Sour Cherry and Curd Cheese Pie

It is almost holiday time for us(3 more days to go:)), so I have to start use up everything in the fridge. We bought some curd cheese last week with the intention to do something very different, but as I cached cold I haven't come around to do it. So this is my "I feel so much better pie":quick, easy and yummy.

Sour Cherry and Curd Cheese Pie

For the pastry

250 g plain flour

120 g butter(at room temperature)

100 g sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1 tbsp soured cream-if needed

For the filling

500 g curd cheese *more on this in the Tricks and Recommendations

80 g sugar

1 vanilla pod

1 egg

100 ml double cream

juice of half lemon

2 tbsp semolina+2 tbsp semolina to sprinkle on top of the dough

1 sour cherry pie filling(I used shop bought one, but you can use fresh soured cherry+cherry jam)

egg wash on top

Place the flour and baking powder in a big bowl and rub in the soft butter. Add the sugar and eggs and work together to get a dough. Whether if you need the soured cream or not it is down to the ingredients you use (depends on the size of your eggs, temperature so on-sometimes I need it sometimes I don't)...so add soured cream if you need, to get a very soft, but not sticky dough. Kneed it for 2-3 minutes then cover it and put it in the fridge until you prepare your filling.

Mix the curd cheese with the sugar, seeds of the vanilla pod, egg, double cream and 2 tbsp semolina. 

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 25X20cm baking tray with baking paper.

Divide the dough into two parts (2/3 - 1/3) and on a floured surface roll 2/3 of the pastry to 3-4 mm thickness. Lay the dough into the prepared tin and prick the surface with a fork. 

Sprinkle 2 tbsp semolina to the dough(it protects the dough from the liquid released by the curd cheese, therefore making sure the bottom will be soft, but not under baked). Now lay your curd cheese filling on top of the semolina layer, level it, then spread on top the cherry filling. 

To create the lattice pattern roll out the rest of the dough on your work surface and with a pizza cutter cut long strips.
Place your pastry strips on top of the pie, and brush it with egg wash (not like me because I forgot to do it:) Bake it in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes.

Apple Pie

We spent the weekend with our friends in Basingstoke and I promised to make some dessert. I would have been easy but I forgot my promise, up to the day before when I realised I need to bake something after work, that is suitable for a car drive there. This apple pie is easy to make and the dough doesn't need resting which means you can prepare the whole pie in 30-40 minutes. Perfect as an afternoon quick fix bake:)

Apple Pie

For the pastry:

500g plain flour

250g butter(at room temperature)

200g sugar

1tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1-3 tbsp soured cream

For the filling

1kg apple (pealed, grated)

3 tbsp semolina

150g walnut(grated or roughly chopped)

150g sugar

1/2 lemon

1tbsp cinnamon

egg wash for the top

icing sugar to serve

Place the flour and baking powder in a big bowl and rub in the soft butter. Add the sugar and eggs and work together to get a dough. The amount of soured cream you put in depends on the size of your eggs, temperature so on...so add as much soured cream as you need, to get a very soft, but not sticky dough. Kneed it for 2-3minutes then cover it and put it in the fridge until you prepare your filling.

Peel the apples and great them into a bowl. Pour off most of excess liquid you have after grating, because we don't want the soggy bottoms(you don't have to squeeze the apple to get rid off all moisture, just pour off the excess). Add the juice of the half lemon, semolina, sugar and the cinnamon. Taste the filling. if you think it isn't cinnamony enough then add some more. 

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line your baking tray with baking paper.

Divide the dough into two parts and on a floured surface roll it to 3-4 mm thickness. Lay the dough into the prepared tin and prick the surface with a fork. 

Sprinkle on the walnut to the dough(it has two function: it tastes really nice with the apple, and protects the dough from the juice of the apple, therefore making sure the bottom will be soft, but not under baked). Now lay your apple filling on top of the walnut layer then level it with your spoon. 

Cover it with the other half of the dough (roll it to the same thickness) and prick with a fork.

Cover the dough with egg wash and bake it in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

When it is ready slice it and serve it hot with some vanilla ice cream or at room temperature with some icing sugar on top.

