Apfeltasche ( Apple Pie)

Apfeltasche ( Apple Pie )  

 

 

Hello everyone!

 

We had a wonderful weather today and having a day-off on Fridays, I went food shopping, cooked lunch, biked and baked this delicious "Apfeltasche". It is actually the german equivalent for Apple Pie.  Apfel = Apple and  Tasche = pocket... I had a puff pastry to get rid-off plus some apples which have been the remainders from this week´s buying... and so here´s the recipe.

 

Ingredients

3 large apples
2 tbsp sugar,
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp of lemon juice
1 roll of Puff pastry
Icing sugar, for dusting

Instructions :

Preheat oven ( top & bottom heat ) at 170°C. Peel and core the apples, cut into small pieces  add the Lemon Juice and put in a casserole adding the sugar + 1 tbsp water . Cook til apples become soft, then put in a strainer to drain off excess liquid. Let cool.

Roll out the puff pastry, do not remove the paper. Cut pastry into 4 pieces and fill each with 2 tbsp cooked apples, sprinkle with cinnamon, fold pasty´s side towards the middle and seal the edges by pressing them with your fingers. Line the baking tray with wax paper or parchment,. With the help of the pastry´s paper cover, transfer each to the baking tray. Roll the apple pie carefully to remove the pastry´s original paper.

Bake 20 minutes placing baking tray in the middle rack of the oven.

After cooling, add a jam, whipping cream and berries (optional), sprinkle with powdered sugar.


Note:
If you want a crispier pastry, this can also be deep fried in medium heated oil til golden brown.

You can also substitute the sugar with Stevia powder , with the Ratio of 1:1 

 

 

HAPPY BAKING!

 

Craving for More- Blueberry Muffins

My weekend´s  food shopping included these blueberries. It´s harvest time and they are on sale right now  in supermarkets and in  fresh markets around Vienna.

 I was in the mood to bake so I thought I would make the traditional blueberry Muffins.. This is always a very enjoyable recipe that my family and friends love. So everytime I bake this recipe, I double  the ingredients so I could bake more and freeze them...

Here´s how I make them:

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

Margarine and flour to coat  the muffin form

1 1/2 Cups blueberries (washed and dried-up with paper towels)

1 tbsp grated peel of an organic orange ( extract the juice, strained & set aside)

1 1/3 Cups pure Orange Juice ( freshly pressed juice of  2-3 oranges or ready made  

         from  Food store)

250 All purpose Flour 

100 grams Brown sugar

2 tsps Baking powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda, Salt

1 egg- beaten

6 tbsp Olive oil

Confectioner´s sugar to dust muffin top

Makes : 12 pieces,

Preparation time: around 30 minutes

Oven temperature: 180°C 

   

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C, coat the Muffin form fully with Margarine
    then with flour.

   Grate 1/2 tbsp orange peel, then squeeze the juice and set aside for later use.

2. In a container, mix the sugar with baking powder, baking soda, and a dash of  
    salt, set aside.

3. In a second container, mix the beaten egg, olive oil, grated orange peel.
   Add this mixture to the 1st Container with the dry ingredients.

    By using a spatula or cooking spoon, mix thoroughly until the dry ingredients
    are well coated and moistened. Add the juice from the organic orange, mix well.
    Add the blueberries carefully mixing it with a spoon so that  they´re  well
    distributed in the batter.

4. Fill each of the form with 2 - 3 tbsp muffin mixture ( not more than 3/4 the size 
    of your form), place in the middle oven rack and bake for about  30 minutes. 
    Take out the muffin tray  from the oven, let stand for 5 minutes.

    Take the muffins out of the form and transfer onto a platter , cool completely and 
    sprinkle each top with confectioner´s sugar.
       

                                                          

In this recipe, it is important that the batter is so moist and loosely mixed so that the muffins are a bit pluffy when baked.. I used olive oil (optional) instead of the normal vegetable oil in the mixtue. It may not alter the taste but at least , it gives the recipe a mediterranean touch....

Enjoy Baking !

Haloumi Bacon Canapés

 

 

    Haloumi  Bacon Canapés

Fridays are reserved for my food shopping.. and today´s  shopping spree  included the Haloumi cheese from Cyprus.  Haloumi is a semi soft layered cheese semilar to Mozzarella and this one here is made of 90% cow´s milk, 5% lamb´s milk, 5% goat ´s milk.

I haven´t cooked this for months and so I decided to get a pack from my fave supermarket and made some canapés  that I ´m now featuring here in this blog.

 

Here´s what you need for the canapés..

 

1 pack Haloumi cheese

2 big peeled potatoes sliced into 1/2 cm ( around 0.20 Inch)

1 seedded apple cut into 4 quarters, thinly sliced

Bacon, thinly sliced

Fresh lettuce leaves or rucola

Mango chili spread ( sweet & sour chicken spread will also do)

medium size Tomato, thinly sliced

Olive oil for frying

 

Preparation:

 

1. Heat the Teflon pan with 1 tbsp olive oil and fry the thinly sliced potatoes for about 2 minutes on each side or until done, golden brown and crispy.

  

 

 

 

2.Take out of pan and put on a platter lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil.

 

 

3. In the same pan under medium heat, fry all the cut Haloumi cheese until they become crispy on both sides, remove onto a platter.. then fry the sliced bacon until they become golden brown, remove  onto a platter and set aside to cool down.


