Apple “Pie” (SCD)

Baked apples resembling "Apple Pie"

If there is anything the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) has taught me it is to understand how food affects our bodies and the conditions that we live with.  I have been back on the SCD diet strictly for the last 9 months now and have been feeling really well.  So, when I started to experience leg pains in the last few weeks, a symptom I am not used to, I was perplexed.  I immediately began to look for the trigger… is it something I am doing or not doing?  Am I deficient in some vitamin or mineral?  Could it be something I am eating?  I did not want to think “it’s a food” as this diet is very restrictive; however, I began to mentally review what I eat daily to see if something was remiss.  I first thought of cheese…  SCD allows hard cheeses and so I cut those out for a week.  No change.  Leg pains were still really awful.  The kind that are with you when you wake up in the morning, numbing pain and a cold feeling in my lower legs and feet.  I know that there is a huge relationship with arthritic conditions and the condition of one’s gut.  Since I have Crohn’s Disease, this pre-disposes me to joint problems as well.  But this pain seemed more like something else…  if I didn’t know well enough I would have thought I was just standing too much.  Or sitting too long.  I tend to be prone to both.  One day is spent all day in the kitchen while another is spent at the computer.  So, when removing cheese provided no change, I started to look for another culprit.

Sure enough, I found it (well, I think so any way)…  Raw apples!  I am not used to being able to eat an apple whole, without peeling it.  However, in the last few months, I have enjoyed this freedom and convenience.  Maybe too much?  Then one day this last week, after having an apple as a quick snack in the car, I had horrible pains everywhere!  So, I determined to leave apples off my allowed list for a few days.  The next day I felt much better.  After only three days, the pain was almost gone…  and I have been cooking a lot during that time, spending hours on my feet.  Today, I tried a 1/4 of a peeled and sliced apple and the same numbing, cold pain returned fairly quickly.  So, there it is.  It can be really hard to find trigger foods that your body is sensitive (or maybe even intolerant) to.  Without a typical allergy response (such as hives or anaphylaxis) it is like finding a needle in a haystack.

So, what am I to do for that apple snack now?  I am still figuring this out and am looking seriously into Salicylate’s and their possible role in pain. In addition, it just might be too much raw apple for me and my still leaky gut.  So, my homemade applesauce may have to be the way to go.  This is a standard for me when first starting SCD and for easy snacks along the way.  It takes little time once a week to make a large pot of applesauce (just peeled and cored apples and a little water in my large crock pot on high for 6 hours) that can be stored in small containers for easy portions and some of it frozen. However, there is another apple treat that I have been remiss in making that is a little jazzier…

Apple “Pie” (SCD version without crust)

Ingredients:

• 4 – 5 medium size apples, peeled and cored and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces (Granny Smith, MacIntosh, or any combination of baking apples)
• 1 Tbls coconut oil
• 1 Tbls honey
• 1 Tbls fresh lemon juice
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg, just a dash
• Parchment Paper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread the coconut oil in the bottom of a glass pie plate.  Arrange apple slices in the plate (I don’t do anything fancy, just make sure they are spread evenly).
2. Mix lemon juice and honey in a small bowl and drizzle over the apples.  Sprinkle Cinnamon over the top of all the apples (I like a lot of cinnamon), then a small dash of nutmeg.  A little nutmeg goes a long way!
3. Cover the apples with a piece of parchment paper cut into a round that just overlaps the rim of the pie plate and bake in the 350 degree oven on the middle rack for about 45 minutes.  You will know when they are done as the whole house will smell like apple pie!
4. Remove from the oven and cool.  You can serve this warm or cold.

This is a really easy way to have “apple pie”.  There are many recipes for pie crusts that one following SCD can make… they all take time.  So, more on that another day.  This is my way of making a treat a little easier on my time in the kitchen!

For now, I will venture down the path of discovering all I can about Salicylate sensitivity and I will let you know what I find.  In addition, if you want to truly make this treat “low salicylate”, then make sure to use all golden delicious apples and omit the honey and cinnamon.  It will still be delicious.  Enjoy!