Life, Darkness, Randomness, Chocolate ... Apple Shortcake with Chocolate Chip Cream

I made it to the weekend again. Pah ... what's the use of it, nothing is ever going to happen. Fine, yes, fine, you are right ... then you have to make it happen yourself ... and so I did. The evening had already advanced a bit and so I took my bike for a right around town ... village ... hamlet ... whatever. You can imagine that would be quite some fun ... darkness ... winter ... bicycle-tour ... idiot me! First I went down the way past the office and after that unknown territory when it comes to the bicycle. Luckily I had my cap and gloves along. On the minus side I didn't bother to take my glasses along. Not seeing where you are going with the bike can give you some kicks of adrenaline from time to time. Anyway, the route went up and down, the little dog wasn't hit by a bicycle and the fact that I am writing things here right now proves that things didn't go that bad after all.
I reckon, even stupid exercise at night would entitle me for a sweet treat today ...
Ah, I need something anyway ... 

Besides all that I already had planned to join two lovely blog challenges this month ... Random Recipes and We Should Cocoa. In fact they have morphed into one challenge kind of for this very month of February. You will see ...

Indy's Mysterious Daim Chocolate Apple Cake

It's about time again I get out my hat. Indeed, that might be useful in this kind f weather we have at this time of the year. However, it's not just the hat, I'm getting out and it's for a totally different reason ...

... it's for baking! There are still so many baking adventures out there, I better get going for it and get in the right frame of mind for it. So, I take my bullwhip and whip up some kind of mysterious cake ... with Daim chocolate and apples ...

Are you ready for the adventure?

Apples and Marzipan once more ... Stuffed!

These days it can be a bit hard to do things. Somehow my motivation is somewhere else. Maybe it was tired of winter and went South to a place with a more temperate climate. I wouldn't mind joining myself, but somehow I have to stay due to ... a lack of motivation. Oh, that sounds like a vicious circle.
Yesterday I had set my mind on braking the circle. I wanted to do some extended and lovely cooking. Therefore I went shopping and came home with five items, of which I needed two already anyway. To me that sounds already like ... eh ... not working. Rightly so, no special and tasty cooking.
However, I don't want to leave you with nothing.
A few days ago I brought you a chicken soup with apple compote in it. Now I bring you back the apples (not the same as in that apple compote). Last year I posted about an apple cake with marzipan in it. Today, I bring back the marzipan (also not the same one as in that cake).
The marzipan goes into the apples. How? We shall see ...

Ingredients:
3 apples
3 tsp apricot jam
about 50-100 g marzipan, depending on the size of the apples
2 walnuts, if you are good at opening them flawlessly
Splash of amaretto
A wee bit of brown sugar

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180 °C. Mine has a speed heating function, so I could do that later as well, after preparing the apples.
Here we go then. We start by coring those apples. I start with a knife and then go in with a spoon to scoop things out. Said and done!
Give one tsp of apricot jam into each apple. 

After that you fill the apples with the marzipan to the brim making sure the apricot jam doesn't come out again whilst pushing in the marzipan.
If you have whole walnuts it would be time to crack them open. If you are good at it you get three undamaged halves of walnut easily. Otherwise, you just eat the not so nice looking parts. Should you manage flawlessly, you get only one excess part for eating right away. On the other hand you could also use pre-opened walnuts and ...
Whatever, push a half walnut into the marzipan in each apple.
Pour a splash of amaretto over each apple and then sprinkle a wee bit of brown sugar over the apples.

Finally add a little bit of water to the bowl and transfer it for about 35 minutes to the oven.
I hope you enjoy them afterwards for pudding.
I guess then, as far as I am concerned, the apple season is over for me. I also tried to bake some apple cookies, but they were not that spectacular.
What do I do know? I'm not sure. Maybe relax a bit, go to bed ... it doesn't matter, I'm not overly motivated ...

You can always try ... Chicken Apple Soup

Goedendag! Hoe gaat het met jou? Ik wil je graag uitnodigen. Wat zegt u?
What? You didn't understand a thing? Well, it doesn't matter, my Dutch isn't that good either, anymore. In fact it never has been, although it should ... or maybe not.
Anyway, I want to invite you to have a soup together with me, a chicken apple soup. I improvised this recipe after a friend told me, he had tried something like this after having something like this in the Netherlands. Let's have a try then.

It might be Dutch, but then again, it might not be. I haven't taken the time to try. Nevertheless we leave it that way.

