Doing the giveaway post with E.ON a few day ago (which you should totally go enter if you haven’t already!) got me thinking about no-bake recipes. Sometimes it’s just so much more convenient and economical to not have to turn on the oven. The problem with no-bake desserts is that they’re usually not only ‘no-bake’ but completely the opposite of baked.
They’re cold.
In Leeds it’s regularly staying below the 10ºC mark so cold desserts are not what I want right now.
I’m all for eating pancakes/French toast as dessert but I wanted to come up with something different. Lord knows I already have enough pancake recipes on here! I started thinking about my stove-top granola recipe from my book and how it’s kind of like crumble topping. Pairing that with some softly spiced & sautéed apples sounded like the perfect wintery dessert. So I tweaked my granola recipe to make it more like a crumble topping, tossing in some mixed seeds for extra crunch. I was rewarded with this glowy bowl of comfort.

Ingredients
Oaty topping:
- 1 1/2 tsp coconut oil , (or olive oil, or butter)
- 1 tsp maple syrup , , golden syrup or honey
- 2 tbsp rolled oats
- 1 1/2 tbsp plain flour , (or buckwheat flour)
- pinch of salt
- pinch of ground cinnamon
- a sprinkle of mixed seeds , (I used sesame, pumpkin & sunflower)
Apple filling:
- 2 small , (or 1 large) eating apples, peeled and cubed
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp maple syrup , , golden syrup or honey
- 1/2 cup water
- yogurt , , to serve (optional)
Instructions
Make the oaty topping first:
- In a small bowl cream the coconut oil and maple syrup until smooth. Add in the oats, flour, salt and cinnamon. Rub the ingredients together until crumbly and moist. Toss in the mixed seeds then tip the mixture into a skillet set over a medium-high heat (keep the bowl).
- Toast the mixture, stirring often until fragrant and lightly browned (around 5 minutes). Decant into a clean bowl and set aside. Wipe out the skillet.
Make the apple filling:
- In the bowl you used to make the topping combine the cubed apple, cinnamon and maple syrup. Pour the mixture into the skillet along with the water. Bring to a simmer then cover with a lid or a large plate and leave to simmer for 5 minutes. Uncover then leave to reduce over a medium-low heat until barely any liquid remains.
- Pour the filling into a bowl and adorn with the oaty topping (and a dollop of yogurt if you'd like!)
Notes
This looks so delicious, I love apple crumble so much – definitely going to try this!
Sally ~ DiagonSally
This sounds delicious! And how convenient that you don’t have to bake it!
This looks so easy and delicious and perfect since I don’t have an oven!
I love how simple this is! And so creative. Yum!
Thank you for sharing !
Simple recipes like this are my fave! That oaty topping sounds divine!
I love the simplicity of this dish, I would for sure eat it for breakfast!
Oh this looks so simple and yummy and your ability to photograph food and make them look 10 times more delicious than they are never ceases to amaze me Izy!
This. Looks. Amazing! Apple crisp is my favorite dessert, and this quick version? Hell yeah! Thanks 🙂
Can I substitute the flour? Or can I just omit it??
yeah you can just use whichever flour you want – oat flour, gram flour, rice flour or cornflour would be good ones!