Apple Pie - Simplified

I love apple pie.... Really. To the point that large ones get eaten too fast to be healthy.

This weekend I had leftover puff pastry, and I hate wasting pastry. Nom nom nom pastry.

Simply roll and line a greased pie tin. Peel and slice 2 apples. I used Braeburn because I had them. Sprinkle with cinnamon and throw in 2 cloves. Cut pastry strips and form a lattice top. Roll the edges and bake for approx 15 minutes at 180 degrees C.

Wait a little. Or it will burn your entire face. Eat while warm.... I ate mine fore eating dinner.... Then I skipped dinner.

I think a simple peeled sliced apple works well, as the pie doesn't get too damp, yet has a good moist quality, without running the pastry. The pie doesn't need sugar in my opinion.

Amazing with custard or cream. Or both.


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Happy Day Biscuits

Tomorrow is the staff baking competition at school.  The competition is fierce, and I may never live down the "Cake in a box" incident of 2003.  So, I have to go all out.  Last year when we did Cakes, I made a five layer rainbow cake with 2 layers of icing.

This year I was planning on making fortune cookies.   Actually, I did make fortune cookies, but they were misfortunes really, and I decided not to enter them.

This left me with the issue of an afternoon to get sorted, and no time to cool or ice anything.... so....

The gears went whirring, and this is what we came up with- Happy Face Biscuits. They were made from a basic refrigerator biscuit dough, with some split off and coloured with cocoa powder.

With the light dough, roll out flat onto cling film, to about 5mm think. 

Do the same with the dark section.  I found this one much harder to roll, because it was less moist, given the added cocoa powder.

Roll the light dough up from the narrow side.  After a few rotations, take a strip of the dark (rolled into a 5mm diametre tube) and place it on the dough, roll over the dough a small way and add another strip the same.  This creates the eyes.  Roll around the circle a little further.  Add a 2 cm wide strip of dark dough and roll for the smile.

It sounds WAY harder than it is.....

You will end up with a long tube of dough, which needs chilling for a few hours in the refrigerator.  Wrap tightly in cling fim.

Then cut the dough into 5mm discs, and pop in the oven.

Super cute. 

Award winning?  Perhaps not... but at least no one can say I didn't put my own mark on a classic biscuit!

Wordless Wednesday: My Favourite Cookies

So, what's going on???

It's been busy around here in the last week.  Busy in a good way.

The garden is back in shape after the jaunt to New Caledonia.  I'm not sure why all the berries decided to stop growing while we were away, but methinks the sister who was meant to do the watering probably forgot.  The lettuce went to seed, the peas turned to straw, the berries stopped fruiting and all the roses needed trimming.

But, we are back on track.  The cucumbers are doing better than ever, we are about to be inundated with tomatoes, the radishes are almost done, the chili's are growing faster than I can harvest them (I think this would be a brilliant cash crop if we didn't eat them all on a yearly basis!).  Yesterday I planted more peas, lettuce and celery.

Grapes, growing nicely, looking forward to them ripening

Cucumber!

And in the category of cooking.... the garden has been great.  I made fresh spag bol the other night using only lamb mince from a friends farm and things from the garden.  I stopped sort at making my own pasta, because being without a pasta machine means that I stubbornly make it by hand.... which is labourious and not so attractive afterwards. 

On the sweet and tasty front, I've been trying to create the perfect apricot ball.  After reading all my recipe books, which is no small feet, and checking out internet recipes, I tried the most popular one (which had condensed milk, cocunut, apricot and caster sugar.)  This was too sweet, and too coconutty for me.  I tried a version with malt biscuits broken in, but were still too sweet and cocnutty.  But, I think that I shall have the perfect apricot ball recipe by the end of the weekend.  I was going to upload a picture, but.... I kinda ate them all before photographing..... :D

With school back in 2 weeks, I have just a fortnight to get all sorted for the mad-morning rush!  So, after sorting out my bento cupboard, again, I went and bought a whole load of plastic containers for storing my cups, mini-cutters, picks, etc.  Tomorrow's task is to sort of the drawer.......... which is bulging at the seams.  And what happens to all the bento bands?  I seem to lose them.  But, I have a plan, which I will post out to all my readers once I have sorted out.

I do have a question for my readers...... I have LOADS of zucchini/courgettes.  We are now at the stage that we are sick of eating them.... what recipes or ideas do you have for using them?  I've been making lots of vegie fritters, grating them into dishes and generally trying to think of something fun to do.  What do you do with them?

Mini-Bagels.... nom nom nom.

Well, Bagels are stupidly expensive, but I loves them so..... when I have time (or more like when I have LOADS to do but am avoiding it all) I make my own.  Here is my recipe for mini-bagels- adapted from a cookbook I have, so that the bagels can fit in a bento.

Mini-bagels

Ingredients:
- 2t sugar
- 1 1/2 c warm water
- 3t active yeast (not the baking kind)
- 4c flour
- 1t salt

- 1 egg and water for the glaze

- 3/4 cup sugar and 2 jug-fulls of boiling water for dunking the bagels in

Add the sugar and the yeast to the water, and cover with cling wrap.  I do this to keep nasties out (like beagle fur) and all the warmth in.  Let it get all fluffy.... and frothy.  This will double the liquidy stuff in size- and then some- so make sure to use a large container!

See......  I like to use a 1 litre jug because it makes the pouring easier in the next bit.

In another bowl, sift the flour and salt.  Add the frothy yeasty liquid.  Kneed into a dough and make a large ball.

This is when today I decided to make 3 types.  I left just over half as plain, about a 1/3rd as cinnamon and currents, and the last wee bit as pumpkin seed and paprika.  Basically I just made a ball, flattened it a bit, sprinkled the ingredients on top of the flattened ball.... and kneeded them all in.

There's the big wad of plain, medium wad of cinnamon and small wad of pumpkin seed.  Let the dough sit and double in size.  I usually just do some dishes at this point....

When bigger, start boiling the jug and get a large pot ready to boil water on the stove.  Throw the 3/4 cup of sugar in the pot, and boiled water to speed things up.... have the pot blasting away.

Roll the bagels into balls... and place on a rack.  They will keep expanding somewhat, but it saves time doing it this way.  I tend to leave the hole out of the bagel as the hole is just annoying!  I always end up covered in fillings that have escaped.

Drop the bagels with a slotted spoon into the boiling water for like 30 seconds, rolling them over every 10 or so seconds.  Please ignore my shocking temporary stock pot.... my sister borrowed my lovely one, and somehow managed to break the handles off of it.... so this budget model that burns with anything thicker than water is just tying me over until I find a nice one I like.  Take the bagels out after 30 or so seconds and place on the cooling rack.

Glaze the bagels with an egg wash (whisked water and egg) and give the left over egg-wash to the eagerly awaiting beagles.

Throw them on a baking tray (I use baking paper because I don't like the sticking or the clean-up) and bake for like 20ish minutes at 200 degrees C..... or until they are golden brown.  I don't like an over cooked bagel as I will toast them before eating anyway.

Voila!  Mini bagels ready to go.... or maxi bagels... whatever size you like really.  I like them to be different sizes, so that they look homemade.... and then I can brag about my kitchen exploits... :D