Apple Gingerbread

I am now in a full on festive mood. So the second bake I prepared for the winter period is this easy tray bake. Smells lovely, taste delicious and easy to make, so all you can ask for when you have to rush round to do everything before the guests arrive.  This recipe from the 1001 Cupcakes and cookies book.

Apple Gingerbread

 

Ingredients
150 g butter
165 g soft brown sugar
2 tbsp black treacle
225 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
150 ml milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 dessert apples, peeled, chopped and coated with 1 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 23cm square cake tin with baking paper.

Place the butter, sugar and treacle in a saucepan and heat gently until the butter is melted, then leave to cool.

 

Shift the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda ground ginger and ground cloves into a large bowl. Stir in the milk, egg and cooled buttery liquid. Pour the mixture into the tin and spread the apple pieces equally on the surface and smooth the surface.

 

Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the cake has risen and a fine skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin before turning out and cutting into 12 bars.

Flódni / Apple, poppy seed and walnut pastry

Baked goods are quite popular in Hungary if it contains walnut, poppy seed or apple, never mind if all three are on the ingredient list. The other good thing about this pastry that you first have to assemble it and then bake it, so although it has 4 layers it doesn't require to bake 4 separate layers. The recipe also stated that you have to put in 300 ml white wine, but you can't really taste it in the end- I think it is more for the texture, consistency than for the taste.

Flódni / Apple, poppy seed and walnut pastry

 

For the pasty:

500 g plain flour

250 g butter on room temperature

100 g icing sugar

3 egg yolk

100 ml white wine

 

For the apple filling

800g sharp apple

2 tbsp honey

lemon to taste (approx. 1/2 - 1 lemon)

cinnamon and ground cloves to taste

 

For the poppy seed filling

200 g ground poppy seed

100 g sugar

50 g sultana / currant

100 ml white wine

 

For the walnut filling

120 g ground walnut

80 g chopped walnut

100 g sugar

50 g sultana / currant

100 ml white wine

 

egg wash

 

 

Preheat the oven to 170C and line a 19X25cm rectangle pan - leave the baking paper longer on the sides, so after baking you can lift out the pastry.

 

Rub the butter into the flour, add in the eggs, sugar and white wine. Form a dough then wrap it in cling film and rest it in the fridge until you prepare the fillings.

 

Peel  and core the apples then grate them. Add in the honey, lemon juice, cinnamon and cloves to taste.

 

Mix the grated poppy seed with the sugar and sultanas. Heat 100ml white wine to boiling point and pour it on top the poppy seed mix.

 

Mix the grated walnut with the chopped walnut sugar and sultanas. Heat 100ml white wine to boiling point and pour it on top the walnut mix.

 

Divide the pastry to 4 equal parts and on a floured surface and roll out  to the size of the pan. Put one pasty layer it into the tin and top it with the poppy seed filling.

 

Level the poppy seed filling and top it with another pastry layer, then walnut filling, pastry, apple filling and finish it off with a pastry layer. Prick the top of the pastry with a fork and brush it with egg wash.

 

 

Bake it in the oven for 60-70 minutes or until it has a nice golden colour.

When it is completely cooled, lift out from the pan (or if you manage to rip off all the baking sheet like me, just put a chopping board on top- turn it up side down, than another board on it and flip it back. It is quite a sturdy bake so it will keep its shape).

 

Slice it and serve it with icing sugar and a whole walnut piece for decoration if you like.



Fruity Breakfast Bars

If we go hiking I always make this little miracle bars. Last weekend we went to Isle of Wight  and these bars were life saver in the forest:) Everything you need is in this slice: fruit, nuts, fibre and protein. It is also really quick to make, so there is no excuse any more to carry a Snickers or Mars bar in your back pack.

Fruity Breakfast Bar

Ingredients(makes 16)

310 g ready-made apple sauce or pie filing

140 g ready-to-eat dried apricot, hopped

130 g raisins

50 g demerara sugar

55 g sunflower seed

40 g sesame seed

30 g pumpkin seed/ pistachio

80 g rolled oats

80 g self raising flour

60 g desiccated coconut

3 eggs

50 g dark chocolate chips-optional

Preheat the oven to 200C and line a 20 cm square or rectangle tin with baking paper.

Put the apple sauce in a large bowl with the apricots, raisins, sugar and the sunflower, sesame and pumpkin sees and stir together with a wooden spoon until throughtly mixed.

Add the oats, flour, coconut and eggs to the fruit mixture and gently stir together until evenly combined.

Turn the mixture into the tin and spread to the edges in an even layer. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden and just firm to the touch.

Leave to cool in the tin, then lift out on to a board and cut into bars.

You can replace any of the nuts or fruits if you want so. You can tailor it to your preference.

And this is us during our trip on the Isle of Wight. Surely, we only made it because we had the breakfast bars on hand:)

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.

Spiced Small Apple Loaf

This was the result of a last minute "cupboard" baking. I expected few friends for dinner and were too lazy for shopping. I had everything for this recipe and finally I managed to use my mini loaf tins. When it was ready and still warm, I served with some vanilla ice cream:) Moist and Delicious.

Spiced Small Apple Loaf

Ingredients:
3 eating apples
175g butter, at room temperature
200g caster sugar
2 eggs
210g plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp ground cinnamon
1 vanilla pod
60g chopped walnut
90g raisins

Preheat the oven to 180 °C and line 4 13X6cm mini loaf tins.

Peel and slice the apple into small pieces, then set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until blended. Add the eggs and continue beating until the mixture is creamy.

Shift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon. Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture with the vanilla seeds. Stir in the apples, walnuts and raisins.

Pour into the tin and bake until the cake springs back when touched lightly, about 1 1/4 hours.

Let stand for 15 minutes, then unmould and transfer to a cooling rack.