Apfelkuchen - Tartes au pommes - Apple Cakes

As promised to some kind folk, here are my preferred recipes for apple cakes. They are all different and easy to make and so far, have always got nice compliments.

I do apologize for any spelling mistakes for word errors (the original recipes are in French or German) . I believe you will be able to figure it all out :-). If not, just leave a message for more details.

Are you ready? Then enjoy!

Normandy Apple Cake

This is a true insider recipe and has been made times and times. Really delicious.
As it contains Calvados, it might not be appropriate for kids.

What you need:
400 g flour
200 g sugar
200 g butter (in flakes)
2 eggs
2 x 8 g vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 - 5 apples, sour
5 tablespoons of Calvados

How to do it:
Start with peeling the apples and cut in slices. Put these slices in a bowl and sprinkle the Calvados over them. Cover with a lid and keep aside.
Mix a dough with all the ingredients (mix baking powder into the flour) and add at the end the Calvados from where the apples had soaked. Cover the round baking tray with 2/3 of the pastry, put the (nicely smelling) apples on and cover with the remaining dough over the apples. It will take 45 minutes in the oven at 170° C. If you are not sure that the dough has baked enough, make the test with a wooden stick (like a toothpick)- if there remains some dough on the stick , it needs more baking. When cold, cover it with icing sugar.

Picture shows before the lid of pastry is put on.

Wiener Apfelstrudel
A classical - delicious still warm or cold, with single cream or custard - a yummee experience

What you need:
175 g flour
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
5-6 tablespoons of water
30 g melted butter or margarine
1 kg apples (sour)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
75 g sugar
75 g currants (sultanas)
50 g crushed almonds
100 g melted butter or margarine
2 tablespoons of finely crushed breadcrumbs
icing sugar

How to do it:
Melt 30 g of butter or margarine.
Mix flour, salt, egg yolk, water, add the melted fat in a bowl until it is a nice glossy, smooth and shiny dough.
Melt then the remaining 100 g margarine. Brush the dough with a coat of butter or margarine. Cover the bowl and let it rest in the warm oven.

Peel apples and grate them. Mix them with the cinnamon, sugar, sultanas and almonds. (As EG cannot have them, we leave the sultanas out).

Now with a rolling pin roll out the pastry on a kitchen towel which you have sprinkled with flour. You must do it as long until it is very thin and you can see the fabric through your pastry.

Now you brush the pastry with melted butter and sprinkle the breadcrumbs over it. (This will avoid the pastry to get too wet from the apple filling). Pour the apple filling evenly over the pastry but leave the top bit of the pastry free and wrap the sides by 2 cm.

With the help of the towel, roll the strudel (not too tight) so that it looks like a big roll. The ends should -with the help of some fat - get glued so that everything is closed and nothing of the apple mixture can run out during the baking. Now comes the difficult bit to get the strudel on to the - with baking paper covered - baking tray.

Once safely on it, brush it with margarine and put it into the well heated 200° C oven. During the ca 30 minutes of baking time, the strudel needs to get more brushes of margarine so that it gets a crust - all margarine should have been used at the end of the baking.
Sprinkle with icing sugar and eat it warm or cold with either whipped cream or custard.



Tarte aux pommes "Paysanne"
This is funnily called "farmer's apple tart" but it could win an award for its delicacy.

What you need:
fat and breadcrumbs for the round cake tray
100 g and 1 tablespoon of butter
150 g + 50 g + 1-2 tablespoon sugar
salt
grated lemon peel -from non treated lemon - and 3 table spoons of its juice
5 eggs
50 g and 75 g crème double - this is similar to clotted cream but has less fat than mascarpone
150 g flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 kg apples (sour)
1 x 8 g vanilla sugar
30 g apricot jam
3 tablespoons of flaked almonds

