An apple a day

To be honest, I prefer chocolate to fruits but when it comes to apples I completely understand why Eva took a risk with her place in paradise. I would have chosen the apple above that Adam guy too.

Apples are great to experiment with. Of course there´s nothing wrong with the standard apple pie but try to dip apple parts in a little melted chocolate. Let it harden for a few seconds and you can serve a completely different tea.

Or try my apple cake, click here for the recipe. 

I made one today and prepared a huge bowl of compote. 

Speaking of which: have you ever tried a variation of the sweet apple compote by using fresh green herbs? I recommend!

Ingredients:

1 kg of apples – goldreneits are the best, but if you dont mind some larger pieces you can practically use every kind of apple.

2 spoons of sugar

fresh thyme, rosemary and marjoram

Remove the skin from the apples.

Cut them into really small pieces.

Put the pieces into a pan and add the sugar.

Chop the herbs and add them to the apples.

Add some water or apple juice, make the whole lot boil then lower the fire and let simmer for a least an hour.

Let them cool down.

Serve the apples with thin sliced veal or pork chop or a not too strong cheese, like a provolone dolce.

Sweet variation:

1 kg of apples – goldreneits are the best, but if you dont mind some larger pieces you can practically use every kind of apple.

2 spoons of sugar

1 spoon of cinnamon

2 spoons of honey

Remove the skin from the apples and cut them into small pieces. Put everything into a pan add a little water, applejuice or calvados. Make it boil, then lower the fire and let simmer for at least one hour.

The sweet versions goes very well with goat cheese.  

Banana republic or monkey world?

I will give you nice way to get rid of a few bananas you forgot to eat. The cake has a special taste and goes very well with vanilla ice cream. The compote is very sweet and has only one disadvantage: you should use it immediately, for it turns brown while you´re still looking at it.

For the cake:

150 gr. flour

150 gr. sugar

150 gr. butter or margarine

3 eggs

2 – 3 bananas, mashed

a little cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease a cakepan and dust it with a little flour.

Beat the butter and the sugar and add the eggs one by one.

Add the flour to the batter little by little and continue beating until you have an equal, fluffy dough.

Mix the banana with the cinnamon. Mis the dough with the mashed bananas, use a wooden spoon. Mix very well.

Put the dough into the cakepan and bake it for about 45 minutes in the middle of the oven. Let it cool down.

Bananacompote:

3-4 bananas

lemon juice

1 full spoon of honey

4 spoons of (cane) sugar

cinnamon

Mash the bananas and sprinkle them with a little lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown immediately. Heat the mash with the sugar and the honey on low heat until the sugar is dissolved completely. Add a little cinnamon and let it cool down. Stir now and then.

Serve it immediately with the cake. 

Fresh apple cake

Another cake in the category fast and easy. Its taste is fresh and not too heavy.

Ingredients:

1 apple

30 gr. of white raisins

2 spoons of white rum, calvados or use water if you don´t like alcohol

150 gr of sifted flour

150 gr melted butter or margarine

150 gr. of sugar

3 eggs

Heat the oven to 180°

Soak the raisins in the rum/calvados/water and dry them carefully with a paper towel.

Peel the apple, remove the core and cut it into pieces. Mix with the raisins.

Beat the eggs and the sugar until they´re foamy, add the melted margarine and then add, little by little, the flour. Beat it for a few minutes until the batter is fluffy.

Carefully stir the apple/raisin mix through the batter.

Grease a baking dish and carefully put in the batter. Put it in the middle of the oven and bake for about 45 minutes. Let is cool well.

Suggestions:

Serve the cake with:

• whipped cream with some cinnamon in it (after an autumn dish)
• grape jelly
• pieces of melon with mint leaves.   
  
  
  
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Panna cotta with a red fruit icing

This is an easy and very fast desert that never fails and it fits in every menu.

Ingredients:

For the panna cotta:

200 ml. cream

50 gr. Sugar

1 sachet vanillasugar

1 gelatin sheet

Let the gelatin soak in cold water for about ten minutes. Make the cream with the sugar and vanillasugar boil (be careful because that happens very quickly).

Squeeze the gelatine and stir it through the cream. Leave it in the fridge for at least three hours.

Variations:

For a chocolate panna cotta: use 10 grams of cocoapowder instead of the vanillasugar.

For a coffee panna cotta: use 1 sachet cappucinopowder instead of the vanillasugar. Stir well, because it clumps rather easy.

These variations don´t match with the fruitsauce, but whipped cream or caramelsauce is very nice.

For the fruitsauce:

350 gr. red fruits

1 tablespoon lemonjuice

50 gr. sugar

2 tablespoons of jelly sugar

Mash the fruits with the sugar and the lemonjuice and rub it through a sieve to remove the seeds.

Add the jelly sugar and make it boil. Let it boil for a few seconds. Pour it through a sieve and then let it cool down.