SUGAR AND GLUTEN FREE SUMMER DELIGHTS

Sugar and Gluten Free Summer Delights

          Now that summer has officially arrived, I’m delighted to anticipate all those wonderful summer fruit deserts. They provide so much pleasure with color, fresh light taste and flavors that simply can’t be easily duplicated at other times of the year.

            The rhubarb in my garden has done exceptionally well this year and we have had several rhubarb and dried cherry pies as well as a variety of compotes. I was recently planning to contribute one of those pies for desert at a friend’s house, only to find out that a couple of the other invited guests were diabetic and could not eat sugar or had celiac problems and hence could not eat wheat products or anything else with gluten.

            Fortunately cooking challenges can be fun.  For years at our house we have made it a point not to serve anything on the table that is not gluten free, when our younger son visits, since he was diagnosed with celiac disease. So, he still gets to eat Maine blueberry pie made with a gluten free lower crust made from a commercial mix and my own recipe for a crumble topping.  Somehow gluten free top crusts on pies just do not look very appealing in my kitchen.

But now I had another problem, the filling and topping both needed to be sugar free as well! Children will sometimes munch on a raw unsweetened rhubarb stalk, but the thought alone makes my mouth pucker. Fortunately there are a number of sugar substitutes available. Simple near equal volume substitution of sugar with Splenda, makes an easy adaptation to sugar free cooking. My desert that would finally be acceptable for this occasion also had to omit my usual dried cherries, since they come sweetened with sugar. However, the final recipe was found to be very tasty by everyone at the dinner.

            Rhubarb, fresh cherry and apple crumble.

First toss washed rhubarb, cut in ½ to ¾ inch pieces with: 1 cup pitted and halved fresh cherries, 1 peeled and cored apple cut in small pieces and 1 cup Splenda mixed with 1 Tblsp. cornstarch. Pour in a buttered 8 x 8 baking dish or deep pie dish.

Crumble topping: ¾ cups brown rice flour stirred with ¼ cup Splenda, ½ tsp. ground ginger, ½ tsp. lemon rind and 1/3 tsp. nutmeg. Using a pastry cutter or two kinves, cut in the flour mix 6 Tblsp. cold butter to produce small crumbs. Stir this together with 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans and  spread on top of the fruit mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream.

This recipe totally avoids any lower crust, but at the same time is extremely adaptable to all kinds of variations with fruit for the filling or nuts in the topping. Easy variations to plan for later in the summer could include other fruits and berries, only adapting the amount of cornstarch to counteract the juiciness of the fruit.

Blueberry crumble: 4 cups washed blueberries, 2 Tblsp. lemon juice, grated zest of lemon, 1 cup Splenda with 2 ½ Tblsp. cornstarch.

Strawberry, Raspberry or Blackberry crumble: Same as blueberry crumble

Peach or nectarine crumble: 4-5 cups slice peaches or nectarines, 2 Tblsp. lemon juice, orange zest (optional) ½ cup slivered almonds, 1 cup Splenda with 2 Tblsp. cornstarch.

Happy sugar and gluten free summer baking!

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)