Milopitakia, greek mini apple pies or cookies

October, the month of apples!

That's why I decided to present you today a recipe that was missing from my blog and that I like a lot: milopitakia!

Milopitakia, in greek, means mini apple pies but they are actually more kind of apple-filled cookies to be more precise.

Whatever you call them, I am sure that you will like them once you taste them, so here it goes in order to have them for real at your place :)

They look gorgeous too, no?



Ingredients (for about 30 pieces):
Dough:
500 gr self-raising flour
1 cup of butter (cut in pieces) or softened margarine or oil (whatever you prefer or have)
1/2 cup of plain strained yogurt or white dry wine
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Filling:
4 baking/cooking apples (peeled & coarsely grated)
1 cup of walnuts (coarsely chopped)
2 spoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (as you like)
1/4 teaspoon of clove powder (optional)

Top:
Powdered sugar and cinnamon

Procedure:

Prepare the dough by kneading by hand softly the ingredients (flour, butter, salt, yogurt or wine).

Mix the filling ingredients in another bowl with a spoon.

Make 30 dough balls in the size of ping-pong balls and with your finger press in the middle to make a hole and add with a spoon some filling. Close the dough to cover the filling.

Finish in the same way all the dough.

Bake at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan for about 35 min.  Your apple pies/cookies are ready... Enjoy!

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Autumn is here!

I am not very active lately in this blog, but that doesn't mean that I am not cooking, though.
Autumn is a busy period for me, so please be patient for more dynamic posts :)
For the time being, just enjoy some photos of backstage while cooking...
The moto of the month, that can be adjusted to cooking, as basics are important, but so does creativity :

First, LEARN the RULES... 

then break them !

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Zucchini and feta tarte

Here's a simple, light and tasty tarte for summer dinners...


Ingredients
2 medium zucchinis grated
1 onion minced
salt, pepper
2 spoons of frying oil (e.g., sunflower oil)
3 eggs
50cl of milk
250 gr feta cheese (smashed)
100 gr hard cheese grated (here I have used italian provolone)
1 round ready-made puff pastry

Procedure

1. Peel off the zucchinis and grate them.
2. Fry slightly the grated zucchini with the onion until it is quite smooth and most of it's water is evaporated. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Beat the eggs, add all the rest of the ingredients.
4. Lay the puff pastry in an tarte recipient for the oven (butter it or use the special baking paper).
5. Empty the mix in the pastry and layer it with a spoon.
6. Bake at 180 degrees and fan for about 20min or until it gets a nice golden color.
7. Serve it with some tzatziki sauce and finish with a fresh fruits salad. Enjoy!

 

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Happy summer!

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Cherry clafoutis (clafoutis aux cerises in french)

Cherry clafoutis (clafoutis aux cerises in french) is a classic french dessert for summer that is pretty easy to make. It has actually fresh cherries in a rich custard that you can serve warm or at room temperature.
Traditional clafoutis is made with cherries that have still their pits that french say that make a difference in taste. I have used ready-made cherries that have already been pitted and preserved in a light syrup, though. It's so easy to make and so summerish that I could not resist to add it to my blog that time of the year! And if you are among the lucky ones that have a cherry tree, here's how to use your extra cherries :)

Happy & tasty summer !

Ingredients
150gr all-purpose flour
100gr sugar
3-4 eggs
50cl milk
pinch of salt
vanilla
50gr butter
700gr cherries

Procedure

1. Preheat the over at 170 degrees of Celsius and fan.
2. Beat eggs with sugar, add flour, salt, vanilla, milk and finally the soften butter.
3. Butter a round baking dish, add the cherries and pour the custard over the cherries.
4. Bake for about 50min or until it gets a nice golden color.  

Note: If it starts to get burned too fast, cover it with aluminum and continue. It is normal also if it wiggles a bit when finished baking, let it cool and it will setup. It will also inflate a bit, do not worry, it will deflate when cooled.

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Tyropita, the greek feta cheese pie!

