"Juicy" apple pie

Apples are a great ingredient when baking cakes, so find today one more way to enjoy them always with a cinnamon touch :)
Review with the occasion, all the other apple cakes of this blog like this Apple pie, or the apple cake with coconut crust and let me know which one you prefer more (given that you have baked them of course...).

Ingredients
250gr butter
1 cup of sugar
5 eggs
2 cups of self-raising flour
2-3 apples (depending how much you like them :)
Some extra sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle on apples




Procedure

Start by peeling the apples and cut them in thin slices inside a small bowl. Sprinkle them with sugar and cinnamon and mix them to go all over them.
Soften the butter for a few seconds in the microwave oven. Beat well the butter with all the rest of the ingredients with a mixer for a few minutes.

Empty in a 28cm round well-buttered cake tray or in 2 smaller like I have done here.

Cover the top with the apple slices as shown in the photos. When all surface is covered, use a spatula to push the apples inside the dough.

Bake in 170 degrees of Celsius and fan for about 30min or until a knife comes out proper enough :)
Enjoy.... 

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Greek Xmas almond cookies "kourambiedes"

I know... I know... it's too early for Christmas but it seems that this year everyone wants to have them much much earlier. Like my friend Evi that did already "melomakarona" (greek honey biscuits also for Xmas) and sent me photos (thanks!)
Actually it's thanks to her that I realized that I miss this recipe from my blog and I have a very good one ;) 
That means also that I will work late at night to catch up with my work grrrrr :(
Let's concentrate now... "Kourambiedes" are almond biscuits covered with icy sugar and are typical Christmas cookies in Greece. The traditional shape looks like half-moon but I tend to use various Christmas shapes so everyone can choose his favorite form :)  I slow like that family from exterminating everything :))))


Ingredients
500gr butter (good quality and of cow milk)
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of icy sugar (+ 1 cup of icy sugar for the topping)
2 vanilla flavor
1 baking powder
2 egg whites
1/4 of cup of olive oil
1/5 of cup of tsipouro or ouzo or brandy
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of white roasted and grated almonds
1,5 Kg of all purpose flour

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan as you will be baking 3-4 trays in total.
Mix in 2 separate bowls :
Mix 1=butter+oil+alcohol+eggs+sugars and
Mix 2=flour+baking+soda+vanilla (Do not put all of the flour from the beginning!)
Use the mixer for mix 1 and a spoon for mix 2. Once done, mix the 2 mixtures together with hands (very carefully and slowly) and add as much flour as needed to make a nice soft and silky dough. Do not work much the dough!

Time for play now :) Make the biscuits how ever you prefer (but about 2-3cm thick) and put them in trays for the oven (do not forget to put the special paper in the trays). Bake for about 10min or as much needed to get a light color (do not wait to get a golden color, it will be too late). If you use the oven fan, bake 2-3 trays in parallel and re-use the trays when done.

When biscuits are done, transfer them in a deeper tray and sprinkle with icy sugar on top while they are still hot in order to make the sugar stick on the them. If you have rose water, sprinkle first with this.
Share with your dearest people :))) 

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Fresh cranberries crunchy muffins

My program is very heavy this period, so I am not cooking and baking so much and when I do, I do not have time to describe it here... But I have discovered by chance (looking for something completely different) a blog recently that I liked and that I think that has the same philosophy with my blog. I am talking for the blog "Les recettes de Virginie".
So, I could not resist and woke up very very early this morning to make one of it's recipes to surprise my family for breakfast. I will share with you the result only in photos as I am telling you, no time for more :)

Ingredients
Crumble:
40gr of flour
30gr butter
cinnamon
100gr brown sugar

Solids:
230gr self-raising flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
120gr sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla
a pinch of salt

Liquids:
200ml of cream
4 spoonfuls of sunflower oil
2 eggs
200gr of fresh cranberries

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven at 200 degrees of Celsius and fan. 
2. In a small recipient mix with the fork the ingredients for the crumble.
3. Mix with a spoon the solid ingredients in a bowl. 
4. In a separate recipient, mix well the liquid ingredients. 
5. Mix the 2 parts. Do not overmix. 
6. Empty the mixture in a special muffin tray that you have added before the paper cups. They should take the space of up to 2/3 of each cup.
7. Add 5-6 cranberries to each one.
8. Cover with the special crumble mixture. 
9. Bake for about 25 min or until they have a nice golden color. You can do the knife test also :)

Enjoy, ideally, immediately after ....