 

 

4. The base of the canapés are the potatoes, so it´s going to be a layering process:

 

first, put 1 tsp of  the mango spread  on to each potato slice and alternately thereafter followed by the apple ,  the fried haloumi, mango chili spread, lettuce/rucola leaves, mango chili spread, then as top the bacon fritters. Secure the canapés with a toothpick for easy handling as appetizers.

 

 

This can be prepared a couple of hours in advance if you´re having a party..goes well with white wine and beer...

Hope you like this one. Have a nice and sunny Saturday everyone!


                                                   xoxo,

                                                  Mercy

 

 

A set of Simple Garden Chair Pillows

 

 

Hello everyone!

 

Today, I want to share the pillows I started last weekend.  I´ve been hoping that I could do this project earlier but my time really was so scarce. It has become a real luxury for me!

 

You know the pitfalls of a working housewife, my corporate world, my household chores, food shopping, laundry, cooking. etc etc. And since our summer is great this year, I really didn´t want to do any crafting , heat is my excuse  :-)))

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the heat, I really did manage to do this little project.

I used the  sponge of the old garden pillows above, ripped-off the fabric and cut it into two pieces .

Then I covered it with a batting to make the edges rounder , then I slip stitched the sides so the batting would hold the sponge´s form. Putting the sponge form on top of the green fabric saved me from making a pattern.  I cut the fabric and add 2.5 cm allow on all sides and together with the fabric strip, I carefully sew and closed the 3 sides... the 4th side was left open to slip in the sponge to the case and  should be handstitched.

 

 

I used this fabric for the backside of the pillows, it´s an english fabric which I got from a store in Malaga, Spain. By using this, I can reverse the side of the pillow whenever I get tired of the plain green as top fabric.

 

 

 

 I also used a strip of fabric for the border, to give accent to the contour of the pillow edges.

 

 

These green fabric might be plain in color and is rather boring.....but, I intend to make a  set of patched pillows for the back using dark & lively color....

 

 

 

 

 

 

....and so,  these are the finished pillowcases with reversible sides.

 

 

 

 

I hope that I can patch and sew the back pillows  soon before summer says goodbye, but that is another story...

 

Thank you all for stopping-by, hope you´re  heaving a great time!!!

 

Mercy

 

 

 

 

Stuffed Squash Flowers + Recipe

 

 Stuffed Squash Flowers

 

 

With the high temperatures we´re having right now, my potted Squash is blooming tremendously and amazingly... and I think it´s now time to harvest these flowers, during the next days they will just dry-off.

 

 

 

 

I have grown squash before and it was kind of tricky to have many flowers blooming in just a day.. 

 

 

 

 

 

It was the time to cut the flowerettes and the best time to make that was today in the morning, where their petals were really wonderfully opened.

 

 

 

 

I must say , these blooms are very aromatic....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

so I picked about 6 flowerettes.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and stuffed them with ground meat ...

 

 below, you´ll find how I cooked them.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

5-6 Squash flowerettes fully bloomed

100 grams ground beef or 50/50 ( beef/lean pork)

1 medium sliced onion 

 3 cloves of crushed garlic

2 tbsps diced bell pepper,

2 tbsps diced zucchini

1 tbsp creme fraiche ( optional)

2 tsps soya Sauce

salt, pepper to taste

olive oil or any vegetable oil for fyring

 

 

For the Gravy:

 

1 medium Zucchini, cut & diced into small pieces

1 bell pepper , cut just like the size of the zucchini

1 medium onion,

2 cloves crushed garlic

1 tbsp creme fraiche ( optional)

1 tbsp all purpose flour dissolved in 3 tbsp water +1 tbsp soya Sauce

salt & pepper

1 1/2 Cups water

 

 

Preparation:

 

1.

 Wash the Squash flowerettes and set aside.

 

2.

In a frying pan, heat 1-2 tbsp. olive oil and fry the garlic shortly, add the cut onion.  Fry until golden brown, add the ground beef, stir fry until beef is tender or turning pale.

 Add the bell pepper and the Zucchini, continue to stir fry about 2 minutes, add the cream fraiche and season with salt & pepper.

 

 

3.

Carefully stuff  about 1 1/2 tbsps meat mixture into the flowerettes and by overlapping the petals towards the flower center , secure this with a toothpick closing the top opening.

 

 In a heated  pan with 1 tbsp olive oil, fry all sides of the flowerettes until golden brown , set aside and keep warm.

 

 

 

 

 For the Gravy :

 

 

1.

In a heated casserole with 1 tbsp olive oil,  fry the crushed garlic, add the cut onions, zucchini and  bell pepper,  stir fry until they become soft.

 

2.

Add 1/2 cup water, let boil....then add  the flour-soya--water mixture and cook

for 2 minutes stirring all the time until mixture gets thicker. Add the creme fraiche and season with salt & pepper... adjust the seasoning &  liquid if necessary.

 

3. If you are using a stab mixer, you can liquify the cooked gravy ingredients directly in the casserole. If using a blender, blend the mixture until a fine & smooth consistency is achieved.

 

Serve with cooked Rice or White bread

 

 

Note: The cooked ingredients for the gravy can also be made and served as by-dish by simply stir frying them( without adding the liquid- see the above title photo). 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you will enjoy this recipe....

 

 

 

Have a nice Sunday !

 

 

Til next,

 

Mercy