Tag Archives: Apple

February 23rd, 2019

Apple Fritter

Apfelkrapfen-43Baking fritters is something very typical for this season. And while I have still not much love for celebrating carnival, I like to bake fritters once in a while. These apple fritters were inspired by some left over miniature apples, we used as decoaration for our christmas. After christmas I kept this cute little apples in my open kitchen shelf for because they were to beautiful to eat. But now the started to shrivel and so apple fritter were my new idea for them.

When baking apple fritters you can find two kinds of recipes in Germany: Some are baked with a yeasted dough only, while others use a additional layer of Pâte à Choux to keep the apple piceses fixed in the fritters. I opted for the second variant and choose my favourite Pâte à Choux recipe and a standard yeast  dough. From there it was only a short way to a delicious afternoon treat…

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July 2nd, 2016

Fruit bars

FruchtschnitteSome time ago Eva made “Rutite” (Fruit bars) for her little nice. The recipe sounded very simple and the needed dried fruits where all in my kitchen cupboards. After an intense search in the depth of my baking cabinet I even found the unloved round wafer paper which sleeps there unappreciated for several years.

As my mixer is really strong, I throw in all ingredients in whole, even the nuts. And after some minutes of mixing and scrapping down the mixture every now and then, the nuts started to release some oil and mixtrue turned into a dough with a similar consistence like marzipan. The rest was easily done: rolling out, cuting circles with an cookie cutter and placing them between wafer paper. And so I could test my Fruit bars soon. It is very delicious – even with wafer paper!

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December 12th, 2015

Cinnamon Mousse Cake with Apple Curd

Zimtmousse-Törtchen mit Apfelcurd-Füllung

Christmas time can be a hectic time as well. To makes things easier, I like to have desserts that can be prepared in advance. Like this little mousse cakes, which can be prepared one week before time and then wait patiently in the fridge for their great day. You just have to remember the night before to take them from the freezer and defrost them in the fridge over night. The next day, they just have to get a little cocoa dusting and their dried apple star decoration and they are ready to be served.

With almond sponge, Cinnamon Mousse and a core of apple curd they are light and delicious end for any festive meal during Christmas time! And if you like to keep life even more simple, then skip the sponge and fill the mousse in little glases. This tealight holders have the perfect size!

 

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November 15th, 2015

Zürcher Pfarrhaustorte

Zürcher Pfarrhaustorte

Apple cake is always a good idea. And after sorting my windfall apples I had a small basket of “to use immediately” apples with small dents. These kind of apples are best in cakes where a beautyful form is not so important, like my alltime favourite apple cake. For the “Zürcher Pfarrhaustorte” (Zurich parsonage cake) I had to select a  bit. The good looking halves where used for the apple topping, while the halves with brown spots where grate (of course after removing the brown spots!). The grated apple is then mixed with grounded hazelnuts, sugar and eggs and form so the basic on which I put the halfway sliced apple slices.

For this cake I found more or less only one recipe in the Net and my recipe continue this as well. I make only minor changes like using my favourite short crust pastry with a bit of buckwheat flour to make the dough a bit more nutty. And I baked the cake longer and at lower temperature to ensure that the apples are all soft and tender.

This cake will find its way in my personal favourite folder as it is filling is fruity, moist and not too sweet and can be enjoyed on the next days as well.

 

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October 25th, 2015

Caramel Apple Tartlettes

Karamell-Apfel-Tartletts (2)Our whole flat is filled with apple flavour. In front of the kitchen there is a whole bucket of “Jakob Lebel” Windfall Apples waiting to be processed and in the living room I placed a big bowl with dark red “Pomme de Coeur” (Sternrenette). This is another old heritage apple variety and a joy for the taste buds and nose: flavourful, aromatic, delicious. And it’s dark red colour makes it a joy for our eyes as well.  With so many apples in the house baking some apple cakes is a must. And as I got this beautiful tiny tartelett rings as birthday present using them was a must as well. I decided to go for a recipe from Matthias Ludwigs “Törtchen und Torten”.

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September 19th, 2015

Cornucopia with Apple Nut Filling

Cornucopia (11) Cornucopia, the horn of plenty, is a symbol of abundance and nourishment in the classical myths and is often associated with autumn. And when I prepared my little pastries I look on the nuts and apples and that little cornucopia would be the right way to celebrate autumn plenty.

