Autumn's glowing leaf canopy!

 One of my favourite things to do at this stunning time of year in Maine is to wander along the crinkling, leaf strewn lane beside our house and take pictures of the glowing leaf canopy at a certain time in the late afternoon when the sun is low the leaves are set afire.

 We have been so lucky with the weather these last couple of weeks - the temps are above normal, the skies a singing cerulean blue, the air dry and clear, even warm some days, and the leaves and trees are just beautiful, as ever - full of textile design inspiration!!

What is Autumn/Fall like where you are?

Later today I will have a lovely seasonal recipe for Apple and Pumpkin Upside Down Cake so check back soon - thanks, Patricia 

Autumn's tapestry

There's something so textiley about the tumult of wildflowers this time of the year, the fields are tumbled with starry, sprinkling beauty, like a milky way of flowers  - everywhere I look I see the colours of rich European tapestries.....and then there are the leaves, which are only just beginning to show their majesty thus:

Tomorrow is the last day in a glorious week of opalescent, glimmering skies, balmy wafting breezes and blissful fragrant days - I am going to drink it all in to my memory banks for the coming season of blizzards and ice.

Continental Apple Slice, Sable Biscuits and making my own Apple Cider Vinegar!!

I made this from these windfalls:

And what you may well ask is THIS...it's a Continental Apple Slice full of gooey sour cream deliciousness, windfall apples and raisins atop a biscuit/cookie crust, a recipe gleaned from "Entertaining with Cranks" cookbook - the recipe requires Digestive Biscuits but as I didn't have any on hand I made the great Sable recipe from Martha Stewart HERE - lovely, simple, easy crisp biscuits that explode with buttery sugary happiness in each crumbly bite, they are a regular in this household - great sandwiched with a bit of butter and dunked in a good hot cup of tea - but I digress!! - I noticed Martha's recipe says it makes 110 biscuits - I think that really must be an error as I get about 24 out of it. I actually made half this recipe for my small 7" round dessert. 

Look how neat and tidy these biscuits/cookies are:

Do I see a little leftover cookie dough up there - and how long do you think that lasted in this house...ha ha ha!!!

So to start the actual apple recipe I made a biscuit/cookie crust - you can easily substitute graham crackers for this crust if you'd like OR in retrospect I think the recipe would work just as well with a nice pate brisee dough as the base - HERE is that recipe also from Martha (I add double the sugar just fyi - and a half measure of this recipe would work for the recipe I'm making here)

For the cookie/biscuit base:

6ozs crushed sables, Digestives or graham crackers

2oz melted salted butter (the salt really works in a cookie crust)

1. Mix the crumbs and melted butter together well.

2. Line a 7" loose bottom pie pan with parchment/greaseproof paper and push biscuit/butter mix evenly onto the base - the parchment will help a LOT in getting the dessert out and stop leakage via the loose bottomed pan.

3. Pop in the fridge to cool and get firm.

While the crust is firming up start assembling the pie/slice filling:

INGREDIENTS:

2 medium sized juicy, sweet and a bit tart apples - mine come as they are off the trees out the back - bruises and all, of course I just cut out the bruises: peel, core and slice thinly

2 oz/ 1/3 cup packed raisins

10 fl ozs/1 cup of sour cream

2 egg yolks

2oz/ 1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon/1/2 teaspoon nutmeg or any combination of this you like

1/2oz/1 tablespoon butter

METHOD: Preheat oven to 400f

1. Put sliced apples and raisins in a pan with the 1/2oz of butter and cook gently until slightly soft but retaining their shape, be careful the apples don't stick as there won't be much moisture in the pan.

2. Remove base from fridge and cover with apples/raisins:

3. Beat together the sour cream, half of the sugar, egg yolks and spices and pour over the apples/raisins:

4. Put pie pan on a tray and into 400f oven for 15 minutes.

5. Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining sugar over the surface (with more nutmeg and or cinnamon if you like - I did) and return to the oven for about 20 minutes until the filling is puffed up, set and gloriously creme brullee looking like this:

6. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan then wait until a lot cooler before trying to slide off the parchment - I couldn't manage this so I left it on the parchment and pan bottom until the next day when it had firmed up enough to move.

The recipe says you can eat warm or cold - I tried it warm and removing a slice from the whole was a mess and it did taste good BUT today, one day later, the dessert has really set and was more DELICIOUS so if you can wait a day I would highly recommend it.

Yessirreeebobsyeruncle - that creme brulee-y type top is awfully nice!!! 

Are you ready to do the Continental?
 

FYI here is an excellent master weight - cups to ounces - chart from the fabulous KING ARTHUR website.

Here are some more pics of my apples, it's been a very good season - last year we didn't get ONE not one apple because there was a late frost that killed all the blossoms. I think this year has made up for it - yea!!! I love being able to walk a few yards from my house and find this bounty...so cool!!!

The deer will be happy this Autumn:

I've also been making my own apple cider vinegar from the cores and peels of the apples I've used for dessert making:

Who as a child used to play the game of trying to peel an apple in one go? I still do so with nearly every apple I peel - I drive myself nuts!

Just in case you're interested this is my fabric design and it's available here at Spoonflower

It's tasting pretty good so far - not as acidic as the bought variety but very much like a dry cider in flavour. Here's how you do it! It's ridiculously easy.