Ingredients:
150 g chicken breast, cut in bite-sized chunks
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp minced ginger 
1 red bell pepper, cut into stripes
1 red chili, finely chopped
750 ml water
6 tbs apple compote
100 g pasta or rice (I had rice pasta ... he he he)
Salt for seasoning
1 spring onion, chopped in rings


Method:
First fry the chicken breast pieces from all sides and put aside.
Get yourself a sufficiently sized pot and gently fry the onion in oil. After a few minutes add the garlic and the ginger and let it go for a few more minutes.
Then it's the time for the bell pepper and the chili to make it's appearance on the cooking scene. Put them in the pot and proceed with the cooking for a few more minutes ... eh ... that is until the bell pepper has softened a bit.
Pour in the water and bring to the boil. After that reduce the heat and add the chicken, the apple compote and the rice pasta. Let it all simmer for about 15 minutes. The chicken should be cooked through.
Finally add the rings of the spring onions and turn off the heat ... ready to serve.

You can always try. Normally, maybe, you wouldn't put such things together, but you never know, if you don't try. It might be the case you discover some nice flavours.
Een fijne dag nog! Tot straks!

Time for Chutney - Apple-Onion-Chilli-Chutney

Sometimes my mind is playing tricks on me. There was this blog challenge over at A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate ... It dealt with chutneys, pickles, piccalillis, jams, curds and marmalades.
Somehow, I had in mind this challenge would end today, but in fact it was one week earlier. So, while I thought I still had plenty of time, I didn't. I blew it!
I love piccalilli and jams and things like that. I did a piccalilli once and I liked it very much. That's an internal reminder for me to do it again.
Now, I've never made a chutney and that was what I wanted to try now. Since I still had quite a few apples left, it had to be something with apple. After getting some more information on that subject I was ready to go ... to make an Apple-Onion-Chilli-Chutney.

What we need:
2 tbs butter
2 red onions, finely chopped
500 g apple, peeled, cored, and cut into small pieces
2 tsp ginger, in very tiny pieces
2 small fresh red chillies, finely chopped (I left the seeds in)
250 g brown sugar
250 ml apple vinegar

What I did:
After having done all the preparation with cutting things into bit's an pieces the butter went melting in the pot.
Then I added the onions and started softening them.
With that said and done, it was time for the apple pieces to join and to season everything with ginger and chillies.

I let that go for a while for the apples to go a bit softer as well. My apples though were not the fastest or easiest to turn soft. Not the right type for a fast one.
After I was tired of waiting any longer I added the brown sugar and the apple vinegar and left it going until it looked like this ...

This may take a while. About 50-60 minutes. In fact, I decided to let it go a bit further than shown in the picture. 
Once I was satisfied I put the apple-onion-chilli-chutney into sterilised jars. I sterilised them standing for a while in hot water. That should do.
The chutney just filled one and a half jar. The full jar I turned upside down, after closing, of course. Otherwise it would have been quite messy and ... stupid. That should create some kind of vacuum helping it to seal properly to keep longer.
I like to eat it on bread with cheese. The chilies just give a very subtle burn at the end. So it's not too strong. If you want it stronger, just add a few more chillies. 

Well, I didn't make it for the blog challenge, but anyway it was nice to finally try my own apple chutney. 
That would have been the challenge.

Lethal Pudding - Apple Crumble Rated 'R'

It's time to get serious again ...
Well, that should be enough! Did I mention I got quite a few apples? Yes, I would say so. That was mentioned somewhere around here on this blog already some days ago.
The thing is I love apple crumble and therefore, when I got those apples I said to myself (maybe to others as well) I'm going to have some apple crumble.
Normally this is a standard procedure and there is not much fuss about it. Normally!
You must have gathered by now, that things aren't quite normal around here. Maybe sometimes, but most of the time rather not.

As thoughts were moving through my head ... I could have felt asleep, considering that micro-speed of flow of thoughts ... No!
I wanted to have my apple crumble with some rum this time. Obviously that would mean, it is not for children as you will see in a few seconds ...

What my sick mind suggested to use:
5 apples (in average medium sized)
100 g sultanas
200 ml brown rum
3 tbs fruit sugar
70 g sugar
90 g flour
100 g butter

How I ended up doing (and eating it):
As things start along the road I decided to soak the sultanas in brown rum for roughly about half an hour. The label on the bottle of rum said: 54%vol. (no worries?).

