Apple Cake with Cinnamon Topping

“Happiness quite unshared can scarcely 

 be called happiness; it has no taste.” 

Ingredients

• 1½ cups sugar
• ⅓ cup oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup buttermilk (you can sub milk+vinegar, or plain yogurt+milk)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2½ cups flour
• 1½ cups chopped apples 

For the topping

• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1,5 tablespoons butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 165C. Prepare the pan. Watch the video here. 
2. Mix ingredients in order given (except the last 3 ingredients for the topping).
3. Pour batter into the pan.
4. Combine last 3 ingredients to make a topping and sprinkle it evenly over the batter.
5. Bake for at least 45 minutes up to 1 hour. 
6. Serve it warm. 

What Do Chestnuts Taste Like?

Seed, raw or cooked - which one would you prefer? I love them roasted. 

Well, how would you describe the taste then? 

"A somewhat astringent taste raw, it improves considerably when cooked and is delicious baked with a floury texture and a flavour rather like sweet potatoes" they keep saying.  It sounds so ordinary, doesn't it? There must be some other adjectives to describe that taste but which ones?

A friend of mine, after much thought, decided that chestnut to him is the father he has been missing. I appreciated his ability to describe the taste so delicately. However, what concerns me more than his conscientiousness is the fact that he compared the chestnut taste to the lack of hope in his relation with his father. This has been constantly bothering me - what could it be that made him feel that way when he ate some well-roasted chestnuts? 

Until... until I came across Dr. Edward Bach's flower remedies today. All that time, I was wondering whether chestnuts contain some magical substance that exceptionally works on people and unlocks the doors to hope that could heal all the wounds of the past. Then, I read about how chestnut is used in Bach flower remedies - the keywords for prescribing it are 'Extreme mental anguish', Hopelessness' and 'Despair'. Let me quote Dr. Edward Bach:

“For those moments which happen to some people when the anguish is so great as to seem to be unbearable. When the mind or body feels as if it had borne to the uttermost limit of its endurance, and that now it must give way. When it seems there is nothing but destruction and annihilation left to face.”

It can't be a simple coincidence. It must be the very magical content that I've been tracing for weeks. I still do not know what exactly it is - starch, one of those various sugars, unsaturated fat, or even vitamin C it contains. Whatever it is, it is something to cheer up the souls in need of hope. Perhaps, Dr. Bach and his remedies are not so effective after all, who knows. However, when you feel hopeless despair, and you feel an intense sorrow and feel destroyed by it, as Dr. Bach indicated, roast some sweet chestnuts and eat them. They must help. Reassuring, isn't it?

The photograph below shows a sheet of vintage water slide decal made in Italy by Art Deco-Cals. I'd been keeping it since I got stuck with finding the right adjectives to describe the taste of chestnuts. I decided to post it here after I read Dr. Bach's interpretation of chestnuts' healing power. Please drop me a line, if you want the decal. I'll post it to you immediately. Even the decal of chestnuts might cheer you up. Who knows?

Pyhllo Tartlets with Pear and Cream Cheese

“The little boy nodded at the peony and the peony seemed to

 nod back. The little boy was neat, clean and pretty. The 

peony was unchaste, dishevelled as peonies must be, and at

 the height of its beauty.(...) Every hour is filled with such 

moments, big with significance for someone.” 

Ingredients

phyllo pastry

1 small egg

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

butter, melted

pears, ripe

cream cheese, 1-2 desert spoons for each tart shell

powdered sugar

ground cinnamon

Prep the sauce

Break the egg to medium bowl and add the milk and vegetable oil. Whisk until mixed well.

Assemble and bake the mini pyhllo tarts

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C.

Brush the melted butter into the tartlet shells. 

With a sharp knife cut layers of pyhllo into circles the same size of the bottom of the tart shells. 

Lay one pyhllo circle into the tart shells and brush the sauce onto it. 

Slice the pears very thinly and place them on the pyhllo layer.























Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

Lay two more circles and keep brushing the sauce onto every other of pastry.

Spread the cream cheese and keep layering the pyhllo circles until the shells are full. 

Top the tartlets with more pear slices. 

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon. 

Bake until golden brown on top.

Cool on a rack until warm and serve with more powdered sugar.

Spinach Pie with Feta

This colorful art illustration is from a 1969 publication. 

I simply love greens. 

They are green first of all. They make you feel you still hold the personal direct contact with the nature. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I'm even planning to grow some more greens in the garden next summer. Considering how comfortable and peaceful they make me feel, I should definitely start to spend much more time with them. 

Spinach is one of them. It's not my favourite but it's the one I happen to buy whenever I see some greens in the market place. Well, the last time I bought some, I tried to use it in such a way to make it look as friendly as it seems to me. Making a spinach-cheese pie sounded great and soon I found myself layering phyllos one after another. 

Everybody at home loved the pie accompanying it with some sour cream! The spinach got juicy and the phyllos got moist when cooked with the sauce! Yummy! Easy to make, easy to eat! It might work well as a quick dinner recipe along with a tomato salad! Bon appetite! 

Ingredients:

500 g spinach
1 kg yufka/phyllo
1 medium egg
1,5 cups milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
salt and black pepper
250 g feta, crushed 

Directions:

Step 1: Prep the spinach

De-rib the spinach, wash well, and let it drain on a kitchen towel (or some paper towels) for a few minutes, so that there’s no excess water on the leaves. Coarsely chop it, and set aside. Season it with salt and pepper. 

Step 2: Prep the sauce

Break the egg to medium bowl and add the milk and vegetable oil. Whisk until mixed well.

Step 3: Assemble the pie

Place a layer of sauce in a lightly greased ovenproof dish followed up by a layer of phyllo. Spread some spinach over the phyllo. After using half of the phyllos, spread the feta equally all over the layer. Repeat layering until all the sauce, spinach and phyllo have been used up. Finish with the sauce on top. 

Step 4: Bake the Pie

Bake for about 30 minutes at 180 C until the top is golden.

Carrot Cake with Chocolate Icing

 "Mum! Give me another carrot!" 

Carrot, 1984 Prints by Sophie Grandval

It all started with Milou's love of carrots. We began to buy carrots almost every other day. She devoured each one with such happiness that I'd never seen before. If you love carrots, I thought, you must love a carrot cake with chocolate icing too. The assumption soon led me to the kitchen and I ended up with a fabulous carrot cake. Here goes the recipe which requires nothing special but the ordinary ingredients you have in the fridge and drawers in your kitchen. 

Well, the inference I made turned out to be true. Not only Milou but seven more people (the colleagues in the office) enjoyed the cake to the full. The only addition to the next one will be more carrots and other spices such as ground ginger or nutmeg to make the cake even better!

If you love carrots, you love a carrot cake too.

 

Ingredients

 

For the cake

3 medium eggs, at room temperature

150 g caster sugar

150 ml sunflower oil, plus a little extra for the tin

150 ml milk, at room temperature

150g carrots, finely grated

100g walnuts, chopped finely

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

200g all-purpose flour (add more if the batter is too runny)

1tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon fine salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

For the Icing
100 g plain chocolate
100 ml double cream

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Grease and line a round cake tin with baking parchment.

3. Break the eggs into a bowl. Add the sugar and whisk until creamy.

4. Add the vegetable oil and milk and whisk again.

5. Stir in the grated carrots, chopped walnuts and the vanilla extract.

6. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

7. Add the wet carrot mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine, making sure there are no pockets of flour.

8. Spoon the cake batter into the lined tin and bake on the middle shelf for 45 minutes until the cake has risen and is golden-brown all over or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

9. Remove the cake from the oven and set aside in the tin to cool for 15 minutes, then turn the cake out and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

10. While the cake cools, make the icing.   

The Icing

Chop the chocolate. Heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over low heat until the chocolate melts. Do not boil. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk the mixture until smooth, glossy and thickened. Set aside to cool for 1-2 hours, or until thick enough to spread over the cake.