How to do it:
1) Butter a cake tin and sprinkle it with breadcrumbs
Mix 100 g butter with 150 g of sugar and a pinch of salt with the lemon peel.
Add one by one two eggs and 50 g of crème double (clotted cream). Mix flour with baking powder and whisk it under the dough. Smear it into the tray.
2) Peel the apples, slice and grate them. If ever some juice has built up, let the juice drip off. Mix with the lemon juice.
Now mix 75 g of crème double, 3 eggs, 50 g sugar and vanilla sugar. Then add the apple mixture and put over the pastry. Sprinkle with 1-2 tablespoons of sugar and bake in the pre-warmed oven at 200° C for 30-35 minutes.
3) Warm up the apricot jam with 1 tablespoon of butter and (if there are clumps, smear it through a sieve), brush it over the cake and let it bake another 10 minutes at the same temperature. Let it cool.
4) Roast the almond flakes without fat and let them cool. Sprinkle over the cake and add some icing sugar.
Even more tasty with some whipped cream.

Japonais-Apple Tart

In this case, it has nothing to do with a Japanese but has got its name because the cake is covered with some kind of meringue which is called Japonais. Meringue is not everybody's cup of tea but this is a delicious variation for an apple tart.

What you need:

Fat and flour for the baking tray750 g apples (sour)3 tablespoons of lemon juice 5 eggs
150 g butter or margarine2 x 8 g vanilla sugar175 g + 150 g sugarsalt250 g flour2 teaspoons of baking powder
100 g single cream150 g ground almonds
50 g dark chocolate
2 tablespoons of crushed almonds
1 small freezing bag

How to do it:

1) smear fat into the baking tray and dust it with flour.Peel apples, cut in thin slices and add immediately the lemon juice to prevent them of going brown
2) Separate 3 eggs. Mix (in the machine) the fat, 175 g sugar, 1 vanilla sugar,a pinch of salt 125 g until creamy. Add 2 entire eggs and 3 yolks . Mix flour and baking powder and add to the dough by alternating with the single cream. Then smear the dough into the tray. Cover with the apples and bake in the oven at 175° C for ca. 30 minutes.
3) Japonais: whisk until stiff 3 egg whites with a pinch of salt, add at the end 150 g of sugar and 1 vanilla sugar. Fold in the ground almond
4) Get the cake out of the oven and cover it with the Japonais. Sprinkle it with the crushed almonds. Let it bake another 20 minutes at same temperature. Let it cool out.
5) Crush the chocolate and put it in the freezing bag. Put it in its bag into hot (not boiling) water until melted. Cut off a wee bit from one corner of the bag. Squirt the chocolate in lines on the tart and let it dry.

Sorry, no photo handy.


Glazed Apple-Cheesecake

Note: not dry at all, this is a delightful variation of apple cake

What you need:

Fat for the baking tray

1.75 kg apples

juice from one lemon

125 g + 150 g butter

100 g + 100 g sugar

2 packs vanilla sugar

salt

4 eggs

200 g flour

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1-2 tablespoons milk

500 g curd (curd cheese, low fat version)

1 pack of pudding powder (custard powder) vanilla taste - quantity for 1/2 l milk

ca. 250 g apricot jam

How to do it:

1) fat the baking tray peel apples, make thin slices and add immediately the lemon juice
2) 125 g butter, 100 g sugar and 1 vanilla sugar and a wee bit of salt are gently mixed. 2 eggs are added, then mix flour and baking powder and add it with the milk into the batter.
3) separate 2 eggs. Mix 150 g butter with 100 g sugar and vanilla sugar. Add 2 egg yolks, the curd and the pudding powder. Mix the 2 egg whites until stiff and add to the curd mixture.
4) Put the dough evenly onto the tray. Coat it with half of the apple slices. Add the curd mixture evenly over the dough. Then add the other half of apples. Put into the pre-heated oven at 200° C (or 175°C air circulating or gas level 3) on the lower oven rail and bake for 45 minutes.
5) heat the jam and smear it through a sieve. Put on the hot cake. Continue the baking for another 5 minutes at the same temperature.Try to let it get cool before tasting.