Drowning sultanas don't lend themselves to breathtaking pictures. However, a smell of the rum comes into my nose even while writing this (you will see later on why).
Then I went straight on with the crumbles. Just toss the sugar and the flour together, add the butter to the bowl and rub it into the flour and sugar using that lovely fingers of yours.
Apples are next!
Of course, I don't have to tell you to peel and core them, do I?
Whatsoever, the apples are cut into smaller pieces and go into the ovenproof dish. Sprinkle the fruit sugar over it.

Maybe the sultanas are ready now. What to do now? You could mix in the soaked sultanas with the apples. Said and done. I thought (oh, oh), it would be a shame to let the rum go to waste and ... just poured it over the apples as well (not sure, whether you should try this at home).
Finally, top it with the crumble and let it go to the oven at 180°C for about 40 minutes.
Enjoy the time in between with whatever you do with 40 minutes ...

When the apple crumble comes out of the oven, it's time to eat. Already a strong aroma of rum is steaming towards me from the bowl ...
Well, eh, yes, um ... the rum aroma was quite intense, very strong. That's something for cold days, when you don't have to drive anymore.
I definitely can say, don't eat that apple crumble and drive. After having a good portion of it .... I had this feeling in my head and things were a tiny bit shaky (can be imaginary).
Absolutely, this pudding is lethal and can only be rated 'R'. It is absolutely not suitable for children.

A day later while dealing with the leftover apple crumble, the rum flavour was less intense and it was more enjoyable.
We can conclude as follows: Most probably it would be better to use less strong rum (good thing I didn't use the 80% vol. one ... wouldn't have survived that one) and not pour it over the apples (but not drinking it either) or at least not so much.
What are your thoughts on that?

The Marzipator strikes back - Dorset Apple Cake with Marzipan

Somehow, it could not be avoided. The marzipator strikes back. How could get things get that far again?
Well it didn't start so bad. I ended up with several tons (note: exaggeration) of apples. They came in from different sides. It's the time for apples.
There are many lovely things you can do with them ... that is apart from just eating them as they are. The saying goes: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away!" That would mean I don't see the doctor for quite some time. I don't know whether that works. As far as I know, apples can't prevent accidents.
Anyway, you could use your apples for apple sauce, apple crumble, apple pancakes, apple porridge, many many other things and ... apple cake.
Now things are as follows. For quite some time there is a blog challenge going on. It's about the Best of British food and every month, there is a different region covered. The challenge is sponsored by The Face of New World Appliances and this month it is hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage with the theme Dorset. Have a look at London Unattached from Fiona as well.
Consequently this leaves me no chance as to bake a Dorset Apple Cake. I had a look at a few recipes and they all have some basic things in common. Apple is the obvious, but usually there are also some ground almonds in it.
That is the point were the marzipator and therefore the marzipan comes into play. It has to do with almonds anyway. So why not add some of it to the cake.

See for yourself!

Ingredients:
450 g of apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces (more or less)
Juice of 1 lemon
250 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
250 g butter (I was too lazy to measure, so I decided for a whole package)
150 g brown sugar
50 g ground almonds
100 g marzipan
2 eggs
Some extra sugar mixed together with ground cinnamon

Method (if you want to call it that way):
Well, what to do now. I could simply tell you to just throw all ingredients into a big bowl and mix thoroughly, but ...
Toss the pieces of apple in the juice and let them sit in it.
Sift the flour and the baking powder into a big bowl. Then start kneading in the butter and create some crumbles.
Add the sugar, the ground almonds and the marzipan. Crack open the eggs and release the content into the bowl, not bothering about separating and beating egg whites.
Now is the time to mix or knead it through thorougly. Do it as you want it. I used only my bare hands and did it as messy as possible. However, if you should decide to do the same, make sure you have the usual round (about 25 cm) cake tin greased and ready and the oven going at 180°C.
Naturally, the content of the bowl moves over to the cake tin.

Once managed, it goes into the oven for 50 minutes until it gets nicely browned.
By the way, this is now two cakes in a row, since my last post was about a cake as well. Should I rename to Baking Around the World?
When the cake is ready and you removed it from the oven, let it cool down a bit and then try your best to move it over to a plate without falling apart. I managed kind of.

After the cake was sitting safely on the plate, I simply couldn't resist to sprinkle some magic cinnamon-sugar on top.
I hope you enjoy the cake. If you have some nice clotted cream available, that would give it another boost. So ... go for it!
Otherwise, you may have the chance to get to Dorset and get a piece of Dorset Apple Cake in a nice tearoom (of course it will be without marzipan).