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Cake pops!

I was resisting in falling into cake pops mania until ... one day I opened my door and dear John and his girlfriend came holding a bunch of cake pops in their hands ! And you can imagine the rest :)
Kids were crazy, and they kept asking me when I will do them again. So, we went and bought a silicone mold and sticks and here we are making them again and again. I continue to think that it's too much hassle but what the hell :) Let's share this mania with you, dear readers...

Ingredients (check also my cupcake recipes)
113gr of butter
113gr of sugar
113gr of self-raising flour
3 eggs
some cocoa powder (optionally, if you want a chocolate flavor)
Topping: 100gr of chocolate, some colorful decoration


Procedure

Start by mixing well the ingredients.
Pour in the silicone mold like in the photos and cover with the second part.
Bake at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan for about 20min.

Take the mold out and leave it to cool down. Uncover and take out the small cakes carefully.

Melt in a "bain-marie" the chocolate. Small tip: add a bit of olive oil and it will make it shiny! 
Once the chocolate is done, take a stick, dip the edge in the chocolate and stick it to a cake to turn it to a cake pop.
Do the same for all the cakes. Leave them to dry for a while.

Then, take one by one the cake pops and dip them in the chocolate. Decorate as you wish or check for ideas over the web and especially the youTube. Use a steady carton box that you have done holes before to hold the cake pops while they dry. If you are in a hurry, just put them in the fridge. If you are desperate, put them in the freezer :)))) We have done all of this !

One thing is sure, you will enjoy the result...
And if there is some left over chocolate, just dip in some cookies and indulge yourself and your dear ones :)

 

 

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"Tigania" or fried pork

"Tigania" is a fast and tasty way to prepare a starter for a nice dinner. Actually these starters in Greece we call them "mezes" and we can eat several starters like this instead of following the classic procedure of a dinner.
Once again, a Greek recipe that in old times, people were cooking in villages with meat coming from their own pigs and instead of olive oil, they were using the pork fat. Not so healthy, but soooo delicious! Even the modern version is very tasty, so do not hesitate to try it :)

Ingredients
700-1000 gr of pork tenderloin or whatever part you like most, cut in cubes
some lemon juice (my case) or white wine (depends on your style of cooking :) 
salt, pepper, oregano, lemon juice, olive oil
1-2 green peppers (my case) or leeks washed and cut in pieces (depends on what you have available :)

Procedure
Start by washing and cutting the meat and the vegetables.




Continue by boiling the meat with enough water that covers it in a low covered casserole. Leave it until almost all the water will be evaporated (about 30min).

 Continue by adding the vegetables and enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the casserole (about 1/2 of a cup).

Add salt, pepper and oregano and start frying the meat by stirring regularly.
Just a bit before the end, pour on top the lemon juice or the wine and cover for 1-2 min.
Take out of the fire the casserole and your dish is ready to be served!
Warm is the best :)

 

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"Karydopita" or moist walnut cake

Classic Greek cake, "karydopita", is a moist walnut cake that smells cinnamon and clove and is rich in walnuts. It's quite sweet, so adapt the recipe to your style but I will give here the one that is the typical that you will be served in a Greek house.


Ingredients
For the cake:
6 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of semolina
1 cup of grated walnuts
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of clove powder
For the syrup:
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of water
1 spoon of lemon juice
lemon zest
1 spoon of brandy


Procedure

Prepare the cake by beating for several minutes the eggs with the sugar until it gets quite thick.
Mix in a bowl the rest of the ingredients using a spoon and add them little by little to the egg-sugar mixture.

Mix slowly and pour in a well buttered rectangular deep oven dish (approx. 20x30cm).
Bake in fan at 180 degrees of Celsius for about 30min.

Prepare the syrup by boiling in a small casserole all the ingredients, apart from the brandy, for about 5min.
When done, take it out of the fire and let it cool a bit and then add the brandy and mix. 

When the cake is done, take it out and pour on it the syrop little by little.
Let it absorb well all the syrop and cool down.

You can decorate with a chocolate topping and grated walnuts like I did this time or serve with vanilla ice-cream.