German Gingerbread Man

Although it is only beginning of September, but I had to put on the heating yesterday as the UK weather at the moment pretty bad. Anyway, I was longing for something to warm me up, and I wanted to bake something nice to fill the air with warm spices....My choice was obvious: Gingerbread biscuits. I found this recipe on BBC Good Food, although my mum used to make pretty the same back home, so not sure...maybe we use the German recipe as well. The best thing about this gingerbread that it isn't the crunchy, dry version but the soft, chewy, tender one..Hmmm.

German Gingerbread

Ingredients

100g butter

250g honey

120g brown sugar

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1.5 tsp ground cloves or all spice

1.5 tsp ginger powder

1 vanilla pod, seeds

2 eggs

2 tsp cocoa powder

450g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

For the icing-optional 
1egg whites
200-250g icing sugar
food colouring if you want to colour the buttons etc

In a small pot gently heat the butter, sugar and honey and stir regularly until the sugar has completely dissolved. Leave it slightly to cool.

While this happening, mix together all the other ingredients in a big bowl.

Add the liquid mix to the dry ingredients and kneed it together ( you can use your hands or a kitchen aid machine with kneading hook attachment).

Leave the dough to rest for an hour at room temperature for an hour.

Preheat your oven to 180C.  Roll out the dough to about 1cm thickness and cut out gingerbread man or any other shapes you prefer (if the dough is too sticky kneed in a bit more flour)

Place the cookies on a lined tray and bake for approx 10 minutes (they will be slightly soft to the touch, this is what we are aiming for!). 

Once cooled, you can frost them with icing, sugar pearls or any other kinds of decorations....but it is delicious on its own as well.

Just mix the egg whites with the icing sugar, to get a hard but applicable icing mix and fill your piping bag...the rest is up to you:) My piping skills are pretty bad..as you can see, but it is all down to the taste and that is divine!

I left the little gingerbread man army in the kitchen to write the recipe down to the blog, but when I retruned a few minutes later, I saw my husband playing 'Circus' with them:)

Hints and tips: you can play with the colour-I put in two tablespoons of cocoa powder so I get a little browner gingerbread mans, but if you would like a slightly lighter ones, just add the recommended amout

Coconut Balls With Cherry

So it is 8th of September: it is my Name Day. I know many of you are raising your eyebrows...but in Hungary we celebrate  Name Days as well as  Birthdays. To explain what it's all about I included a description from Wikipedia, but the main thing is: I was baking for my colleagues, but being a weekday I was looking for quick recipes. I baked Mini Vanilla "Croissant" With Nuts, Chocolate Beetroot Cake (I was given a big veg box  by my friend who is ordering from a farm....but they can't eat it all, and I had 8 beetroots to deal with) and Coconut  Balls. These are all quick and simple recipes: mix it, bake it (you don't even have to bake the Coconut Balls) and done:)

Coconut Balls With Cherry

Ingredients (makes about 48)

500g household biscuit - powdered or digestive biscuit

100g butter, room temperature, slightly melted

3 tbsp cocoa powder

200g icing sugar

3-6 tbsp rum

dessicated coconut

*milk or cherry syrup

*optional:cherry compote, Kirsch liqueur

So there are two options: you can choose to make them with a cherry inside or just simply roll the dough into balls.

If you using the first option you need to drain the cherries in a sieve...leave it to rest to get rid of all  liquid. 

Mix the biscuit powder, butter, cocoa powder, icing sugar (you can even add some dessicated coconut to the dough), rum-according to the audience (obviously if I prepare it for adults I add more, or even add some Kirsch liqueur:)) and as much liquid from the cherry syrup as much you need, to form a nice slightly sticky dough.

Sorry, but the amount of liquid you need depends on the type of biscuit you use, but approx 200ml. Take a piece of dough and roll it around the cherry and cover it with dessicated coconut.

If you only want to make small balls without the cherry: mix the powdered biscuit, butter, cocoa powder, icing sugar, some dessicated coconut, rum and add milk to the mix instead of cherry syrup.

It is easy to make, but I have to warn you, if you make the sherry option, it takes longer: I spent 1hour rolling them (although I was watching my favourite series in the meantime:))

Keep it in the fridge.

So about the name day:

"A name day is a tradition in many countries in Europe and Latin America that consists of celebrating the day of the year associated with one's given name.

