I was a really poor student when I was in university. I struggled most months paying rent and making sure I had food to eat because no matter how many job applications I sent out no one ever bit. That year was a year of amazing miracles, and I never went hungry or homeless but I'll never forget one lightbulb moment I had one day. I seriously had no produce in my tiny city apartment but some apples that were already on the edge of becoming dehydrated snacks, and not much in my fridge but almond milk (that was actually half water because I had to make it stretch) and ketchup. I managed to scrounge up the ingredients for an apple crisp and let me tell you: that evening, I felt rich. Since then, I've especially appreciated a good apple crisp - especially when the weather is cool!

After making some pumpkin treats the other day, I found that not only did I have a basket full of apples to consume, I also had some leftover pumpkin puree. What?! Dream-come-true much. I decided to try something new, and what came out was this delicious apple pumpkin crisp. Why not?

It turned out to taste a lot better than I thought it was going to, so I decided to share it with you today - in honour of all things pumpkin anyway. I added some walnuts to the topping, and it just added a level of deliciousness that is out of this world! I also topped it with some coconut cream, and oh boy!

Apple Pumpkin Crisp

What you need:

Filling

• 6 medium-large apples (I used granny smith), peeled and chopped

• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree

• 2 TBSP lemon juice

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

• 3 TBSP arrowroot starch

• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Topping

• 1 cup old fashioned oats

• 1 cup white whole wheat flour

• 1/3 cup organic cane sugar

• 1/2 cup raw walnuts, roughly chopped

• 1/4 tsp sea salt

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/2 cup olive oil 

What to do:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Add all the ingredients for the filling to a large bowl and mix well until combined

3) Put mixture into a small baking dish and set aside

4) Rinse and dry out the bowl you used for the apples and mix together the oats, flour, sugar, walnuts, salt and cinnamon. 

5) Add the olive oil to your dry ingredients and mix well, until completely coated.

6) Pour the topping onto the apples in the baking dish, coating completely.

7) Bake for 30 minutes until the top is a nice golden brown.

8) Best fresh, but refrigerate up to 3 days.

Have you ever added pumpkin to your apple crisp before?