This is the pie tray version because I cannot find the original photo anymore - the above recipe is for a rectangular baking tray.

I would be delighted to get some feedback once you have tried it out.

The Armchair Travel

Life is great! One thing leads to another and suddenly I find myself totally unforeseen somewhere I have never been before. And I am thankful to live in this century with all its possibilities of fast travelling.

In this case, it all starts with a friend's proposal to buy his (almost) new TV. Some room needs to be made for that. But then, we need a make-over of the place. And as we do things often quite in depth, suddenly the project is huge. And it involves new furniture. Ok, I shall have a look on the internet, if we can make another lucky find. And, unbelievable but true, I find an item and get it! There must be a coincidence that I have become a member of the armchair travellers ;-) suddenly part of it for real! Because this nice, comfy chair is to be picked up from somewhere in the middle of the UK.

As we have nobody near to keep the house, we cannot stay away from the farm for too long. Kind neighbours are willing to look after the animals for a day. There are overnight ferries and finally, we book for a return ferry within the same day for the fabulous amount of 28€/for both of us.

Leaving home at 22.00 h and being back within 29 hours and 1450 km later. We can sleep when we are pushing up the daisies :-))).

We arrive on our preferred island somewhere in the early morning hours, have a quick nap for 2 hours in order to hit the road again direction Shropshire. Initially, we wanted to go through Bridgnorth but my wish to visit Ludlow is realised, as well. In these early hours, it is a pleasure to travel through the UK, the M25 is clear and further onward the traffic is not bad. We drive through that wonderful countryside, autumn at its best, fantastic colours and a gentle sun escorts us all the time. We arrive in Ludlow in the early morning, the shops are opening and I am totally happy to see that all my expectations are fullfilled. What a lovely town!

We love to study the house adverts in the windows and chose a second residence - dream on...

Time must have stand still here

Typical Ironmonger and inside it was quite busy!

Only lovely features, dainty house fronts, nicely displayed shop windows, the market with all its stands.

But the best is often reserved for the last: The family butcher's shop with fresh game!!!


After having done plenty of good to Ludlow's economy, we went to Bridgnorth for to have fish & chips.

I love the river Severn.

And finally it was time to head towards Walsall for to give this one a new home:

When we arrived back to Dover, having lost an hour around Birmingham and another one before the Dartmoor Bridge, we were lucky to catch our ferry on the very last minute. Fortunately, the man from security check who wanted to inspect our car, gave up after short... I wonder why? Eventually we arrived home safe a bit tired but happy. After a good 4 h sleep in the own bed, EG left for work as usual.

The chair has been immediately adopted by the wee cat -

will we ever have a chance to enjoy it ourselves?

Summer Memories N° 3 - lune de miel (4)

Une visite en Normandie sans voir la célèbre plage de Deauville? Impensable! C'est vrai qu'elle est belle et on se rapelle de suite de ce vieux film "un homme et une femme".
One cannot visit the Normandy without passing at Deauville. And I was not disappointed.

After that, we arrived in Beuvron-en-Auge where we stayed for the remaining two nights.

Après celà nous arrivions à Beuvron-en-Auge où nous restions pour les deux dernières nuits.

The restaurant Le Pavé d'Auge is highly recommended! It needs previous booking.

L'auberge le Pavé d'Auge est à recommander! Il faudrait réserver au préalable.

http://www.pavedauge.com/

Outside - de l'extérieur

Inside - de l'intérieur

One of our starters was "rillette de truite". I never had such a delicacy before. I found this recipe on the internet, it is really not difficult to to realise and nearly as tasty.

http://www.leguidedesconnaisseurs.be/article889.html

Une de nos entrées, rillette de truite, m'est bien resté en mémoire. Voici la recette que j'ai trouvé sur le net, vraiment facile et délicieuse.

