Wow it's been nearly two weeks time has gone really quickly, I certainly never meant to leave it this long. I've been experimenting a bit with apple crumble, the Railway Man loves it but now with the diabetes the recipe I've always used simply won't suit anymore but I don't want to use sweetener any more than I have to, I don't like the fact that it is completely artificial, sugar may not be good for you but at least you know where it comes from. The resulting crumble turned out pretty well with no complaints so I am going to add the recipe here, it isn't suitable for people with nut allergies due to the ground almonds.
Apple Crumble Experiment
4 eating apples
mixed spice
90g flour
30g ground almonds
90g butter
1tblspn granulated sugar (or sweetener if you prefer)
1 to 1 1/2 tblspn light brown sugar
Method (serves 2)
Peel, core and chop the apples, I used Gala and they worked well, using eating apples means you won't need to sweeten them. Sprinkle with mixed spice, more or less depending how spicy you like it then divide the apples between 2 ovenproof bowls (mine are the size of smallish cereal bowls), put this aside.
I make my crumble in the food processor. Put the flour and ground almonds to the bowl and add the butter cut into cubes, process this until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs, add the sugars and process again briefly to make sure it is well mixed. Next spoon the crumble over the two dishes until you get a nice even layer then it is ready to go into a preheated oven for 40 minutes. When it comes out of the oven do leave it to cool for 15 to 20 minutes before eating. We tend to serve ours with thick cream but ice cream or custard would be great too. If you look back to my Boxing Day Chillout post there is a recipe for diabetic friendly custard if you fancy making your own.
I know I haven't managed sugar free yet but this recipe has less than half the sugar of the one we were using, not having to sweeten the apples really helps.
I've also finished making another bunny, I really am going to have to get my Etsy shop back up and running as I'm starting to get rather a collection of soft toys going on so here he is
I changed the style of the arms so that they look more like paws and did a little sculpting on them which isn't really visible in the picture and gave him a bigger nose which I stuffed slightly and I think I like him slightly better than the pink bunny, what do you think? Do let me know.
My current project is a little different though I may start my next crochet project which is an alpaca and have them both going at once because I really want to start the alpaca! My current project is layered flower brooches made of felt with beads an embroidery on each layer, I saw the idea on Pintrest (love Pintrest!!) and then did a design of my own.
This was my first design plan, I wanted seven petals as I felt it looked better than six, I also had to go and by a protractor in order to get the angles right (LOL) thank you geometry! The next picture is of the first two layers that I have completed, I haven't fully decided on three or four layers yet.
I wanted to have different shapes and colours to keep it interesting. Watch this space for the finished brooch.
My last piece of news is that I have signed up with www.centreofexcellence.com to do an Embroidery Diploma it looks interesting, I can take as long as I need with it and it was on offer, I love to learn and this sounds just my kind of thing. I'll be posting crochet animals all embroidered soon, that'll be something different !
Well I'm off to do the next layer of the brooch, see you all soon x.