Apples, apples everywhere - Apple Nut Turnovers, Apple Cider Syrup and Glace Apple Slices!!

Isn't that Glace apple slice a thing of beauty - I just saw the recipe for it by accident on Pinterest while I was oogling a recipe for something else and I realized I just had to make them - they were surprisingly easy, turned out just beautifully and taste like a slice of toffee apple - YUM. Propping up the glace delight is a delicious Apple and Nut Turnover - equally as good and delicious created from a recipe in Country Harvest by Linda Burgess and Rosamond Richardson - a simply lovely book full of cosy photos and excellently reliable recipes for the Autumn season.

 To make your turnovers you'll need to start with making your pastry first as you'll want to bob it in the fridge for at least an hour before you start baking.

Pate Brisee by Martha

This is good for 4 nice sized turnovers - this recipe doubles well.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups/5ozs of white flour - I also added 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg to the flour just for a little extra autumn flavour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 stick/4oz butter I always use salted, VERY cold

1/8 to 1/4 cup ice cold water

METHOD:

1. Sift the flour and add the sugar and blend.

2. Grate the butter into the flour.

3. Gently work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal or swish in a food processor to achieve the same.

4. Add some of the water and test to see if it comes together, if not keep adding water until the dough will squush into a non-sticky ball.

5. Put into the fridge to rest for at least one hour - or as long as you like.

Whilst the dough is chilling you can make the other component parts:

APPLE CIDER SYRUP - make lots of this it is really good on pretty much ANYTHING!

If you use 8fl ounces of apple cider (that would be juice in England not alcoholic cider) all you have to do is gently boil it down until there is only 4 fl ounces left - that's it! When it cools it will go syrupy - if it doesn't, depending on the water content of your juice, then just simmer it a bit more. Allow to cool.

FILLING FOR TURNOVERS - refer to this chart for the type of apples you want to use - I used Braeburns which turned a nice pink and didn't break down in cooking but if you want more filling in your turnover maybe you'll want to chose an apple that turns mushy.

12ozs of apples chopped into bite sized pieces - about 3 medium sized apples

1oz sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon - I'm not a big cinnamon girl but it seemed right in this recipe and this is a small amount

2oz toasted walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans or almonds chopped - I used walnuts.

 1 fl oz/1/8 cup water

1oz butter

4 tablespoons apple cider syrup

1. Cook the apples in the water along with the sugar and cinnamon until mushy if you are using mushy apples or nicely cooked if you are using non mushy, as below:

 2. Fold in the nuts and syrup and allow to cool.

STICKY TOFFEE APPLE SAUCE:

2 1/2oz brown sugar

 1 1/2 oz butter
2 tablespoons cream or half and half 

6 tablespoons apple cider syrup

1. Heat sugar, cream and butter together in a small pan until sugar has dissolved and allow to bubble for a minute or so.

2. Add the apple cider syrup and stir - keep warm but not hot.

GLACE APPLE SLICES - wee hee I love these - found the recipe here.

Here's my interpretation: Set oven at 350F and grease a baking sheet lightly with butter.

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

1 small apple sliced fine on a mandolin - I think I did my slices much thinner than in the MyRecipes recipe but they worked out well - also they don't mention it's hard to get a whole apple slice the way it looks in their picture - and if you do get a whole slice you aren't getting too many of them because they'll only come from the middle part of the apple - so don't be disappointed if most of your slices are just circles with no character. MyRecipes also didn't mention that you need to use a non mushy making apple as mentioned above so check your apples are sufficiently sturdy :)

1. Bring water and sugar to a boil.

2. Allow to boil gently for a couple of minutes.

3. Add a few apple slices and stir them around gently - watch them go transparent pretty quickly especially so if your slices are as thin as mine.

4. When they are transparent gingerly move them to the baking tray -

 - I found tongs were the best way to do this - flatten them out as best you can and bob into the oven for about 5 minutes to start - check how they are if they are starting to go golden they are ready - they actually went white again for me which confused me but when I took them out and put them on a cooling rack they went transparent again. You may have to play with this a little to get them right but you can put them in and out of the oven until they go crisp when cold. DO make sure you take them off the baking tray and put on a cooling rack whilst they are still pretty hot though or they'll stick. Don't throw away the apple simple syrup you have now made - there's always something you can do with it!

  Now to assemble your turnovers.

Set your oven to 350F.

You will need one beaten egg yolk.

Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out to a square about 12 x 12" and cut into four even squares:

Bob 2 tablespoons or so of the apple mix onto the square thus:

 Dab some of the beaten yolk along the 2 front edges and fold the pastry in half over the filling to form a triangle - press with a fork along the edges to press the top and bottom pastries together - you don't want any gaps or holes of the filling will ooze out whilst cooking. Now wash the top of the turnovers with more egg yolk and a goodly sprinkling of sugar:

Can you believe how yellow my egg yolk is - it's from Farmetta Farm - best eggs around!

 ...and into the oven with them for about 20 minutes until golden brown and piping hot.

