Crunchy Apple Pie from Scratch!

Ah... The period of time that I have been waiting for so long: apple picking time. With freshly picked apples, it is the occasion to make a simple apple pie. Everything from scratch. There are many types of crusts, but what I enjoy most is this one: crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. It's just a perfect marriage with a sweet-and-sour apple filling.

The filling is rather fancy, I've added red wine to the recipe.

For those who think that it would be difficult to make the apple crust, I would say that you are overestimating! As simple as only 3 ingredients and the rest is all about doing some cardio -- rolling your dough.

Alright, less talk.


Timeline:
Ready time: about 5 hours
Preparation time: 4 hours
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Baking time: 15-30 minutes

Ingredients:
Crunchy Pie Crust
260g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
150g (2/3 cups) butter
2-4 tbsp cold water

Apple filling
5 big apples of your choice
1 tsp butter
38g (3 tbsp) sugar
1 tsp redwine
a pinch of cinnamon powder
a pinch of all purpose flour

1. In a food processor, put all-purpose flour and butter. Mix it and gradually add in cold water. Do not leave it for too long as we want the butter to remain cool to create a flaky texture after baking. If you don't have a food processor, you can easily do it by hand. Do not have your hand in direct contact with the dough as it will warm up the butter.

2. When the dough becomes a ball, transfer everything in a saran wrap and shape it in rectangle to make it easier when you will work with it later. My prefered size is about 6"x 7".

3. Let the dough cool down in the fridge for at leave 2 hours or overnight.
4. Once the dough is cooled down, roll it. You will see that the dough has become hard but rolling it several time will soften. Once it becomes as long as 15 inches, fold it into three and roll it over. In folding the dough, you will create several layers to the crust.
5. After folding 3 to 4 times, depending on your preferences, shape it in rectangular and place it in the fridge for about 1 hour.
6. While waiting for the dough to chill, you may now work on the filling. In a cooking pan, set the heat to medium-high and melt the butter.
7. Peel the apple, remove the core and cut it into your preferred shape, whether big, thin, thick or small. To prevent the apple from browning, place them in salted water.

8. Put the apple chunks in the pan and stir fry it with the butter for about 30 seconds.
9. Add in sugar, cinnamon and then red wine to the apple and lower the heat to medium-low. If you don't like or have wine, you can replace it with lemon juice.
10. When the apple looks cooked, add in a pinch of all purpose flour to make the filling slightly thicker. Adjust to your preference. When well mixed, let the filling cool down.
11. While the filling cools, preheat the oven at 450°F.
12. Take the crust dough out and roll it so it becomes as thin as you like and should fit your pie pan. Place the rolled dough on the pan and shape it. Then use a fork to poke the dough so that the filling's juice can integrate in later.
13. Pour in the filling. If you are lazy, you can bake it without out decorating. I had some dough left, so I made a latice blanket to cover.

14. Bake it for 15 to 30 minutes or until you see the crust becoming golden brown.
15. Let it cool down and serve it the way you love.

Good luck and enjoy! 

Chewy Matcha Mochi Cake

Can you imagine a chewy, soft and warm texture of a piece of cake? Very, very chewy. So chewy that you wonder whether your teeth are in Dreamland.

I actually got the recipe from another blog and just fell in love with the idea of using Mochiko to replace all purpose flour. Furthermore, having always been a fan of glutinous rice's chewiness, I just told myself "Eureka" when discovering this recipe.

I however have modified the recipe, to suit my own taste as well as people surrounding me; less sweet and less buttery than the original instructions. I have also added one step to make the mochi cake last longer. In a way, this mochi cake tastes quite similar to the Chinese Niangao (年糕). Easy, sweet and yummy!

I was in a rush that day, so I referred to cups instead of weighing the ingredients. This gives 12 matcha mochi cakes.

Alright, less talk. 

Ingredient:
1 1/2 cups glutinous rice flour
1 tsp green tea matcha powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
knob of melted butter

1. In a bowl, sift in matcha powder, baking power, salt and the glutinous rice flour.
2. In a big bowl, mix vegetable oil with sugar. When the sugar is dissolved in the oil, add in the egg and milk.
3. Combine the dry ingredient in the liquid ingredient. Stir well. You may feel that the batter consistency is very thick. Do not worry, it is the thickness that makes it chewy.
4. Leave the batter in the fridge for at least 6 hours, but ideally leave it overnight. This step consist in "activating" the glutinous rice powder, making it last longer and taste chewier after several days. If you cook it right away, the cake will become hard after a day or two (from my own experience).
5. After letting it sit for a few hours or overnight, take it out from the fridge and stir again. You may need to add a bit of milk if it is too thick, but I highly don't recommend it.
6. Preheat the oven at 350°F.
7. Melt a knob of butter and spread it in the cupcake cups or sheets. This will help make it easier to remove from pan or cupcake sheet.
8. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
9. Let it sit for 1 hour. It is best consumed within 4 days of baking it.

