43/52 Apple Cookies

I really should have baked Halloween cookies this week. 

Too bad that I only thought of that now... 

(Yes, go ahead, laugh at me. No problem.)

But these apple cookies are not so bad, either. 

Except they don't have anything to do with Halloween, damnit...

Apple Cookies

Adapted from Living at Home

For the dough:

160 g butter

3 tablespoons (or bags) apple tea

200 g flour

1 packet vanilla pudding powder

salt

80 g sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons apple juice

For the glaze:

4 tablespoons apple juice

50 g powdered sugar

For the filling:

150 g apple jelly

•  Melt the butter over medium heat (or microwave until luquid), add loose tea or tea bags and let sit for about 10 minutes. If you used loose tea sieve through a fine colander, or just remove tea bags. Cool butter in the fridge until it is solid again.
• Knead all dough ingredients together until smooth. Wrap in saran wrap and let cool in the fridge for about 1 hour. Use your rolling pin to roll out dough and cut out little apples. Put a hole in half of them. 
• Note: if you don't need apple shapes and want to avoid rolling out the dough, form dough into a log, wrap in saran wrap and freeze for about 1 hour. Take out and cut off slices. Put a hole in half of them.

•  Preheat oven to 180°C (355°F). Bake cookies for about 12-15 minutes or until edges are a light golden brown. Take out and let cool completely.
• For the glaze mix apple juice and powdered sugar and glaze that half of the cookies with the hole in them. Let dry.
• Heat apple jelly to make it easier to spread and brush on those cookies without the hole. Put a glazed cookie on top, lightly pressing it on.

  what?! you think they look like a misshapen pac-man? no way!

My modifications:
I used apple juice instead of Calvados. Because I had it at home and because I didn't need the alcohol.

I used a tea called "Wintergenuss" (winter indulgence) to infuse with the butter. Besides apples it has a slight cinnamon taste.

I sliced the cookies because a) I don't have a cookie cutter shaped like an apple, b) I was lazy, and c) the most important thing is that these cookies taste like apples, not look like them.

The taste:

Like apple. Without the vitamins.
Is that a good thing, you might ask? Yes, in this case, it just may be.

What are you baking for Halloween? Something scary, I hope!

39/52 Apple-Chocolate-Cake

I didn't tell you but we were off to Croatia last week. My husband's birthday was celebrated loudly with the Croatian part of his family and a Cappuccino layer cake was baked for him by one of his cousins.

Coming back home and facing the first day of work again, I had to bake something that the hubby could take to work for a belated birthday celebration there.

We had apples, chocolate, and the basic cake ingredients at home. So what would have made more sense than trying a recipe that combines everything I had at hand?

Apple-Chocolate-Cake

Adapted from Chefkoch

3 apples 

2 tablespoons lemon juice 

1 tablespoon honey 

190 g (6.7 oz) butter, soft 

150 g (3/4 cup) sugar 

3 eggs 

120 g (4.2 oz) dark chocolate 

250 g (2 cups) flour 

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 

200 ml (7/8 cup) heavy cream 

powdered sugar for dusting 

• Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). 
• Peel apples, remove core, and cut into slices. Mix lemon juice, honey, and a bit of water and marinate apples while preparing the cake batter.
• Beat together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. 
• Melt chocolate over hot water (or in microwave) and add to butter mix. 
• Combine flour and baking powder and mix into batter, alternating with heavy cream. 

• Pour batter into prepared pan and arrange apple slices on top, pushing them a little into the batter. 

• Bake for 45 minutes, covering with baking parchment after 30 minutes. 

My modifications: 

I used only 3 instead of 4 apples. 

And less butter (190 g instead of 250 g), more chocolate (120 g instead of 100 g), and more cream (200 ml instead of 150 ml). 

And I baked it for only 45 minutes instead of 60 minutes. 

The taste: 

I don't know! 

My hubby took the whole cake to work and didn't bring back a single crumb... I guess that's a good sign though. He said that everybody liked it but he thought it was a bit on the dry side. It just seems to be my luck with chocolate cake lately.

Is there anything you baked but didn't even eat/try for yourself?

38/52 Pumpkin-Apple-Pizza

I recently reveiced this recipe for a Pumpkin Tarte Flambée in my inbox and immediately wanted to try it.

Reading through it again to prepare my shopping list, I didn't really feel like it anymore. Mostly due to laziness (having to roll out the dough really thin just kind of put me off...).

So I started looking for similar recipes, also Pumpkin Pizzas, and just created my own mix of them all.

Pumpkin-Apple-Pizza 

Feeds 4

1 ready-made pizza dough

3 tablespoons sour cream salt & pepper

marjoram (or other herbs)

2 tablespoons parmesan, grated

1 onion, sliced

400 g (14 oz) pumpkin (or squash - I used butternut), peeled & thinly sliced

2 small apples, peeled & thinly sliced

100 g (3.5 oz) feta cheese, coarsely crumbled

• Preheat oven to 220°C (430°F) (or according to package instructions). Put pizza dough on baking sheet. 
• Season sour cream with salt & pepper and herb of your choice (I used dried marjoram) and spread evenly on dough. 
• Sprinkle parmesan evenly over sour cream. 
• First arrange onion slices, then pumpkin slices, then apple slices on sour cream-parmesan. 

• Crumble feta over it and bake for about 30 minutes (or however long your pumpkin and dough need). Serve with (green) salad.

My modifications: 

None, since this is my own creation.