The custom originated with the Greek Orthodox calendar of saints and Roman Catholic calendar of saints, where believers, named after a particular saint, would celebrate that saint's feast day. In many countries, however, there is no longer any explicit connection to Christianity. It remains more popular in Southern and Eastern (Catholic and Orthodox) rather than in Northern (predominantly Protestant) Europe.

Hungary

Name days (in Hungarian: névnap) in Hungary are very popular, often as much as a person's actual birthdate. A woman is typically given flowers on her name day by acquaintances, including in the workplace, and the price of flowers often rises around the dates of popular names because of demand. A bottle of alcohol is a common gift for men on their name day. Children frequently bring sweets to school to celebrate their name days. Name days are more often celebrated than birthdays in workplaces, presumably because it is simpler to know the date since most calendars contain a list of name days. You can also find the name day on daily newspapers by the date and on Hungarian websites. Some highly popular names have several name days; in that case, the person chooses on which day he or she wishes to celebrate. The list of the name days is, as usual in name day celebrating cultures, based on the traditional Catholic saints' feasts, but the link of the secular name days calendar to the Catholic calendar is not maintained any more. For example, even religious Catholic people named Gergely (Gregory) after Pope Gregory the Great still celebrate their name days on 12 March, although the Church moved the feast of that saint to 3 September in 1969."

Mini Vanilla "Croissants" With Nuts

So it is 8th of September: it is my Name Day. I know many of you are raising your eyebrows...but in Hungary we celebrate  Name Days as well as  Birthdays. To explain what it's all about I included a description from Wikipedia, but the main thing is: I was baking for my colleagues, but being a weekday I was looking for quick recipes. I baked Mini Vanilla "Croissant" With Nuts, Chocolate Beetroot Cake (I was given a big veg box  by my friend who is ordering from a farm....but they can't eat it all, and I had 8 beetroots to deal with) and Coconut  Balls With Cherry inside. These are all quick and simple recipes: mix it, bake it (you don't even have to bake the Coconut Balls) and done:)

 Mini Vanilla "Croissants" With Nuts

Ingredients (makes about 48)

300g plain flour

240g butter (at room temperature)

150g chopped mixed nut, or walnut, or hazelnut...any nut you like

90g icing sugar

1 vanilla pod

Some icing sugar mixed with vanilla sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix all ingredients until it is well incorporated, you should get a slightly wet, sticky dough.

Wash your hands and start shaping little sticks(4-6cm in length), then bend both end to create the croissant shape.

Bake it for 15-25 minutes, until it is firm to touch. Remove from the oven and leave it to cool for 1-2 minutes so you can handle them. Roll each croissant in the icing sugar, to cover the top and the bottom surface as well.

This little croissant is soft but crunchy at the same time: a big hit at the workplace.

Hints and tips:

-you can also add some spices to the croissant to have slightly different taste: last time I added 1 tsp cinnamon to the dough and it was truly divine, but you can also try mixed spices

So about the name day:

"A name day is a tradition in many countries in Europe and Latin America that consists of celebrating the day of the year associated with one's given name.

The custom originated with the Greek Orthodox calendar of saints and Roman Catholic calendar of saints, where believers, named after a particular saint, would celebrate that saint's feast day. In many countries, however, there is no longer any explicit connection to Christianity. It remains more popular in Southern and Eastern (Catholic and Orthodox) rather than in Northern (predominantly Protestant) Europe.

Hungary

Name days (in Hungarian: névnap) in Hungary are very popular, often as much as a person's actual birthdate. A woman is typically given flowers on her name day by acquaintances, including in the workplace, and the price of flowers often rises around the dates of popular names because of demand. A bottle of alcohol is a common gift for men on their name day. Children frequently bring sweets to school to celebrate their name days. Name days are more often celebrated than birthdays in workplaces, presumably because it is simpler to know the date since most calendars contain a list of name days. You can also find the name day on daily newspapers by the date and on Hungarian websites. Some highly popular names have several name days; in that case, the person chooses on which day he or she wishes to celebrate. The list of the name days is, as usual in name day celebrating cultures, based on the traditional Catholic saints' feasts, but the link of the secular name days calendar to the Catholic calendar is not maintained any more. For example, even religious Catholic people named Gergely (Gregory) after Pope Gregory the Great still celebrate their name days on 12 March, although the Church moved the feast of that saint to 3 September in 1969."