Family was asking for tyropita, the Greek feta cheese pie, last week and searching to find the recipe in my blog I realized that it was missing! I had only the spanakotyropita recipe that is even better but more complicated. So, you can imagine the rest... had to take photos on top of cooking :)
I was extremely busy & tired and so was my daughter that I asked to take fast some photos, which explains the low quality of the result. But it's better than nothing,  no?
So, if you like feta cheese, try this recipe and you won't regret it :)
My only regret is that I had to leave immediately after so I tasted it much later at night when I came back... at least family was nice and had left me a few pieces !

Ingredients
250gr feta cheese (original, not imitations :)
250gr of various hard yellow cheeses that you prefer GRATED (here Gruyere and Comte)
4-5 eggs
500gr filo (special thin dough for greek pies)
200ml of milk
100ml extra virgin olive oil (of good quality)
salt, white pepper
sesame seeds (optional)


Procedure

In a bowl, smash the feta using a fork and add the other cheeses, salt and pepper and mix a bit.
In deep oven dish of 40x30cm that you buttered the bottom, add 3 layers of filo that you have sprinkled a bit of olive oil on each one before adding the net one. Then you continue to add layers of filo in the following way:

• add 2 every time in a way that each one covers half of the space in an accordion style,
• sprinkle all over some olive oil
• pour evenly all over some of the cheese mix
• add one layer of filo and sprinkle oil again on it 

Repeat the procedure until it's only left 3 layers of filo that you use to finally cover everything.

With a sharp knife then you cut in pieces 5x5cm all the surface. In a separate bowl, you stir the eggs and add the milk and stir once again. Pour the mixture evenly to the top and optionally decorate the top with sesame seeds.
Bake in the oven at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan for about 30min or until it gets a nice golden color. Enjoy!

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Truffade auvergnate (sort of :)

Sometime ago, I was honored to accompany my son's class to a field trip in Auvergne (a french region), more precisely in Cantal a department in south-central France, with its capital at Aurillac.
We spent a dreaming week in a farm surrounded by animals, warm-hearted people and a beautiful, green scenery thanks to the volcanoes that the region is known for.
One of the last dinners, we had the chance to try one of their typical dishes, the delicious "Truffade Auvergnate" which is a sort of a thick pancake made with sliced potatoes, garlic and cheese (more precisely the variety called "fresh tomme" or Cantal jeune). For more information, search the web, for example wikipedia. After some scooping on the web, I've found that there exists also a similar recipe, "The Aligot", but I have never tried it yet. Maybe the next time that I will visit the region :)
Cheese is one of the typical products there, with Cantal cheese (one of the oldest in France, from the time of Gauls) but also Saint- Nectaire and Salers.
Cantal cheese is a firm (semi-hard) cheese, made from raw or pasteurized cow's milk from the Salers breed. According to the time of aging, it can be found in three varieties:

• Cantal jeune (1-2 months aged)
• Cantal entre deux (2-6 months)
• Cantal vieux ( more than 6 months)

In the recipe that I will provide you today (easy but so tasty!), I have used Cantal entre deux, that was the only one that I could find easily (sorry Celian for not being too concentrated the day that you proposed me to buy some when we were there, but I can now admit that I have some intolerance and that kind of cheese it always scares me :) 
Here it goes ....

Ingredients
1/2 kg of waxy potatoes (I have used Agatha variety)
250gr tomme fraiche de Cantal (I have used Cantal entre deux) 
2 toes of garlic 
some oil
salt, pepper

Procedure

Peel the potatoes, slice them thinly and cook them in a big saucepan (I have used my wok) using some frying oil like sunflower's (instead of goose fat that was used traditionally) until they are tender.  Smash them slightly using a fork.
Add the sliced garlic and season with salt and pepper. 
Cover all over with sliced cheese. Normally, you cover and let the cheese melt and then mix well with a wooden spatula. Given that I have used a harder version of cheese, I decided to put it in the grill and mix when it was well melt. The final result should give a thick pastry, a bit different from my version that was still very tasty.
Serve immediately in the table with the saucepan and accompany with a fresh green salad and some slices of ham.  
Whole family agreed that it was a nice way to remember those beautiful days spent in Cantal, sitting around a tasty dish, one warm evening in our garden... Thanks CM1-CM2! (even for the cooking recipes book that I got thanks to your tombola which included also this recipe...)

       

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