Creative Cooks, can you help me renovate a recipe?

[ema2two]

I have a good recipe for a apple/pear/cranberry crisp that is a popular side dish for our big lunches after synagogue on Saturday. I need it to be non-dairy as well.

My problem, being a very recipe-bound cook in the kitchen, is figuring out how to lighten up and/or core-ify the topping, which is put over sliced pears (and/or apples) and cranberries and baked.

Original topping makes way more topping than needed for the pan (1.5 quart or 9 inch round baking dish), so I know I can lighten it up by simply using less topping. But I'd like to do more, if I can.

Original topping:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg or cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
1/2 cup cold margerine cut into small pieces
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup old fashioned oats

My first modification:
3/4 cup splenda
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cinnamon
1/2 cup cold regular stick margarine
1/2 cup old fashioned oats

This tasted good, but it didn't get brown (probably because of the splenda and no sugar, I think). Most of the WPA in the recipe seemed to come from the margerine

My second attempt (much worse than the first, I must say):
1/4 cup splenda baking blend
1/4 cup brown sugar splenda baking blend
1/2 cup flour
cinnamon
6 Tbsp smart squeeze Fat free margerine
1/2 cup old fashioned oats

The topping turned into a thick, sticky glob that was hard to distributed over the top of the fruit. Sprinkling and crumbling were out of the question. And it didn't taste too hot, either. Terrible consistency.

I've come to the conclusion that the margarine is a key ingredient, and wonder if there is anything to substitute for it and preserve the consistency and flavor of the topping. I've read through the recipes here and didn't see anything to give me ideas. Is this a hopeless case, or is there a way to do this?

Thanks for your help.

[chicagobeth]

Ema - can you try Smart Balance? It would lower the points value. I don't know if it's Parve or not though. Maybe can you add some honey?

-Beth

[katelight]

Sometimes I think we just have to accept that modifications just simply are different. It doesn't mean it's bad, just different. From your first try, maybe cut back the margarine, but keep the splenda and oats the same? It will be more crumbly and "drier" than the original, but would taste ok. Maybe a tsp or so of applesauce to help with the consistancy? I'm not sure.
Katie

[ema2two]

Smart Balance Light is non-dairy, Beth, I just wasn't sure if you can use soft margarine or low-fat margarine (Smart Balance light is both) to mix with sugar and flour with a pastry cutter to make the base of this recipe. Has anyone tried it? With succes or without?

[girliepurple]

How many apples/pears do you use? Also how many cups cranberries? I want to try to modify this but don't want to skimp on the most important ingredients! Thanks!

[ema2two]

The original recipe called for 3 pears and 1 cup of cranberries, if I remember correctly. That was plenty for the pan. Then you just sprinkle the topping over the fruit and bake it. The fruit part isn't really a recipe, even for someone as un-intuitive in the kitchen as moi! That's why I left it out. It was the topping part that was tripping me up.

Thanks for taking as stab at it Cathy. I appreciate everyone's help.

[girliepurple]

Ema - I still didn't try this and I read on the challenge board that you figured out the recipe to get the top brown? Can you post the complete recipe now - I would like to try it, sounds delicious.

Thanks!