Polish Apple Pie

I shared this recipe with Ms. Carol Cook as she was willing to make a Polish apple pie. The (adapted) recipe comes from the book 'Ciasta slodkie i wytrawne' by H. Lipinska & A. Wozniakowski.

Ingredients (yield = a 4lb cake):
 Crust
4 cups flour
1 cup powdered sugar
3 eggs
250g softened butter
1/4 cup half and half  (you can also try to use sour cream instead of half and half) 
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (Polish teaspoons are a bit smaller than here)
4 TBS grated vanilla biscuits
some butter to grease the tin +  some flour to flour the greased tin
1 TBS powdered sugar to sprinkle on the baked cake

Apple stuffing
3 lbs apples (more sour would be good)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 and 1/2 cups sugar

Procedure:
Make the crust
1. Mix the flour, baking powder and powdered sugar. Cut the butter into it.
2. Cream the egg yolks with powdered sugar, add vanilla and half and half.
3. Add the flour mix to #2. Knead it all to make smooth dough. 
4. Cover the dough with foil and cool in the fridge for about 1 hr.5. Divide the dough into two parts.  Roll out one part and put it into the greased and floured baking tin ( I use a round tin).
6. Brush the dough with the egg whites and sprinkle some grated vanilla biscuits on it. Prick the dough with a fork.

Apple filling: 
1. Peel the apples, remove the cores, cut the apples into pieces. 
2. Put the cut apples into a pot. Add 3 tablespoons of water. Cover an simmer the apples till they are soft and a bit mushy. Add sugar, simmer a bit more, uncovered. Add cinnamon.
3. Put the apple mixture on the cooled crust. Sprinkle the rest of the grated vanilla biscuits on it. 

4. Roll out the over half of the dough - cover the filling with it. Prick the top with a fork. 
5. Bake in a preheated oven (360F) for about 45 minutes - till it is golden but not too dark of course.
6. Cool the cake and sprinkle it with the powdered sugar.

Picture and cake by Ms. Carol Cook

 
 


 

Totally Decadent Cake

This delicious and light cake was made with the help of Black Forest Cake kit we had bought around Christmas. The box we got at Aldi's included: chocolate cake mix, cherry filling mix and cream powder mix. The products I had to add were: three eggs, whipping cream, milk and a can of pitted cherries + juice which was in the can. The procedure of making this dessert is quite time consuming even when using the kit: it took me about two hours to create this Schwarzwald Torte. But the result is great - the cake is light and tasty, not too sweet and it looks good too!

Maraschino cherries decorate the cake.

The torte: two layers of cake. I used two round, 9'' tins to bake them (baking time = 20 minutes).
The lower part is covered with the sweet cherry filling + whipped cream put onto it. The upper layer of the cake goes on  the creamy part. Next, the rest of the whipped cream + the flakes of grated dark chocolate go on the top and sides of the Black Forest Cake.
It all makes a really special and enjoyable  treat! Next time I will possibly try to make the cake from the scratch (have found a recipe which looks quite good and useful) unless I wait till the next holiday season, when Aldi stores will have the Black Forest Cake kit again.

A piece of decadent cake: lots of pleasure but low standards meaning a proper diet. :)

Winter Peach Dessert

This Winter Peach Cobbler is easy to make and not too sweet which, in my opinion, is an advantage.

What I used:

• Instead of 1 can sliced peaches with juice, I had a jar of peaches (halves) and simply sliced them;
• 1 cup flour;
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder;
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar;
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar - to sprinkle the top of the cobbler;
• 2 x 1/4 unsalted butter stick (1/2 altogether) - melted.

Baking tin: I used a round 9" tin.

Baking time: 50 minutes.

You can find the entire recipe here. I substituted self raising flower with all purpose flour + baking powder and it worked well. The dessert was quite tasty even without ice cream (as suggested in the picture on the recipe webpage).

Winter Peach Cobbler