Apple Pie Oat Cakes (Low fat, gluten-free and vegan friendly!)

Nothing says Autumn like Apple Pie

Happy 1st of October!!! I cannot emphasize how excited I am that it's finally Halloween season! Not only is it now acceptable to watch horror films every night but we can also look forward to an avalanche of all things pumpkin, and i'm all about that pumpkin. From eerie Jack'o lanterns to warming spiced pies, I cannot wait to take advantage of this festive fruit. Squeeee! 

However today's recipe is not about pumpkin, it actually features another fruit that is abundant this time of year but is often overlooked. I don't want to be rude and call apples common but let's just say that back the 1900's apples would probably be the ones sweeping chimneys and picking pockets (assuming that is, fruit were intelligent beings capable of independent thought). 

Apples are a very humble fruit and there is never a better time than Autumn to use them in a variety of dishes. Effective at whitening teeth, averting asthma and reducing risks of developing cancer and diabetes, you really can keep the doctor away by eating one of these everyday.

The idea for these tasty oat cakes came from when I simultaneously had an apple pie craving and an oatmeal raisin cookie attack (this can be dangerous if not promptly addressed). Quickly I knew that I had to have both and being October, it felt very appropriate to take a leaf out of Victor Frankenstein's book and create a hybrid dish of these two seasonal classics. At the same time I wanted to ensure they were both nutritionally indulgent and waist-line friendly (this way, I could eat more than just a couple without feeling bad). 

 

Can't decide between a slice of pie or a couple of biscuits? The solution is both, always both. 

I must confess that I did end up eating an entire batch to myself, #Noshame. However, I did space them out over a week... 5 days... 2 days.  It's like the secret eaters edition of countdown over here! Anyway, they tasted great and as they contained only a few simple ingredients, I don't regret anything. These hybrid pie-biscuits made the perfect evening accompaniment yesterday as I watched The Great British Bake Off  in which my beloved Tamal made it through to the final (extra squeee!) and even Release the Hounds' combination of man eating pigs, rat piss and a grotesque Goldilocks couldn't stop me munching them. All in all the perfect way to end September - some home baking (that actually worked) and a load of trashy TV.     

Ingredients:

For the biscuit dough:

1 1/2 cups oat flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce (or baby apple puree)

May also require - a few dashes of almond milk.

Optional: 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or other spices such as nutmeg, ginger or cloves), some sweetener such as truvia, stevia, coconut sugar or brown sugar (add to taste) - I have not tried these with a liquid sweetener like honey or maple syrup... yet. 

For the apple pie topping:

2-3 apples (2 medium/3 small) - sliced

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup sweetener (I used truvia)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp corn starch

Optional: some chopped walnuts

Instructions:

Place the dry dough ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine before adding in the apple sauce and combining the mixture into a dough. 

Once formed into a ball kneed the dough out onto a floured surface a few times before using a rolling pin to roll it out until quite thin, preferably around 0.5 cm. 

Use a circular biscuit cutter to cut out some oat cakes before re-rolling out the dough. It should be noted that this dough is quite crumbly due to containing no gluten and hence can be tricky re-forming into a ball for re-rolling. At this point, adding a small dash of almond milk to the dough will help it re-combine a bit easier.

Continue to roll and cut out biscuits until you run out of dough.

Preheat the oven to 180-200 degrees Celsius, now it's time to make the apple pie topping. Hallelujah! Place the sliced apples along with the water, cinnamon and sweetener into a saucepan over medium heat and stir to combine. Cook until the apples have softened (roughly 15 minutes).

Remove a few tbsp of the liquid and mix with the corn starch in another bowl to form a 'slurry'. Then add this back into the saucepan and stir to combine. 

Reduce heat and bring to a simmer, until thickened nicely. 

Place 1-2 tsp of the thickened mixture on top of each biscuit along with 1-2 apple slices (don't overload them or the biscuits may become soggy). You will probably find that you have leftover topping but that is absolutely fine; stir the seasonal sauce into oatmeal or top your toast with it to greatly improve any breakfasts for the rest of the week.

Sprinkle a few chopped walnuts onto the oat cakes (if desired) and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the edges have browned and they are nice and crisp. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: When I made these I actually used a mini pie dish (10 cm diameter) as a biscuit cutter. because bigger biscuits... make me happier. I got 6 large oat cakes out of this recipe but using a smaller biscuit cutter should yield somewhere between 10-12. It should also be noted that smaller biscuits will bake faster so it's probably a good idea to keep an eye on them during cooking. Burnt oat cakes taste like ashes from the underworld and make Scotland sad.   

These will keep stored in an air tight container for a few days and can also be frozen. They're not quite as crisp when defrosted but I actually quite like that. Happy Autumnal eating! :)

Apple pie oat cakes. Best enjoyed sitting in front of a warming fire with a cup of gingerbread green tea. If you don't have access to a fire, a radiator or large cat will suffice.