Pinspiration: M’s All-Natural Fruit Bake

What’s gotten into me? Cooking, baking, crafting? It seems the time spent digging into Pinterest have sparked some domestic/creative bug in me. Not that I’m complaining.

While visiting with family last month my step-mom, who I’ve always known to be a healthy eater avoiding sugars, white flour, etc, offered up dessert the first night of my stay. Dessert? Since when do we eat dessert in this house? Turned out it was a baked mixture of apples, dried cranberries, orange juice and cinnamon on top of a sugar-free pound cake plus a little sugar-free whipped cream. It was delicious!

I didn’t get an exact recipe from her while home, but as a sweet tooth seems to have sprouted, I remembered this great alternative and thought I’d give it a try. Skipping the cake and whipped cream it became an all-natural, nothing added treat. I literally just made it – enough for one – and ate it.

Here are the ingredients and approximate quantities used, but this could be easily swapped for whatever’s in season or in the kitchen:
1  Jazz apple
Handful fresh blueberries
1/2 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cut the apple into bite-size pieces and put in a pyrex, add berries and orange juice, sprinkle cinnamon to taste. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 (200C) then baste juice over fruit. Bake another 10 minutes and baste, then another 10, let cool and eat!

I enjoyed this on its own – no cake or whipped topping – but can imagine it would also be great with yogurt, ice cream or anything else really.

Notes for next time: 1/2 cup of OJ was too much with the fresh berries as I didn’t account for their moisture, hence all the juice in the photo. I’d reduce to 1/4 cup for moisture in the first 20 minutes of baking as it was around this point the berries kicked in. Would also add more cinnamon as this didn’t come through but might have been due to all the juice.