apple spice crumble

I have been making a version of this for a while, but this is a much lower calorie, HCG friendly version

This is for 1 individual serving which was pretty hearty, it could have been split into 2 if needed.  I bake mine in a small casserole dish that I have, but I think they would work in muffin tins as well, or in a big casserole dish for a larger serving.

Apple Spice Crumble

Ingredients:
main filling
1 apple, cored and sliced thin or in chunks (I leave the peel on and I use Gala since I had them, but can be any apple you like,and cut how you like, but cooking time will vary)
1 individual  package Stevia
1 tablespoon cinnamon (or more or less depending or your taste)
1 tsp of cayenne (i like the cinnamon and cayenne combination, you can leave out if you don't like spice, but I think it kills the after taste of the Stevia that I am not a fan of)
1-2 tablespoons water
dash of salt (brings out the sweetness in the apples)
(dried cranberries would be a yummy addition to this as well)

Crumb Topping
1 Melba toast (or 2 Melba snackers)
1 Ziploc bag
dash of cinnamon
dash of Stevia (if you want it sweet, I didn't do this since my apples were sweet and I am not a huge fan of Stevia)

How to Prepare:
Toss the apples with all of the filling ingredients except the water so they get coated completely.
Place the coated apples in the baking dish (sprayed lightly with cooking spray).
Add the couple tablespoons of water
place in open at 375 and bake for about 5-7 minutes or until apples are almost tender

(if using muffin tins, may take less time...if apples are cut in chunks and not thin slices, it will take more time)
Remove from open and add the Topping as listed below.


For the Topping:
Start by increasing temp on oven to 425
Place all of the topping ingredients into the bag.
Use a tenderizer or can to crush the Melba toast into crumbs
Add the crumb topping on top of the apples
Spray top lightly with cooking spray to help the crumbs brown.

How to Finish
place the dish with the topping back in the oven at the new 425 degree temperature for another 3-5 minutes
this is to help the topping brown a bit.

Few notes:
the water and the apples natural juices make a yummy caramel-like sweet sauce. I usually start with it covered for when it is the apples only since my dish has a lid and it gets really juicy then I remove the top when I add the crumb topping so that it browns a little.  If you notice there isn't much sauce when you remove the apples (before you add the topping) you can add a bit of water and stir it up a little to create a little more sauce before you finish with the crumb topping.

Regular Full Fat Version
the Regular version of this would have been with brown sugar instead of Stevia and a small pat of un-salted putter, which really does create a true caramel sauce as it bakes!  my topping would have been more like a streusel for a coffee cake (Bisquick, cold butter, brown sugar, cinnamon...mixed together into crumbs and placed on top of apple mixture, maybe even some crush pecans as well) and I would have added it on top of the apples from the start so it had time to cook through.  If you want to stick the a crumb topping more than streusel you can use crushed graham crackers, brown sugar and butter and add after the apples are almost cooked, just like the low fat version.