The small village of Beuvron is really a cute place and lovely to visit.
Le petit village de Beuvron vaut la peine d'être visité.



My wish list had a visit to "Les Jardins du Pays d'Auge" in Cambremer
"Les Jardins du Pays d'Auge" à Cambremer était sur ma liste et même la gentille dame dans notre gîte nous recommandait une visite et leurs galettes!

The garden is situated around a farm of the 17th century in a 7 acre site. There are themed gardens to visit, unusual objects to see, a museum of old tools and various half-timbered buildings to admire. It was a really special visit.
Les jardins se situent autour d'une ferme du 17ème siècle sur un site de 3 hectares. Il y a des jardins à thème à découvrir, des objets insolites, un musée d'outils anciens et divers bâtiments en colombages donnent à ce lieu une atmosphère particulière.




Fancy joining us for the visit?
Vous nous joignez pour la visite?


Here we go!

The garden of the sun - Le jardin du soleil



The garden of the moon - Le jardin de la lune

The dove house and donkey shelter - le pigeonnier et l'abri des ânes




After that, we just slendered from one discovery to the next.
Après celà, nous nous baladions juste d'une revélation à l'autre.

The climate is obviously good for those hydrangeas.

Les hortenses se plaisent dans ce climat.

The museum - le musée






Topiary section - les topiaires

The water garden - le jardin d'eau

Unfortunately, my Lumix is not good at blue tones but I must show you this surprising mixture of blues from the purple garden.

Malheureusement, ma petite Lumix ne prend pas bien les tons bleus, mais je dois vous montrer ce mélange dans le jardin pourpre.

Verbena bonariensis, Agapanthus, I never can remember the real name of this one, I call it Perestroika - but it's Perovskia ;-), then Echinops and blue flowering ground covers (Veronica?).

Oh, a familiar name! Dawyck. This is the Scottish garden we visited in June!
Même un nom connu: Dawyck! C'est le jardin en Ecosse que nous visitions en juin!

After all that we had to try those famous pancakes! With cider! And you can imagine that I had to taste the apple sorbet with Calvados!

Après tout celà, on avait besoin d'essayer ces crêpes ou plutôt des galettes. Avec du cidre! Et bien sûr, le sorbet au Calvados!

I hope you enjoyed this visit as much as we did. If one day you can visit this garden in real, then do it!

J'espère que vous avez aimé cette visite. Si vous pouvez la faire en réel, alors faites-le!

A bientôt!

Impressions from Liège/Celles/Tournai

The best weekends are definetely those which are shared with friends. My dear friend from Hamburg came to spend some days in Chocolate Country. The weather was warm and sunny and felt still like summer. As she had several questions from people being intrigued why one wants to visit Belgium, I had to give it all to make her stay remarkable, hadn't I?

First we had a go at the fleemarket in Liège - St. Pholien. It is held every Friday morning and when the weather is nice, it is a really lovely promenade under the huge trees. Then you can retrieve why Liège is named "Little Paris". Our "la Seine" is "la Meuse" and we have several bridges which were empathised after bridges over the Seine in Paris. Also the architecture of the rows of houses in the city do remember those in Paris. And Liège has also a very ancient history.

The items on the photograph below were the treasures I came home with. My friend had found - amongst other wee bits - a "deer caller", a long brass horn with a kind of funnel at the end. The Frenchman who sold it, found, it could have a multi-use and tried to give us a noise sample... we wondered if the deer was not more likely to run away with that noise. But, perhaps the husband might be the right victim and follow, after a bit of training, this call to come to dinner? I hope we get a feedback...or this metal thing might just get a place in her garden, upside down?

Afterwards we visited the new station of Liège which had been inaugurated just a week before. In reality it is even more impressive! It's the art of the Spanish architecte Santiago Calatrava Plenty of travellers with the TGV are passing from and to France, we - the wee Belgians - are really proud of it.

