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Believe it
Making Keto Apple Crisp was the epitome of my leaping off the edge. I have thought about this recipe for weeks. And I fretted over the ingredients and the expense of a potential disaster in the kitchen.
I just did not believe that I could make zucchini taste like apples. But I did and it’s really magic! It’s especially lovely when it starts to get cold out and the leaves are changing to have this Keto Apple Crisp in your oven.
Watch me make it here…
Apple Spice Mix
Make your own using cinnamon, ginger, all spice and nutmeg. I make a double or triple batch of my Apple Spice Mix and keep it in an air tight jar in the pantry.
You can just use cinnamon or a different combo of what you have on hand if that’s all you have. Cinnamon is the main driver in this recipe and most people always have cinnamon stocked.
Apple season in Keto-land
I really hesitated making this recipe. After much reading I surmised that zucchini could possibly be used as a substitute for apple but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Zucchini could be used in sweet recipes like my Chocolate Zucchini Muffins or my Ginger Spiced Zucchini Bread, but I was still a little worried.
Ingredients are expensive and I didn’t want to even think about tossing money into the garbage. Boy, am I glad I bit the bullet and gave this Keto Apple Crisp recipe a shot. Pure magic!
Keto Granola
When I created the recipe for Keto Apple Crisp it was just short of magic. But the other little gem that came out of this recipe is the granola topping. This mix of chopped nuts, almond flour, butter and some sweetener is super easy and I like to use it for many recipes.
By itself or on my Keto Apple Crisp, this granola is a winner.
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Ingredients
Apple spice mix
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp all spice
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp ginger
‘Apple’ filling
- 4 small zucchini peeled and sliced
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ¼ cup Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener
- 1 tsp Apple spice mix
- ¼ cup water
- 10 drops stevia extract
- ½ tsp xanthan gum
- Pinch of salt
Crisp topping
- 1 cup pecans raw
- ¼ cup almonds raw
- ⅓ cup almond flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 3 tbsp Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener
- 1 tsp Apple spice mix
- 4 tbsp butter
- 5 drops stevia extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350* and line a small casserole dish with parchment paper. My dish is 11×7. (You could use 6 greased individual ramekins).
Apple spice mix
- Mix all ingredients in a small bowl or jar and set aside. You may have extra as this recipe is from another recipe on my blog. I usually double or triple this recipe and keep in an air tight jar in my cabinet.
‘Apple’ filling
- Peel zucchini, trim each end off and slice in half lengthwise. Then cut half rounds about ¼” thick.
- Melt butter in skillet on stovetop over medium heat. Add zucchini to butter and cook for 4-5 minutes. Zucchini will soften and slightly wilt.
- Add lemon juice, sweetener, stevia and Apple spice mix to the cooking zucchini. Stir and coat the zucchini. Cook for 2-3 minutes to continue softening the zucchini.
- Pour water into skillet over the zucchini, then sprinkle in xanthan gum and salt. Stir to full coat and continue to simmer until the sauce thickens. Take off heat and set aside.
Crisp topping
- Soften the butter in the microwave but don’t fully melt. Finely chop the almonds and pecans (or pulse in a mini food processor.)
- Pour finely chopped nuts into a bowl. Add butter, almond flour, Apple spice mix, Sweetener, butter, stevia and salt.
- Using a fork blend the butter into the nut mixture until crumbly.
Assembling the crisp
- Pour apple mixture into your small casserole dish or greased ramekins. Crumble the crisp topping all over the apple mixture.
- Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes checking that the apple mixture is bubbling and the crisp topping is browning.
- Remove from oven to cool. Serve warm with whipped cream, a dollop of plain Greek yogurt or enjoy plain.
Nutrition
MEDICAL AND NUTRITION DISCLAIMER…Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nutritional break downs are done using a commercial nutrition calculator. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctorbefore starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers, this should never be construed as medical advice.
Pin this idea for later!
Trying to learn how to cook in a different way, so I’m also trying to learn how and why things work. Why do you use monkfruit and stevia drops? Do they do different things in the recipe somehow?
Hi Patti,
Great questions! Stevia and Monkfruit are extracts, kinda like vanilla extract. Just a little packs a big punch of sweetness. But in baking (or cooking, too) we usually need the bulk of sugar alcohols like erythritol or xylitol or allulose. These sugar alcohols have the bulk like real sugar, but sometimes they do not have enough sweetness. So a combo of an extract and an alcohol brings a recipe to an equivalent sweetness and consistency of traditional recipes.
For example if I am making an old fashion/conventional batch of cookies the recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar. In low carb/keto baking that same recipe is not always a 1:1 alteration. Meaning I can not just substitute 1 cup of a sugar alcohol for the traditional sugar in that batch of cookies. I need the bulk of the 1 cup of sweetener plus a little bit of the extracts to bring up the sweetness.
The other part in cooking or baking low carb/keto with sugar alcohols and sweeteners is that they do not alway bake OR store the same way as traditional cookies. There’s some science going on in the bowl and the baking with the flours, sugars and fats. Back to our cookies example…when you are using almond or coconut flour in place of the traditional flour and you are replacing the traditional sugar with sugar alcohols the amounts used and the baking time is a little different. Traditional wheat flour has protein in it and coconut flour is VERY absorbent. Plus…when those cookies cool sometimes they are rock hard or have a cooling effect in your mouth.
Back to your original question…stevia drops are readily available at most supermarkets. A few drops to your coffee or to a chaffle or a salad dressing can help replace the sweetness without the bulk of traditional sugar. True monkfruit extract is harder to come by and more expensive, but it does the same thing.
One last thing…and this could just be my experience…when I combine monkfruit with a erythritol it lessens the mouth cooling effect for me….for me this combo tastes and bakes the most like traditional sugar. The brand I use is called Lakanto Monkfruit sweetener (CLASSIC). I use this brand because they already have combined the two ingredients. Then as I’m making a recipe I may add a few drops of stevia to up the sweetness to mimic a “traditional sugar” recipe.