If you like meat, you could modify it by adding bacon pieces. I'm sure that would be nice as well.

The taste: 

Like autumn... Like more...

What is your favorite autumn (baking) recipe?

27/52 Apple-Crumble-Cake

Oh yes, I do. I totally know what you are thinking.

Crumble cake? Again???

Yes, it's crumble cake again. But there's a very good reason for that.

It is my mom's birthday today (Happy Birthday, Mom!) and she asked if I would bake her a cake. Of course I would! (And she knew that, of course... It really was a rhetorical question...)

Since it is her birthday, I really wanted her to choose what she would like me to bake.
I narrowed it down to either chocolatey, fruity, or yeasty.
And she chose yeasty. And fruity.

So there you have it. My mom's wish. You can't complain about repetition anymore now, can you?

I used the basis of the Rhubarb-Crumble-Cake from 4 weeks ago, but left out all the fancy igredients in the crumbles. Topped with apples instead of rhubarb, and a little cinnamon on top.

(Due to the birthday-travel-preparation-hustle-and-bustle, there are very little pictures of the cake and none of its preparation. Apologies for that. I hope you understand.)

Apple-Crumble-Cake

Adapted from essen & trinken 5/2012

Cake

400 g (3.2 cup) flour

200 ml (0.8 cup) milk

25 g (0.9 oz) yeast, compressed

80 g (0.4 cup) sugar

1 egg

pinch of salt

80 g (3/4 stick or 2.8 oz) butter, room temperature

Topping

6 apples, peeled & core removed

lemon juice

Crumbles

150 g (1.2 cup) flour

50 g (0.4 cup) starch

150 g (3/4 cup) sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

150 g (1.3 stick or 5.3 oz) butter, cold

• For the yeast dough, put flour into a bowl. Warm up milk until lukewarm and dissolve yeast and sugar in it. Add milk-yeast-sugar, egg and a pinch of salt to flour and knead with your mixer until smooth. Add butter in pieces and knead for another 3 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
• For the crumbles, mix flour, starch, sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Add cold butter in pieces and knead with your hands until crumbly. Put in the fridge until later.
• Cut apples into wedges and sprinkle with a bit of lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown.
• Knead yeast dough with your hands, put into greased deep pan (30 x 40 cm/12 x 16 in) and spread evenly with your hands. Arrange apple pieces close-packed on top and crumble crumbles evenly over them.
• Bake on second lowest rack in preheated oven at 190°C (375°F) for 35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for a bit.

My modifications:

Like I mentioned earlier, apples instead of rhubarb, only basic crumbles without the fancy ingredients.

The taste:

Good. Solid. Apples-cinnamon-crumbles - no further questions, right?

What would your mom wish for you to bake for her birthday? Or your dad for his?

5/52 Peanut-Apple-Cupcakes

Winter has finally arrived. The snow has mostly melted but it is still very cold outside.
Eating healthy is always a good thing but even better when it's cold, right?

So let's assume that baking (or rather: eating) cupcakes with apples, fresh ginger and peanuts is healthy.
Because it is, isn't it?

Besides the health-aspect, I picked these cupcakes because the combination of peanuts and apples is hard to resist. Isn't apple jelly the best thing you can put on your peanut butter sandwich? I sure think so. (My mom won't even touch a peanut butter sandwich unless there's apple jelly on top...)

Oh, but before we start with the recipe, let's pretend you haven't read the title and introduction of this post. Because I made a little rebus or picture puzzle for you. 

I know it's a tough one but what did I bake this week?

 Congrats, well done! Peanut-Apple-Cupcakes it is!

Peanut-Apple-Cupcakes

Adapted from Cupcakes which my cousin-in-law Karmen gave me for Christmas

Makes 12 cupcakes:

vanilla pulp of one vanilla bean (or vanilla extract)

200 g (1.8 stick or 7 oz) butter, at room temperature

160 g (0.8 cup) sugar

4 eggs

200 g (1.6 cups) flour

2 heaped teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

2 apples, peeled and roughly grated

1 piece of fresh ginger (about 2 cm/0.8 in), peeled and finely grated

1 lime

Frosting: 

3 tablespoons peanuts

150 g (1.3 stick or 5.3 oz) butter, at room temperature

150 g (7 oz) cream cheese

2 tablespoons peanut butter

4 tablespoons powdered sugar

• Preheat oven to 180 °C (360°F).

• Mix together vanilla pulp, butter and sugar until creamy.

• Add eggs one at a time.

• In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Sift over butter mixture and combine quickly.

• Mix apples and ginger with lime juice and zest. Fold into batter.

• Fill in prepared muffin pan and bake on middle rack for 25 minutes. Take out of pan after a couple of minutes to cool off completely.

• For the frosting, chop and roast peanuts. 

• Stir together butter, cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar. 

• Top cupcakes with frosting and sprinkle with roasted peanuts.

My modifications:

I didn't roast the peanuts and added them to the cupcake batter together with the apples and ginger. I just felt that there should be a bit of peanut flavor in the cupcakes as well, not just in the frosting. So I didn't sprinkle anything on the frosting.

I also just chopped the apples and ginger, as opposed to grating them. (And yes, only because I was too lazy...) But since I chopped them pretty finely, you are not biting on big chunks of apple or ginger when eating the cupcakes.

6 cupcakes went straight to the freezer, without frosting. So I only made half of the frosting for the remaining 6 cupcakes.

What is your favorite "healthy" baking recipe?