 Allow to cool slightly, cover with the sticky toffee sauce and some of the apple mix if you have any leftover - decorate with a glace apple slice or two and off you go - these are SO GOOD!!!!!

HAPPY BAKING!!

If you make these please feel free to post on my Facebook page - I'd love to hear about it!

Here's an excellent apple usage chart from Pocket Change Gourmet and some more info on apple varieties HERE

Until quite recently I thought all apples were created equal and didn't know you used different varieties for different things - now I know!!

Rock Cakes - simple, sweet and quick

 

Thus called because you mound them in craggy peaks to bake and hope they stay that way. My Mum made these a lot when I was growing up in Manchester and I think I also remember being taught how to make them in Domestic Science class at school - they are pretty much a no fail delight - very easy and nigh on impossible to mess up even for a beginner baker. They taste to me how I wished scones tasted - sweeter and more cakey and they cry out for butter and either jam, honey, lemon curd or even Golden Syrup - they are a mish mash blend of biscuit/cookie/cake/scone and are such a nice treat with a cuppa.

The ingredients are simple:

 and the recipe I used is from "A Tale of 12 Kitchens" by Jake Tilson - family cooking in 4 countries, "every aspect has been created by artist and passionate cook Jake Tilson" - a fun and image filled book.

Pre heat the oven to 375F. Have a buttered baking sheet to hand.

THE INGREDIENTS:

As usual I give the ingredients in weights as you get a more reliable result :)

This recipe makes 8 medium sized cakes/buns

8oz white flour, unbleached preferably

5oz sugar preferably white

4oz/1 stick of butter (I always use salted Kate's but you can use whichever you prefer)

4oz sultanas/white raisins - I only had regular raisins so I used those.

1 large egg whisked with 2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon baking powder.

Pinch of salt

THE RECIPE:

1. Put flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl or the bowl of a food processor - chop butter in and either whizz in the machine or as I do because I love the process of baking - gently rub the butter into the flour with your hands until you get a mixture that looks like fine breadcrumbs thus:

 2. Add the raisins and stir to distribute evenly.

3. Stir in the egg/milk mix until the dough comes together.

4. Using a fork pile into craggy heaps onto a buttered baking sheet - 8 piles should do the trick. (You'll see below I only have 4 because I try out the recipe cut in half first in case it doesn't work - plus there are only 2 of us and if I always bake the whole amount we will always eat the whole amount :)

 5. Bake for about 12-15 minutes until golden brown

Mine spread quite a lot which I was worried about at first because they weren't looking rocky enough for me but they tasted so good I didn't care and I will make them again the very same way.

Do let me know if you make them and feel free to post pics of such on my Facebook page - HERE!!

HAPPY BAKING

Autumn's glow continues and I find a new friend.

In between torrential downpours, big blows and days of mist and mizzleness I managed to take these photographs of Autumn 2012 in and around Belfast, Maine. I just love the patterning of the leaves against the sky - perfect textile designs in the making.

Asters and Rose Hips

My new friend Bert the Porcupine chowing down on Blueberry Hill

Grove Cemetery, Belfast, Maine

“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!”

by Humbert Wolfe 

Autumn arrives right on cue - let the show begin!

I'm wondering what this Autumn/Fall will be like in terms of colour as the seasons thus far have been about 2-3 weeks ahead of normal but look, it's already off to a great start.

Some trees have small patches of colour but most are still all green and today the skies are as blue as blue can be - just gorgeous.

 And the asters/Michaelmas daisies continue their glowing show

 The Pee gee hydrangea flowers are turning ever more pink...

...and their resident spiders are spinning their webs ready for Hallowe'en

I don't know who this little guy is among the grape leaves but for the longest time I thought it was a bird scraucking out there - he has such a big voice for such a little frog but I love him.

There's lots of this on Blueberry Hill but I don't know what it is - the acid yellow against the maroon bark is impressive.

 Rowan berries on the Mountain Ash - this year they are not as plentiful - usually they produce very full, umbrella wands of berries.

...and my pink Clara Curtis chrysanthemum - usually these don't even get a chance to be photographed as the slugs and snails eagerly await their arrival - this year there have been loads upon loads of said slugs and snails - they must be full from eating all the strawberries, tomatoes and the like I have heard so many people mention.

HAPPY AUTUMN EVERYONE 

 I'll continue to photograph as the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness progresses :)

Apple and Mincemeat Frangipane Gallette - it's a goodie :))

Oh my this is a good one - it has a lovely crisp sour cream pastry shell and I did the filling two ways - as above with mincemeat - fresh, vegetarian mincemeat - frangipane and apples and also the next day, because I liked it so much I tried it with just the mincemeat and apples and added a sticky toffee sauce - I can't possible decide which I preferred so you might consider making both too - you could split the pastry amount given here in half and make two decent sized gallettes - that's how I did it.