It is apple and  no other fruit that means autumn to me. And I can’t stop praising the heirloom apples which are often much more aromatic then the new breeds. And for baking cake there is no better apple then my favourite Jakob Lebel. It is a tree which gives a plenty of fruits and which is often found in old gardens and orchards. In the beginning of last century the meeting of german pomiculture society named it as one of tree apple variety they advised to grow because it is so fruitful, aromatic and robust. Continue reading

February 2nd, 2015

Baked Apple Cake

Bratapfelkuchen (1) It was snowing in the morning when I got up and it kept snowing. That is more snow then precasted  and we have a nice winter chaos out there. The main problem (like every year) are trucks without winter tyre. The traffic jam on our highway is at the moment about 20 km and I’m nearly happy that I’m on sick leave due to a fevery bronchitis and can stay home.

And so I use the time to show you the baked apple cake I made some weeks ago. The tiny little apples were part of my christmas decoration and slowly they have to be eaten. And because they where great as baked apple before I was inspired to bake a bake apple cake. It was a spontaneous idea. And just when I put the cake in the oven my parents called if we want to take a walk in the woods together in the afternoon. Maybe they smelled already the delicious cake?

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December 28th, 2014

Little Baked Apples with Marzipan Ice cream and caramelized Almonds

Bratäpfelchen mit MarzpianeisOn the first christmas day we met with my family at my sisters place. To reduce the work for her (and because I like to do it) I offered to make dessert. For a long time I was lacking a good idea. But when I was decorating our flat with my Christmas apples I knew what to cook: Mini baked apples with ice cream. In our childhood my mum always bought marzipan ice cream (shaped as christmas tree) for us. And so I knew the flavour for the ice cream as well: Marzipan! Inspired by Michas cream cheese ice cream I created a new recipe and it is perfect for christmas time because you can make it in advance, freeze it and serve it directly from the fridge. Due to the high amount of invertsirup and cream cheese it will be soft and perfect  to eat!

And the combination of cold ice cream, hot apples and crunchy almonds was the perfect end of a delicious Christmas meal!

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October 12th, 2014

Apfelkuchen nach Günther Weber

Apfelkuchen nach Günther Weber

When autumn brings the first ripe apples I have to bake apple cake. The best apple for apple cakes is (and will always be) “Jakob Lebel”, a heritage apple with great flavour. My parents grow “Jakob Lebel” in their garden and so I can bake apple cakes with my favourite apple! This year was bad year for apples and so there will be not as much apples as in the last years. And so I have to enjoy and celebrate every apple I get!In Günthers book I found a recipe for apple cake with a sour cream and quark filling which sounded perfectly for me. And so I calculated the recipe down to a standard size spring form (26 cm diameter).

The dough is a yeasted short crust, a kind of crust I learned to love because it is easy in handling. It is made by mixing a yeast dough (for example with some challah dough or some sweet starter) and a short crust pastry. It is a very good crust – not only in handling but although in taste. The filling of apple slices and quark tastes delicious, too. As a little improvement I would blanch the apples the next time I bake this cake to make them really soft but this is only due to my personal preference. The cake is really great and I’m sure that I did not make him the last time!

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September 7th, 2014

Apple Mousse Torte

Apfelmousse-Torte (2)

Celebrating my birthday always means for me baking a cake I like very much, too! And something I like very much are cakes baked with the heritage apple “Jakob Lebel” which grows in my parents garden. For me this is the ideal apple for baking cakes or making apple juice. And so I decided that my birthday cake will be apple torte. But I did not use the windfall apples but the last glasses of apple sauce, apple juice and apple slices I preserved last year, so I make room for new, too!

The torte consists of a thin cinnamon cream layer, topped with a apple slices in apple juice jelly (made with agar) and covered with an apple mousse. On top of the cake there are fanned apple slices  and a little rose formed with apple slices, which looks beautiful. To prevent stress on my birthday I prepared most of the cake the night before, so I only had to do the rose and fanned apple the next morning. That worked very well and we had a beautiful day in my parents garden, where I took the pictures of the cake together with windfall apples, too.

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