29 | 52 Gooseberry Apricot Cake

Do you like gooseberries?

I do. But only if they are small and sweet :)

Not if they are big and not very sweet and with a very thick skin.

Like the ones I bought last week...

So I thought that baking those gooseberries would make them better or at least edible.

Note to self: if gooseberries don't taste good 'raw' then they also don't taste good 'baked'.

Gooseberry Apricot Cake

Adapted from Edeka

For the yeast base

250 g (2 cups) flour

40 g (1/4 cup minus 1 tablespoon) sugar

pinch of salt

zest of 1 lemon

20 g (0.7 oz) fresh yeast (or one pack dry yeast)

125 ml (1/2 cup) milk

1 egg

For the filling

400 g (14 oz) gooseberries

500 g (18 oz) apricots

For the glaze

150 g (3/4 cup minus 1 tablespoon) butter, room temperature

100 g (1/2 cup) sugar

4 eggs

50 g (1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon) flour

pinch of salt

125 g (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) heavy cream

• For the yeast base, sift flour into a bowl and make a dent in the middle. Sprinkle sugar, salt, and lemon zest onto flour rim. Dissolve the yeast in a bit of milk and pour into the flour dent. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
• Knead yeast with flour, the remaining milk, and the egg. Cover again and let rise for another 15 minutes.
• Butter a round springform pan and distribute yeast base evenly on bottom of pan. Let rise for another 15 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 200ºC (400ºF).
• Wash and dry the gooseberries and apricots. Cut apricots in pieces.
• For the glaze, beat together butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time. Add flour, salt, and heavy cream.
• Distribute gooseberries and apricots evenly on yeast base. Pour glaze over fruit and bake for 45 minutes.
• Let cool completely before serving.

My modifications:

I used fresh apricots (the original recipe calls for canned apricots).

The taste:

I didn't like it. And I'm not sure that it was only those gooseberries that spoiled it for me.... But try for yourselves - maybe you'll like it!

Any gooseberry baking recipes we should know about?

 

24*52 Apricot-Chocolate-Coconut-Crumble Pie

Fresh apricots. Yum. A big bowl of them were waiting to be eaten here.

But of course I rather turned them into some baked goodness.

I know I've been crumbling a lot on this blog but hey - you can never have enough crumbles in your life (at least not when they're the sweet, edible kind). Right?

 Apricot-Chocolate-Coconut-Crumble Pie

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Crust

1 pie crust (with 1 teaspoon sugar added)

Filling

35 (about 800 g or 1 3/4 lb) apricots

105 g (1/2 cup) sugar

55 g (1/2 cup) brown sugar

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch

60 g (1/3 cup) small chocolate chips

1/4 teaspoon salt

Crumbles

175 g (3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons) flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

115 g (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) shredded coconut

114 g (1 stick) butter, at room temperature and in pieces

80 g (1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons) brown sugar

• Prepare pie crust. Leave refrigerated for at least one hour.
• Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
• Cut apricot into halves, remove stone and cut 3 wedges from each half. Combine with the remaining filling ingredients (works best if you use your hands). Pour into pie crust.
• Knead together all ingredients for the crumbles. Crumble over apricots. (It is a lot of crumble dough and the apricots were doming up so for me it worked best to press the crumbles onto the apricots to prevent everything from crumbling down.)
• Bake for about 1 hour on a lower oven rack. Place foil over top after 25-30 minutes to prevent the crumbles from getting burnt.
• Cool for at least 2 hours before serving.

 My modifications:

I used my recipe for the crust. It's not very different from Martha Stewart's though.

I also added the chocolate chips to the filling because chocolate can't hurt.

I only baked it for 1 hour instead of 1 1/2 and that was totally enough.

The taste:

So very good! I like the chocolate in it but if you're sceptical you can also leave it out.

I expected to taste more of the coconut so maybe replacing a bit of the flour with more coconut would be an option but that's just an idea, so try at your own risk.

What's your favorite fruity pie?

11b/52 Oatmeal-Apricot Cookies

I am a person who feels guilty pretty easily. Especially for not having done things that I should have. Which doesn't necessarily mean that the guilt wins and forces me to take care of those things. I just continue to feel bad about them. Sometimes for a long time.

I honestly don't want this to happen in regards to this blog. So I couldn't just leave you this week with my last post and the admitted cheating that was involved (= no baking). So I baked something. And I feel better now. Not guilty anymore. I should remember this feeling.

Oatmeal-Apricot Cookies

Adapted from Martha Stewart

110 g (1 1/4 cups) oats
105 g (3/4 cup) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
113 g (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
100 g (1/2 cup) light-brown sugar
55 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100 g (3/4 cup) dried apricots, roughly chopped
60 g (3/4 cup) almonds, slivered

• Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F).
• Combine oats, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
• On medium speed, beat together butter and sugars until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract.
• On low speed, add oat-flour-mix until just combined.
• Mix in apricots and almonds using your hands.
• Form small balls, put them on a lined baking sheet with enough space between them and flatten them a bit.

• Bake 25-30 minutes until edges begin to brown.

•  Let cool on baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

My modifications:

None, except for the baking time: my cookies were done in 18 minutes.

Next time I might omit the granulated sugar, try different dried fruits, and/or possibly add a bit of chocolate (grated or chips).

The taste:

They smell and taste delicious. Fruity. Sweet. A bit healthy. Comforting. Filling.

What about your guilt trips? And what's your favorite cookie? 
(Yes, two questions that are totally related. At least after this post.)