy ice-cream.


Apple-Blueberry Grunts (Adapted from Vegan Yum Yum)

Apple-Blueberry base
5 red apples, approx 500g (I used a mixture of pink lady, fuji and royal gala apples)
250g frozen blueberries
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with enough water to make a thick paste)

Biscuit topping
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons raw sugar
3 tablespoons dairy-free margarine
1 cup soy (or other non-dairy) milk

Preheat oven to 200C.

Peel the apples, cut into quarters and remove the cores, then cut into thin slices. Place the apples, half of the blueberries, water, sugar and cinnamon into a saucepan. Cover with a lid, bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes until the apples have softened, stirring occasionally. Stir through the remaining blueberries and cornflour paste, allow to cook for a few more minutes, then turn off the heat. Transfer the berry mixture to a 24cm baking dish or spoon into ramekins.

Place the flour, salt, cinnamon and sugar in a large mixing bowl then add the dairy-free margarine. Use a fork to cut the fat through the flour then pour in the soy milk and continue mixing until a rough shaggy dough forms. Tear off small portions of the dough with your hands and arrange them on top of the apples and berries.  

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the biscuit topping is slightly browned.

14 comments:

  1. Great to see a dessert you love - especially one called a grunt! Hope the young man is having fun with his lady friend and still getting enough fruit :-)

    As for mofo fatigue - I have it too and missed a couple of days last week - more hours in the day please!

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    1. Thanks Johanna, fruit based desserts have always been my love. Not sure that fruit is on the forefront of the young man's mind at the moment but it's lovely to see him so happy.

      Definitely need more hours in the day during MoFo!

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  2. This sounds great (even if the name seems counter intuitive for a dessert!) and a dessert based on fruit appeals to me too. Exciting for your young man and his new found non-home activities too ;)

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    1. Thanks Kari, it's not the most appealing name but the dish certainly made up for it. It is an exciting time for the young man!

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  3. I should try this dessert! sO YUMMY!

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    1. Thanks Kumudha, it's quite easy to put together too!

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  4. Looks like a hard core crumbleperfect for this time of year. Have I missed something? where on earth did the name 'grunts' come from?

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    1. Thanks India, the introduction to the recipe places grunts in the same family as cobblers, both of which are Northern American recipes and being an Aussie they aren't very familiar to me. Your description of a hard core crumble is pretty much spot on!

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  5. Even I've skipped a couple of posts this week. As awesome as MoFo is, it really does get tiring by this last week. Haha

    Your dessert definitely looks like it's something to reward oneself with after getting done with a MoFo post. :)

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    1. Thanks Veganosaurus, it's a tough pace to keep up with for the whole month! This dessert was definitely a perfect MoFo posting reward!

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  6. I love grunts! I normally make it with damsons - so good!

    I'm with you on MoFo - just realised I'm a good few posts short so it'll be a bit of a push through! If it helps keep you going, I've really been enjoying your Mofo posts!

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    1. Thanks Joey, I had to look up damsons as I've not heard of them before. I'm surprised to hear that you are short of posts as it seems like you've been keeping up with the pace. Thanks for the motivation, I'm going to keep going as best I can but am looking forward to a rest when the month is over!

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  7. This looks lovely! I like reducing the sugar in fruit based baked goods like this because I think the fruit is usually sweet enough as it is :)

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    1. Thanks Mandee, totally agree with you on that. I really do prefer enjoying the sweetness from fruit in these types of desserts.

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