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"Papoutsakia" or stuffed eggplants for the novice :)

Popular Greek recipe, perfect for the summer menu and very similar to moussaka : "papoutsakia"! The word literally translated means "little shoes" and opposite to shoes, it tastes and smells great :)

If you like moussaka, then you will love it also as it a bit easier and as it serves individually, it is great looking for a nice summer dinner among friends.


Ingredients
For the base:
5 nice round eggplants
For the filling:
500gr ground veal meat
1 minced onion
5 red tomatoes
some minced parsley
olive oil, salt, pepper 
For the topping cream:
1/2 lt of milk
5-6 spoonfuls of flour
salt, white pepper
2 spoonfuls of butter
2 beaten eggs
some grated yellow cheese (e.g., gruyere)

Procedure
You need to prepare 3 things:

1. the base that is actually fried halves of the eggplants,
2. a red meat sauce that looks like bolognese sauce
3. a thick white cream, sort of a "bechamel" sauce

Start by cutting the eggplants in half. With a knife, create a "hole" by cutting some of the inner part of each eggplant. Mince the parts that you will cut from each eggplant and keep them to add them to the meat sauce later on.
Fry the eggplants little by little in a saucepan with enough frying oil. Take them out to a dish with some kitchen paper to absorb the oil. When done, put them aside and prepare the meat sauce.

In a small casserole, fry the meat, the onion and the eggplant parts that you have cut from inside the eggplants with some olive oil. When done, add the minced tomatoes, salt, pepper, the parsley and 1 cup of water. Cover and leave the sauce to cook in medium fire for about 30 min. Put aside and prepare the white sauce.

In a small casserole, add the milk and the flour and stir well to dilute the flour with a hand mixer. Add salt and pepper. Continue to stir until it starts to thicken enough. Take out of the fire and add the butter and then the beaten eggs. Stir well all the time. Your sauce is ready!

Start now to construct the "papoutsakia". Put in a big deep oven dish tray the eggplants, fill them with the meat sauce using a spoon and cover them with the white sauce. Add on top some grated yellow cheese like "gruyere". Add also some water in the tray like 2-3cm high.
Bake in fan and 180 degrees of Celsius for about 30min or until they get a nice golden color on top.
Enjoy!

 

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Recipe reminder

Have you seen my recipe for a "quiche"?
I have done it recently and I though to remind you of this easy and tasty solution for a starter.
This version is with feta, tomatoes and ham cubes and some grated yellow cheese.
But you can use whatever you have in the fridge in general...
Especially for John that tried it and liked it :)

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Dolmadakia "yalantzi"

"Dolmadakia" are stuffed grape leaves and it is a very popular dish as it is very tasty and once you try it, you get addicted :)
You can find it in several countries and even at the supermarket in small cans.
I will share with you today one of the greek versions that is called "yalantzi" and it is the vegetarian version using rice.
I could not miss from this blog a traditional greek recipe like this one...

Ingredients
500gr vine leaves (fresh or canned)
500gr round rice
5-6 scallions, minced (incl. green part)
1 onion, chopped
dill and parsley, both chopped
1 1/2 cups of olive oil
3 lemons, the juice
salt, pepper
2-3 cups of boiled water

Procedure  

Prepare the ingredients, chop or mince onions, dill and parsley and extract the lemon juice.
Start by boiling in a small casserole salty water and adding the vine leaves for 2-3 min to soften. Drain with cold water and set aside.

Start preparing the filling. Fry slightly the onions and the scallions with some olive oil. Take out of the fire and add the rice, the dill and the parsley, half of the lemon juice, the salt and pepper.
Take one by one the leaves and put in the middle one teaspoon of the rice filling.

Roll like shown in the photos.

Put each roll ("dolmadaki") in a low casserole tightly next to each other.
When all rolls are done, add the boiling water to cover them, the olive oil, some salt and the rest of the lemon juice.
Cover with a plate and then the casserole cover. Cook in low fire for about 50min. In the middle, check for water.









Serve with tzatziki (shown below in the photo).

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Feta & dried tomatoes cake

I promised to give you the recipe of the mozzarella cake with feta and I always keep my promises :)
So, find today another version of this salty cake with a greek touch this time ...
Just replace the mozzarella with feta cheese and fresh tomatoes with dried tomatoes and add more flour so that in total will be about 250gr. Try it! 
See some photos from the preparation below...

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