And then, there is the delicious Belgian chocolate. If somebody likes to see a yummee chocolate slide show, here is the link: http://www.joliet.be/chocolatshow/photos.htm

We went to the famous "le carré de Liège" where the night life takes place. Nobody goes before 23 h or later in the evening and seldom leaves before dawn. The houses are so narrow, no cars and there are mainly night clubs and bars. But in this quarter is also a famous shop: Darcis. This is one of the 'chocolate kings' and we brought some samples home for tea.

On Saturday we went to visit the event for rare plants in Celles. This market really offers seldom species and the exhibitors are all professionals. A good number comes from France which is just a stone's throw away. One can also meet our TV gardeners in real!

Whilst being in this area of Belgium, we went to visit Tournai. I knew it is very ancient, in fact it is the second oldest town of Belgium (:-) thanks to friend's researches). Coincidentally, the European Medieval Festivities took place and we could enjoy the colourful scenario. Everybody was dressed for the occasion, there were plenty of back pipers and other musicians, all afternoon medieval music. A falconer with his vulture who flew over people's heads. Plenty of stands where one could buy all kind of ancient armours and accessories, bows, arrows, knives, leather equipment ...

The fine weather allowed to have a meal outside and to enjoy all these colours and see pass all the ancient costumes around.

Sunday morning a visit to our local fleemarket marked the end of a really fine weekend!

I hope, you too, are now interested to visit Belgium and see more of it.

Summer Memories N° 3 - lune de miel (3)

Les Jardins d'Angélique à Montmain

We were curious to visit this garden, because it said to have British inspirations.

Un critère de séléction pour visiter les jardins d'Angélique etait la déscription d'une ambiance britannique.

Unfortunately I have not made a lot of photographs. Only because I was so amazed by this garden . I always was looking and discovering and wondering and I totally forgot to take photos!

Malheureusement, je n'ai pas pris beaucoup de photos dans le jardin d'Angélique. Parce que j'étais totalement absorbé par ce que nous découvrions dans ce merveilleux jardin!

At the entrance, as if it said: a heartily welcome
- à l'entrée: comme si on nous invitait de tout coeur

This thing about the heart did not leave me during all our visit. This place touched my heart.
Le symbole du coeur ne me quittait plus pendant toute notre visite. Cet endroit me touchait au coeur.

In fact, what one sees there, is the visitor's toilets!

En réalité, ceci sont les toilettes pour visiteurs!

I loved every single detail, the harmonious colors, the "thatched" roof and the bunnies.

J'adorais chaque détail - les couleurs en harmonie avec le toit couvert ainsi que les lapins.

The manor looked peaceful and all was quiet.

Le manoir avait l'air si paisible et tout etait calme.

too much silence...
Trop calme....

Nobody at the garden entrance but the gates were open

Personne à l'entrée mais la porte était ouverte

Suddenly a well known welcoming noise

Subitement quelqu'un nous souhaitait la bienvenue

It was the cat!
le chat du jardin d'Angélique!

At the last end of the front garden, half hidden in the border, we found eventually a lady gardener. The owner herself, explaining us, that on Tuesdays the garden is closed.... After a little chat, we were allowed to stay and to discover and to explore and to admire.

A la fin du jardin devant le manoir, nous trouvions une jardinière en plein travail. C'était la propriétaire qui nous expliquait que le jardin était fermé le mardi... Après une petite causette, elle nous laissait rester et explorer et admirer son domaine.

Every corner was tidy, flowery and just nice.

Chaque partie était propre, fleurissant et c'était tout simplement beau.

I would have loved to discover inside the manor!
J'aurais tant aimé de découvrir l'intérieur du manoir!