A day or two ahead of actually making the gallette(s) you want to make the fresh mincemeat so it has time to meld and marry those lovely flavours - here's a wonderful one from David Lebovitz:

I am calling this ‘fresh’ mincemeat, meaning you don’t have to wait months for it to be ready as with your ordinary or garden variety mincemeat. This recipe is ready after one day and better after three - also this is a vegetarian variety so no shredding of suet which can be a little off putting to say the very least!!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup (135g) coarsely chopped raisins, dark or golden
½ cup candied peel…orange or lemon or both
¼ cup brandy but I have used used whiskey or red wine and I think you could safely use apple juice or orange juice if you don't want the alcohol.
2 teaspoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons sugar…again dark or light
1 teaspoon of cardomom
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
½ teaspoon of mace
(I differed my spices from David’s recipe which called for ½ teaspoon each ground cinnamon and nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon of cloves…I am not a fan of cloves as a flavouring and I think cardamom works really well with the lemon flavour)
1 grated crunchy apple…I use Pink Lady which is a big fave of mine.

This is really hard…mix everything together and put it in a jar. Allow to stand for one to three days, don‘t put in the fridge, the flavours marry better at room temp. This mincemeat is meant to be used quickly.

Now your mincemeat is ready on with move with the gallette!! Wee heeeee.....

Sour Cream Pastry - this is GOOD!!!! 

6oz/175g plain white flour

3oz/ 80g cold butter

7 tablespoons/1/3 cup sour cream 

2 tablespoon sugar

1. Mix the flour and sugar together.

2. Grate the cold butter into the flour and blend until you get nice even 'breadcrumbs' - if you are using a food processor pulse to get your nice breadcrumbs.

3. Put sour cream into the mix and blend until nice and smooth and pulled together - but don't overwork and allow the pastry to warm up - keep it nice and cold.

4. Bob the pastry into the fridge for at least an hour during which time make the filling(s).

Now the gallette fillings:

Frangipane Deliciousness:

2oz/50g butter softened

2oz/50g sugar

4oz/110g almonds toasted and cooled, then ground til fine in - I find best - a coffee grinder

2 medium eggs whisked

1/2 teaspoon almond essence/extract - if you can get Simply Organic - it's fantastic!!

1. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy .

2. Blend eggs into creamed butter and sugar until relatively smooth - it won't be that smooth by hand but maybe more so by food processor.

3. Blend in the ground almonds and almond essence/extract

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

 

Apples: 2 good sized apples - preferably dessert apples - sweet and crisp - slice evenly as you can and put into a bowl of cold water with a bit of lemon juice or vinegar to keep the apples from going brown. 

PUT YOUR GALLETTE TOGETHER:

1.Take the pastry from the fridge and roll out to a circle about 11" diameter - lift onto a baking sheet. Pick the pastry all over with a fork.

2. Dollop that lovely mincemeat into the centre of the pastry circle and smooth out to within a couple of inches of the edge as below:

 3. Now dollop the frangipane on top of the mincemeat and smooth out as below:

4. Arrange the apple slices as you wish - I tried to do a pretty circlet but got a bit messed up when trying to finish the circle - still it looked pretty good before it was cooked - just FYI I have made a few of these free form open rustic tarts and no matter how neat and tidy they go into the oven or how cold I get them before baking they never look the same when they come out - they become lobsided, uneven and sometimes runny because a little hole opens up in the pastry where you folded it - do not despair it will still be a thing of beauty to behold and after all it does for sure make it look homemade :)).
5. Fold the pastry up and over the filling as below and pinch together every couple of inches or so for it to hold together when baking.

5. Pop the whole thing back into the fridge for 1/2 hour during which time heat up the oven to 425F.

6. After half an hour bob the gallette into the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes until nice and evenly golden delicious delightful brown.

7. In the last 10 minutes of cooking warm a few tablespoons of apricot jam in a saucepan and keep warm until you take the gallette out of the oven.

7. As soon as you take it out of the oven spread the apricot jam all over the surface for a nice tang and bright shiny tart :)

ALTERNATE and just as GOOD GALLETTE with just mincemeat, shredded apples and toffee sauce.

The only changes you need to make:

1. Don't make the frangipane.

2. Shred the apples instead of slicing them.

3. Put apples on top of the mincemeat in the gallette.

4. Everything else is the same EXCEPT in the last 10 minutes of baking make this fantastic toffee sauce - which you can use on anything and everything you ever want - it is from a sticky toffee pudding recipe:

Sticky Toffee Topping:
2 1/2oz brown sugar...oops didn't figure that one out, I suppose a bit more than 1/4 cup
1 1/2 oz butter
2 tablespoons cream or half and half

1. Heat sugar, cream and butter together in a small pan until sugar has dissolved - let bubble gently for a couple of mintes - pour over gallette.

These are both SOOOOOO good - as I said before you can do one big one of EITHER recipe with the amount listed or two small different ones. Either way:

HAPPY BAKING - let me know how it goes and do post pics on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/PatriciaSheaDesigns

Eat the gallettes hot, warm or cold with cream or custard or ice cream - whichever way you choose you will be delighted :))