Near this place I know a nice tearoom. Whatsoever, there are many other nice things to see in Dorset along the Jurassic Coast and beyond. I want to come to an end of this post and leave you with some impressions of Dorset ...

Rocket, Ricotta and Chocolate ... Triple Feature Random Recipe

I have to make a confession. Yes, honestly, I have a problem ... it might even be serious.
It's not life-threatening ... at least not that I know.
To relief the tension a bit I have to say, it has to do with chocolate. I have been busy reading along in blog-world and the posts I read really make me worry. At least they could if I would give in to every urge of immediately running to the kitchen and reproduce the recipe I've just read about.
Well, in one incident I even just did that. It was one evening. I was sitting in front of the computer, feeling quite depressed actually. Therefore following this urge was not a curse at that point, but rather a blessing.
So to whom do I have to be grateful then? It's Choclette and her Chocolate Log Blog. She brought me this.

Apple ricotta cheesecake ... that was it that immediately caught my attention.
Somehow I failed to take some better pictures of it.
I still had some ricotta lingering in my fridge, so I had to go for it. Just lately a neighbour had told me I could take apples from their garden. So it was just perfect.
The recipe you find on the Chocolate Log Blog anyway. Everything went well. I even got a kind of ripple effect as you can glean from the picture. Right, well, there was one thing, I really couldn't cut it into individual pieces, but hey, I could just go for it and spoon it from the tin. After a day in the fridge, though, cutting into pieces was possible ... but I didn't care anymore.
Things are not all that bad. When I say bad, of course, I don't mean bad as in the sense of bad, but just bad. Hm, you know ... hips don't lie.
Why so? There was another lovely recipe from another lovely lady from another lovely blog. This recipe didn't contain any chocolate, but green leaves, fruits and some goats cheese.

On top of it, it was so simple it was put together in no time. What you see is what you get. I wish I could have that at other times in life as well (maybe at work).
Who helped this time?
It was Karen from Lavender and Lovage with her Fresh Fig and Goat's Cheese Salad with Walnuts. As you see on the picture, though, something must have gone wrong. Why I didn't use walnuts, I don't know. I have no problems with them. I even have a large amount of them at home.
That has to remain then another unsolved mystery.
Towards the end, things get dangerous again, but very very dangerous, indeed.
Because of this I like to link to the responsible person twice.
Let me get into detail.
That very person I am talking about is Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes. She got me with her Chocolate Tiffin. Why very very dangerous then?
If you have a look at the recipe, you will not fail to notice the usage of 400 g of chocolate.

That's what it looked like. I didn't have all dark chocolate available. This recipe nearly killed half of my choclate supplies (I had to stock up again today).
Just a few days before I tried that recipe. I was talking about cooking to a friend of mine, particularly about a kind of tiramisu I once did. What she was saying about it, didn't fit, but I think it would rather fit to this recipe, because there are certain similarities.
What is he talking about?
Well, there is a German recipe that is called Kalter Hund (cold dog), which is done with butter cookies and choclate. After I finished the chocolate tiffin recipe and had a bite of it later, it just reminded me of that.

Anyway, it tastes very lovely. So I need to be careful as nobody is nearby to help me with that. At least not now.
So far about all that. I still have to try an apple cake, a sea salted caramel cake, some mint cupcakes and some chocolate fondant with balsamic blueberries. Due to this I might be set for the month in the sweet department.
Wish me good luck ... or something like that!
Now we are nearly at the conclusion. This post is an entry for Bookmarked Recipes, the October edition.

It's a very special one, not only because of it being a triple feature, but also because it is kind of reciprocal ... you will figure it out. Or maybe you have to make a confession as well. Do you?

... and it is still burning!

I really don't know what is going on. What is this going to be? Garnachas! Have you heard about it before. This is a Mexican dish, usually eaten as an appetiser. I used to make them back then (whatever that is supposed to mean). Anyway, when you have read my past posts, I mentioned something about an old notebook and trying certain recipes when I was younger. Here goes another one. I did these garnachas once with a younger friend of mine. He was still going to school at that time and, of course, was living with his parents. They called these garnachas "Hu hus" or something like that, resembling the sound you would make with your mouth trying to cool down the heat.
Whatsoever, that was not the point I wanted to get to. Somehow it seems for the last few weeks, my "culinary life" is just passing by before me again. Whatever that is supposed to mean (oh oh).
Now it's time for chillies.