11. Spread the icing over the cake.  

 

If you like more chocolate icing, double the amounts for both the chocolate and the heavy cream. 

Chocolate Icing

If you love eating chocolate cakes and making chocolate cakes much more than eating them, you need two foolproof recipes: one for the cake and one for the chocolate icing. Well, for the chocolate icing all you need is some plain chocolate and and the same amount of double cream. Here are the directions about how to prepare it. Before you proceed to the directions for the chocolate icing, please keep in mind that the icing gets runnier as the temperature increases which means you should warm it for a few seconds if you need to pipe it. Otherwise, it gets thick enough to spread it on a slice of bread or muffin using a knife. 

Ingredients

200 g plain chocolate

200 ml double cream

Preparation

1. Chop the chocolate to make it easier to melt.

2. Heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat until the chocolate melts. Do not boil.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk the mixture until smooth, glossy and thickened. 

4. Set aside to cool for 1-2 hours, or until thick enough to spread over the cake.

Cornelian Cherries: Health Benefits

Cornelian cherries, with no known side effects or hazards, get their fabulous colour in mid summer and they can be eaten when the colour becomes dark red or maroon. You should be quicker than the birds because they often consume the berries in a very short time. 

• The berries are good for fever and various bowel complaints. 
• Since the fruit has astringent qualities, they are useful against cardiovascular diseases. 
• Cornelian cherries are also used to cure cholera.
• The flowers of the Cornelian cherry bushes are used to treat diarrhea.

Here is the nutrition fact chart for Cornelian cherries:

Name: Cornelian cherries	Amount: 250 ml pure juice
Calories	152
Total Fat	0 g
Cholesterol	0 mg
Sodium	13 mg
Potassium	530 mg
Total Carbohydrate	37 g
- Dietary Fiber	0 g
- Sugars	27 g
Protein	1 g

Cornelian Cherry Jam

 

 If I was one of those lucky animals living in the forest, Cornelian cherries would be on my list of favourite fruits, definitely. Their round shape and ruby colour simply impress me. 

Now, imagine that you loved Cornelian cherries as much as I do and one day got a handful of them as a gift. What would you do with the berries? Eat them up right away? Or keep them for later use? Well, I'd like to make a jar of jam and I did. This way, I could preserve the berries for a much longer time which makes it possible to prolong the joy of that fantastic taste.

Before you proceed to read the recipe, I'd like to note down that you might want to pit the cherries before you make the jam. Otherwise, you have to deal with the pits later on while you are enjoying the jam which might bother you a little. However, if/when you pit the cherries, their round shape might be damaged, which is something I'd like to see the least, and that's the reason why people usually make Cornelian cherry marmalade, not the jam. Once the cherries are pitted, you puree it to make marmalade. 

Here comes the recipe for the Cornelian cherry jam.

Ingredients:

2 cups ripe Cornelian cherries (washed and dried)
4 cups sugar
2 cups water
juice of 1 small lemon

Directions:

1. Put the berries in a medium size saucepan.
2. Add the sugar to cover the berries completely.
3. Let the berries rest in sugar overnight.
4. Put the saucepan with berries-sugar mixture over low heat. Add the water.
5. Boil the mixture. Stir occasionally until the berries are soft. Let it simmer until pink foam starts to form. Skim this off with a spoon.
6. Check if the syrup is getting thicker. Once you are satisfied with the thickness of the jam (after approximately 10 minutes), add the lemon juice. It preserves their bright ruby red color and prevents them from crystallizing. Simmer for three more minutes.  
7. Remove from heat.    
8. Skim the extra foam from the jam, stir the jam, and proceed to fill the sterilized jam jars. Fill the jars until they are about 1/2 cm from the top. Wipe the top of the jar clean and close with the lid immediately.