Well happy baking all - I have some more apple recipes I want to try soon - I had two epic fails last week but nevertheless I am not daunted - I will sally forth to unchartered apple delights.

And to finish a picture of sweet Eleanor asleep on the porch amidst the pink chrysanthemums - ah the joys of late summer!!! 

A simply elegant Wild Maine Blueberry Spongecake with Sticky Toffee Pudding Sauce!

You can see why I'm calling this sponge cake! I have adapted and added to a very simple recipe called "Huguenot Torte" from the book "Sundays at Moosewood restaurant" - I made the recipe to the letter first time around and then second time I amended it with the addition of one more egg white for volume, twice the amount of blueberries and nixed the pecans as I felt the pecans overwhelmed the taste and texture of the cake, with just blueberries the flavour really shone through - then I added the piece de resistance of Sticky Toffee Pudding Sauce, for what couldn't be improved with it's addition??

Herewith I give you my version with the alternative of pecans if you'd like to try it that way too:

Before you start the recipe do avail yourself of a small - 6" round - baking tin, butter it and then line it with parchment which you butter again - the first time I made the recipe I didn't do this (the book did not mention doing it so I thought it was not necessary) and it was very hard to manipulate the cake out of the pan - with the parchment it was easy peasy!!

HAVE ALL YOUR INGREDIENTS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE this helps infinitely with the volume achieved when whisking the eggs!

Preheat oven to 325F

INGREDIENTS: Makes 4 small servings

1 whole egg

1 egg white

4oz/1 cup of blueberries

(or if you want to try as the original recipe 2oz/ 1/2 cup blueberries and 2oz/ 1/2 cup toasted pecans broken into pieces)

2 1/2oz/scant 1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

2oz/1/2 cup white flour

a goodly grating of nutmeg

a pinch of salt

1. Whisk, whisk, whisk the whole egg and egg white together with great aplomb until it achieves great volume - I found this was helped by popping the bowl with the eggs into another larger bowl with a couple of inches of warm water in it....

2. Add the sugar bit by bit and whisk in between additions until when you lift the whisk out of the mix it leaves a marked trail thus:

 3. Sift baking powder, a pinch of salt, grated nutmeg and the flour together and then fold into the egg mix in three batches - be gentle and don't mix too much or you'll deflate the volume - don't worry if not all the dry ingredients aren't perfectly mixed through - it will work out fine!

4. Add the blueberries in one go and gently fold through.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan:

6. Bob into the oven and bake for about 40 minutes until it smells good and the top is nicely browned and set to the touch:

7. Leave in the pan for about 10 minutes then remove with the aid of the parchment, remove the parchment and leave on a cooling rack until completely cooled.

In the meantime make the 

STICKY TOFFEE SAUCE:

2 1/2oz/ heaped 1/4 cup brown sugar

 1 1/2 oz / 3 tablespoons salted butter

2 tablespoons cream or half and half

1. Put all three ingredients in a pan to melt together, mix and keep mixing whilst letting it bubble a couple of minutes until it gets a bit thick - allow to cool and then pour on top of the cake:

Now whip up a good 1/2 cup/4 fluid ounces of heavy/double cream sweetened with a tablespoon or so of sugar and dollop on top of your cake in a random but pretty mound:

Here's a picture of the nice crumbly surface of the cake which has the texture of a macaron:

This is the one I had a hard time removing from the pan when I didn't use parchment so it cracked a lot and below is a pic of the original pecan and blueberry version showing the inside texture, it was a gloomy day so I took the cake outside to photograph:

..and the better, in my humble opinion, version with more blueberries and no pecans:

and a close up of the lovely light texture:

I do hope you try this cake - it's ever so easy - there's so little in it for the size of cake it makes and it's really very lovely. I also tried it again yesterday and this time I used raisins - it wasn't as good as with the blueberries but it was still VERY good.

BTW the blue pattern you see in these photographs, my "Blue Rhapsody" can be purchased on any number of items at my CafePress shop HERE and also on fabric, wrapping paper, decals and wallpaper at my Spoonflower shop HERE - thanks!! 

HAPPY BAKING!! Let me know if you make it - Patricia

Easy, delicious, reliable, wonderful no knead bread recipe from King Arthur Flour!!

 Even though I made this myself, and admittedly it's not a British pudding/dessert, I have to admit it's some of the best bread I've ever tasted...seriously, it is GOOOOOOOD and so ridiculously easy - how could I be selfish and not share!

Thank you KING ARTHUR FLOUR for this fabulous recipe!!! 

You don't have to know about yeast, or proofing, or leavening or  rising - all you have to do is weigh and measure correctly and do a bit of simple timing -

AND THAT'S IT!!!

Here it is straight from the oven and waiting to be slathered with slabs of gorgeous Kate's Butter from Maine....

Here's the link to the recipe:

WHITE NO KNEAD BREAD

or

BROWN NO KNEAD BREAD

I do recommend doing both by weight and not volume as it's much more reliable that way - same recipe every time - no variations in how you fill your cups.

Look at the beautiful texture - and the bread is moist without being in any way soggy - the crust is crisp and browns beautifully - I use the white recipe to make 8 largish rolls as above. The bread also cuts fantastically WITHOUT any crumbs - bread crumbs drive me nuts - and it toasts like a dream!!!!

Of you pop and bake, bake, bake - let me know if you use this recipe and how it works for you -

HAPPY BAKING, Patricia