When going further round the house, one arrived to the other part of the garden and the dominant part in it, is the stream. The stream has a good flow and determines the many walkways. I am not able to describe the scenery, it was such an impressive discovery of well grown trees, fat hydrangeas - one of the favourites of the owner - big thalictrums, several old fragrant roses, grasses, colourful acers. The very mixture for our taste.
En contournant la maison on arrivait à la partie du jardin où une rivière coule rapidement. Cette rivière détermine aussi les différents chemins. Je suis incapable de commenter toute la scènerie car c'était une telle découverte d'arbres bien grandis, de grosses hortenses - une passion de la propriétaire - d'immenses thalictrums, de vieilles roses bien parfumées, des graminées, des érables. Tout une panoplie à notre goût.

After that complexity of impressions, we continued our road and headed to Beuvron-on-Auge, in the heart of Calvados.

Au revoir Jardin d'Angélique! Garde ta beauté.
Nous continuons pour Beuvron-en-Auge en plein Calvados.
tbc

Summer Memories N° 3 - lune de miel (2)

In case of interest, the webadresse of the hotel is http://www.chateaudebrecourt.com/

After a wonderful dinner at candlelight with all kind of delicious Normandy food, a nice digestif in the bar and a fantastic sleep by open windows facing out to the park, we woke up by gentle country rain. We had then a fabulous breakfast in the morning before leaving for Monet's garden and house in Giverny. We had been warned, that the place is not big enough for all the visitors and in fact, they compared it to the crowds of Sissinghurst gardens in Kent.

Therefore we arrived early and queued up before it opened and were nearly first to go in. Soon after that, the coaches with plenty of Japanese arrived as Monet is very famous over there.

We were truely stunned by all the impressions.

We visited also the inside of the house and whilst it is forbidden to take photographs, you can see a lot of good photos shot recently and published in this months Art & Décoration. Unpeuloufoque kindly give me the hint and I got the magazine immediately.

This is the view from the top of the steps into the garden

The house garden is not that big but full with flowers of all kinds

Once we had passed through the tunnel under the street (how strange), we arrived at the stream.

We just followed the path - as everybody - and then arrived at this spot: The famous waterlily pond at a first glance!

...moving on...

One can wander round and round....

The light was fanatastic that day and one could easily imagine, why Monet had to paint so many times his waterlilies and could always change from green tones to blue ones as he would see it then in the different moments of the day or seasons.

Whilst it would be difficult to top these wonderful impressions, we decided to continue our way direction Calvados. The day was young and the sun was out and the "Jardins d'Angélique" seemed worthwhile to visit. Tbc.

Summer Memories N° 3 - lune de miel (1)

This looked like a lazy summer, indeed.

But not inactive, if you know what I mean.

L'été était relaxe mais pas sans activités.

The humming and buzzing did suddenly inspire to have (another) party.

On était inspiré d'organiser une autre fête, cette fois-ci surtout pour les amis en Belgique. Le soleil présent, c'était joyeux et on a rigolé et chanté jusque tard dans la douce nuit estivale.

Après avoir rangé le maximum, nous laissions la maison à notre garde (merci Ben!) et partions en lune de miel. Destination Normandie. 4 jours mémorables pour visiter quelques endroits superbes.

The summer party, especially organised for our regional friends, was again on a warm, sunny day. We laughed a lot and sung until late night.

Once the most of the left overs were dealt with, we started our honeymoon. Destination Normandy. 4 days to visit special places which are since long on our wish list.

As usual, no reservations were made. We just had decided to start with the visit at Monet's garden in Giverny and found this beautiful place. A quick investigation if they had vacancies and at what conditions, a wee negotiation what was possible if we took the evening meal as well and after the inspection of the room, we decided to stay for the night.

Comme d'habitude, nous partions sans réservation. Nous cherchions juste la proximité des jardins de Monet à Giverny. Cet endroit-ci nous plaisait de l'extérieur et après avoir demandé si il y avait une chambre de libre, nous négocions le menu du soir en plus et décidions de rester pour la nuit.

Quel début pour une lune de miel!

What a beautiful start for a honeymoon!

More later....