Good luck and enjoy!

Sambuca Beet Cake

I was in search of something nice to the smell and gentle to the look. It turns out that things didn’t go the way I expected. What I mean is that I was hoping that the beets cake would turn red velvet, but it did not at the end. However, the taste was really nice, considering that I have topped it with some liquor. 

Well, let aside the colour failure, I think the taste and the texture of this cake was satisfactory! Plus... Beets are really healthy vegetables, rich in iron, but not everyone likes it. To make it more acceptable to some palates, I understood that adding cocoa and liquor to it would wear off the earthy taste and allow those who are not fond of beets to, hopefully, learn to enjoy it gradually.  

Ingredients:

(cake)

65g granulated sugar

65g butter

3 eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

1 small beet

1 cup of milk

300g all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

3 tsp cocoa powder

1/3 cup yogurt

Sambuca con Piacere Liquor ( about 2 tbsp)

(glaze)

1 tsp Cocoa

3 tbsp Milk

1 cup Icing sugar

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Sift it to obtain a finer texture and to prevent cocoa powder chunks.

2. Preheat the oven at 350°F. Grease the pan of choice, I have personally used the bundt cake pan.

3. In a mixer, blend the granulated sugar with the butter until it becomes fluffy.

4. In a blender, cut the beet into tiny pieces and beat it. Add milk in so that it becomes a juice.

5. In the mixture of butter and sugar, add the eggs and vanilla extract. When everything looks fluffy, add in the beets juice.

6. Add in the combination of dried ingredients indicated in (1). It is better mixing by hand using a spatula. Place it in the greased pan. Bake it for 50 minutes to 1 hour.

7. When retrieving the cake out of the oven, make sure to tap the bottom so that the hot air comes out and that the cake remains in its form. Reverse the pan to shake the cake out.

8. While the cake is still warm, brush some Sambuca con Piacere on the cake. Beware of the magically tempting smell of the cake!

11. Let it sit for 5 minutes so that the cake absorbs the liquor. Meanwhile you can prepare the glaze. Then spread it over the cake.

12. Add some hazelnuts (or any type of nut) and then let the cake sit for at least 4 hours before serving it. It lets enough time for the alcohol to settle down.

Good luck and enjoy! 

Kabocha Cheesecake

Someday in October, I came back home to the fragrant smell of spices. I could tell that it was the perfume of Thanksgiving, as the room stank like pumpkin. My sweet old landlady came to me and said: “[My neighbour]’s oven crashed and so I offered her to use mine instead!” Boy, it smelled so good that I needed to know how to cook that delicious thing in the oven!

A pumpkin coconut cheesecake was the treat. I must say that it tasted really good, but I wanted to add an exotic twist to it. Plus, I have a big preference in preparing everything from scratch and cutting pumpkin tends to be a difficult task. And so, I replaced the pumpkin with kabocha butter squash, and it turns out that the marriage between kabocha, coconut and cream cheese is perfect. In the case where you don’t like kabocha, you can always replace it with pumpkin.

It is a long recipe, but I find it totally worth it!

Ingredients:

(Purée)

1 cup steamed kabocha

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp sugar

½ tsp grinded ginger

½ tsp nutmeg and salt

1 tsp vanilla

(Base crust)

1 ½ cup oatmeal

½ cup all purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

A pinch of grounded cinnamon

½ cup shortening (soften at a room temperature)

1 egg

(Cheese filling)

4 eggs

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

500g mascarpone cheese

Shredded coconut

Whipping cream

1. Cut the kabocha into half and steam it for 30 minutes or until it becomes soft and tender.

2. When the kabocha is ready, cut it into pieces and place it in a blender to prepare the purée. Add all the ingredients for the purée and blend until smooth.

3. Preheat the oven at 350°F.

4. For the base crust, you will need to mix all the dry ingredients together. Use your hands to mix the shortening with the dry ingredients and finally add in the egg. Then in a 10 inch diameter cake pan, layer the crust. Press firmly and use a fork to poke the crust, it will help baking evenly. Bake it for 10-15 minutes, do not overcook it since you will need to bake it one more time later. Let it cool in a rack and now set the oven at 325°F for baking the cheesecake later.

5. While waiting for the crust, you shall prepare the cheese filling. With a mixer, beat the eggs, brown sugar and granulated sugar. When everything is combined, add in the mascarpone cheese. Beat until the texture becomes smooth and incorporate the kabocha purée. Then add the shredded coconut and whipping cream. When everything is mixed, pour the filling on the crust.

6. Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes or until the top becomes golden brown.

7. Let it cool for a few hours before placing it in the fridge for at least four hours. It tastes best if you let it cool overnight.

Good luck and enjoy!