Garnachas with tomato-apple salsa

That is how we want it to look like, or similar. At least, this is the rough direction.
But how do we get there?

For the tortilla dough you need:
500 g flour
a pinch of salt
100 ml single cream
lukewarm water until the dough is dough

Mix all the ingredients together for the dough, but only enough water for it to be as it should be: smooth, elastic dough. So, time for workout again. We really should do this more often. Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes. That leaves you with all the time in the world to get your salsa ready. Well, you have only 30 minutes, but this should be enough, that is if you are not totally ... it should be sufficient time.

For the salsa you need:
1-2 red apples (as you like it)
250 g of tomatoes
one red chili (fresh or dried)
a small handful of mixed nuts
a bunch of chives
a bunch of coriander
juice of one lime
a good glug of olive oil
salt 


A salsa that is quite similar to this I found in the book "Jamie's America" (If you like you can have a look. Maybe you prefer his salsa. No worries!).
Remove the core from the apples and cut it into small cube like bits. The tomatoes want to be cut into small pieces as well. When talking about the chili the small pieces part applies as well ... and for the nuts and for the chives and for the coriander. Before throwing all these small pieces together, roast the nuts for a few minutes in a dry pan. You get a nice nutty - no not what you think - smell.
As I said mix the small bits and pieces together, add the juice of the lime and the olive oil and season with a bit of salt. Taste it! How is it? Maybe you can adjust it still with a bit more lime juice or salt.
Are the 30 minutes over yet? Then you can go on. We are getting closer.


Now you need:
200 g of feta cheese
one red onion, finely chopped
chili sauce
one extra lime


As for the chili sauce, you can buy it ready or you can try a recipe from the book "Jamie's America". That is what I did some time ago, so I knew I still had some nice chili sauce left for this recipe. Or still you may have another preferred recipe for it.
Divide your dough into, let's say, 16 small balls. Flatten them to about 0,5 cm and make them as round as you can/want. Then fry them from both sides, maybe four at the same time, in a large dry hot pan. They don't need to get totally brown and crispy - just a touch of it.
While that is happening you can pre-heat your oven to 180°C.
When you have finished with the frying, dip the blank garnachas in the chili sauce. If you don't like it THAT hot, just sprinkle a bit of the sauce on them.
Place the drenched garnachas on a baking tray layered with baking paper. Put some of the red onion and a bit of feta cheese on each one. Bake in the oven until the cheese has started to melt. This will take about 10 to 15 minutes. If you like to use other cheese, just feel free to do so. That may even go faster.
Once the melting is ready, remove the tray from the oven and serve the garnachas with some of the salsa on top and with a wedge of lime to it.

Dig in!

Honestly (I always do my best to be), the whole thing was quite hot (dried chillies bring more heat)!However, what do they say: "A chili a day keeps the doctor away!" (Or was it something else?!?)

... and it is still burning!

Cooking in season - rhubarb-apple tarts

There is a strange thing happening, when you go shopping. Some food you find has travelled a lot more then you would maybe in one month, or rather, things have travelled half the globe before they reach you. What things? Also food you would get around here, but are not in season at the moment.

While sitting in front of my computer and browsing the net, I came across this:

 

Why not use the things for cooking that are available locally and that are in season (for some occasions it might not be possible). It's good to think about this!
This is also in line with a cookbook I bought now already some time ago: Jamie at home. It also has some good information on growing things on your own.
Said and done. Inspired by that I got a rhubarb plant from a friend this year. It was already quite big. So it is possible to use some stalks from it already this year.

As you look at this picture, the stalk at the front right edge of the image is no more.

Little rhubarb-apple tarts
All you need for this are some rhubarb, apples, brown sugar, orange juice, and ready made tart shells or you go through the process of making your own shortcrust pastry shells. Well, I happened to have some ready tarts shells still left somewhere in my storage (it was about time to use them).
Peel, remove the core part of the apples and cut them in small pieces. Remove the ends of the rhubarb stalks and cut them into, well also small pieces. Then just put all the ingredients, apart from the tart shells of course, in a pot and cook a lovely little compote with it. You know when the time is right. I didn't see the pieces of rhubarb anymore.
Let the ready compote cool off a bit and put it on the tart shells.

What's left to say: Go for it!
So, don't forget to grab some rhubarb and have a nice cake, may it be small like these or even a big one. It was the first time I used rhubarb, but for sure not the last time ...