Apple Cake de Luxe
Although "de Luxe" it is childlishly simple to make. And you can make it in stages, in advance and then just chuck it in the oven. This receipt depends a little bit on your cake form and what sort of apples you have so I will just give you the rough ingredients and the instructions.
So what equipment do you need:
Rolling pin
High cake form
And ingredients:
Baking margarine/butter
Flour
Icing sugar
Cream
Apples
Cornstarch
Egg
How to:
First you turn the oven on to a low to medium temp. You combine the butter and sugar and flour to something ressembling breadcrumbs. Add cream and combine to a flexible pastry. Leave to rest.
Peel, cor and cut the apples in smaller pieces. Sprinkle them with icing sugar and corn starch. Combine. Make sure that there is no "white" on the apples (stir until all the cornstarch has soaked the juices of the apples)
Roll out 2/3 of the pastry thinly and put it in the high cake form, squeeze into place and blind bake it until slightly dry to the touch. Take it out of the oven
Fill the cakeform with the blind baked pastry with the apple mixture and roll out the rest of the pastry thinly and put it on like a lid. Squeeze in the corners and make a small cross in the middle for the steam to get out (if you don't the whole thing can blow in the oven . . . ). Beat the egg with some water and brush it on the cake. Bake slowly until golden.
Enjoy with Vanilla icecream or whipping cream (maybe with a splash of the Dandelion Honey)
Light Petit-Choux, luxury in a second
The rain is pouring outside and you forgot to go to the shops and still you want something special, something to nibble while reading your book infront of the fireplace? So try this, no effort and great result!
You need:
(enough for ca 12 small wreaths)
3dl Water
100g margarine or butter
2 dl flour
3 eggs
Plastic bag, grease proof paper and some filling - custard, cream, berries, chocolate pudding but also savory things like salmon (with horseradish cream(yum)) or smoked meats etc.
In a pan on the stove, in the water melt the margarine, make it cook. Add the flour, whisking all the time (the trick is to get as much air into the pastry). Stir until the paste doesn't stick to the pan but not as long so the grease from the margarine sips out. Take the pan of the stove and leave the paste to cool slightly.
One by one ad the eggs, trying to incorporate as much air as possible.
Once the eggs are incorporated, spoon the pastry into the plastic bag. Cut one corner of the bag, and make small wreaths on the grease proof baking paper.
Bake for ca 25 min in a 200 degree oven. Do not open the oven before as the pastries will fall together. Leave to cool and then cut open horizontaly and fill with yummy stuff.
Veronika’s Hedgerow Sorbet
When autumn is getting increasingly closer and the days of the relaxed barbecues in the garden are numbered, why not make these last festivities of the “free” season more festive, with a homemade, locally sourced sorbet. It is unbelievably easy . . . .
This is how you do it:
For 3 (or greedy 2)
Pick berries of your liking (we have huge amounts of blackberries here . . . .) ca 4,5 dl
Sugar ca 2 dl
Water ca 2 dl
Blend the freshly picked berries with a mixer to a pulp and press it through a sif.
At the same time heat the water and sugar to a clear, un coloured sirup
Mix these two liquids in a bowl and when cold put in a freezer. Mix once an hour and ca 6 hours later you have the most scrumptious sorbet imaginable.
It will not be icy but more creamy in the consistency (due to the high pectin level in the berries), but that only makes it even more yummy
Enjoy !
Are the dandelions invading your lawn? Are these little golden flowers destroying your otherwise perfect flowerbed? Do not be discouraged, use them as an asset. The Victorians did this and even going so far as to have special dandelion patches in their garden. They used the plants for coloring, for food and to make delicious honey. It is very simple to make, full of vitamins and delicious on Vanilla Ice Cream. Why not try it?
This is how you make it:
Ingredients:
Dandelion flowers
Sugar
Water
Pick only the flowers in the late morning, leave the stems
Wash them thoroughly in cold water and then cover them with water in a pot.
Cook for ca 30 minutes.
Strain the liquid and measure it.
In a clean pot add ca 1/3 in sugar and cook until slightly sirupy.
Put in a clean jar and keep in the fridge. Will hold for ca 1-2 weeks
Enjoy
Veronika's Dandelion Honey
Are the dandelions invading your lawn? Are these little golden flowers destroying your otherwise perfect flowerbed? Do not be discouraged, use them as an asset. The Victorians did this and even going so far as to have special dandelion patches in their garden. They used the plants for coloring, for food and to make delicious honey. It is very simple to make, full of vitamins and delicious on Vanilla Ice Cream. Why not try it?
This is how you make it:
Ingredients:
Dandelion flowers
Sugar
Water
Pick only the flowers in the late morning, leave the stems
Wash them thoroughly in cold water and then cover them with water in a pot.
Cook for ca 30 minutes.
Strain the liquid and measure it.
In a clean pot add ca 1/3 in sugar and cook until slightly sirupy.
Put in a clean jar and keep in the fridge. Will hold for ca 1-2 weeks
Enjoy
