Apple Tarte Tatin (Caramelised upside down apple tart)

What's not to like about an Apple Tarte Tatin? The richness of the butter, caramelised sugar, light and flaky puff pastry all comes together with some tart apples to make one smashing dessert!! This is one dessert where I won't replace butter with olive oil as it has to be rich and decadent so there's no way around that except to use butter. Of course for me, this is definitely one to enjoy only on special occasions.
Don't be intimidated by this dessert as it's pretty easy to recreate this french classic at home especially when store bought puff pastry is used. Try it out and I'm sure you'll agree with me. ;)


Note: Tarte Tatin has to be made with firm dessert apples as cooking apples will just become a puree during the cooking process.

Ingredients
Recipe from Gordon Ramsay 3 Star Chef

3 large crisp dessert apples (such as Pink Lady, Braeburn or Cox)
180g ready-made puff pastry
50g cold unsalted butter
50g caster sugar


Method
1) To prepare the apples, peel, core and quarter them, then lay out on a tray lined with kitchen paper. Leave to dry uncovered for 2-3 hours, or preferably chill overnight. Don't worry if they turn brown; they will be coated in caramel. ( I didn't leave them out to dry but it turned out fine too)
2) Have ready a 20cm shallow overproof pan. Roll out the pastry thinly on a lightly floured surface and cut out a 24cm round, using a similar sized plate as a guide. Lift onto a baking sheet and chill while you prepare the filling.
3) Cut the butter into thin slices and scatter over the bottom of a 20 cm ovenproof pan. Sprinkle over the sugar. Arrange the apple quarters, neatly around the pan with one in the middle. Place over a medium heat until the butter and sugar have melted and formed a light caramel. Carefully shake the pan from time to time to ensure that the apples are well coated with the caramel and are evenly browned. Leave to cool slightly. 
4) When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200 deg celsius/ Gas 6. Drape the pastry over the apples and carefully tuck the edges down the sides of the pan. Place the pan in the hot oven and bake for 15 mins. Lower the oven setting to 180 deg celsius/ Gas 4 and bake for a further 15-20 mins until the pastry is golden brown and crisp. Leave to cool. 
5) Turn the tarte tatin onto a serving plate and serve with ice cream.

Super easy coconut cookies

I came home from work on Friday night and really really wanted to have some coconut cookies. I've made Coconut shortbread cookies before but this time i really wanted a cookie with lots more chewy coconut goodness in it and made without butter. I also want it to be super easy as I just had a long week at work so I went surfing for recipe and found one from Best recipes that I could easily adapt. So off i went doing my usual practise of replacing butter with olive oil and reducing the amount of sugar and yes it was another winner of a cookie!!! It turned out crisp on the outside and chewy in the centre! Spectacular cookie this is as I couldn't stop eating them!!

This is a also great recipe for Christmas baking as it's extremely quick and easy. Perfect for some last minute baking treats! Merry Blessed Christmas everyone!!!

Ingredients (makes around 30 cookies)
Adapted from Best Recipes
1 heaped cup self raising flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup light olive oil


Method
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well combined
- Place teaspoonfuls of cookie dough on a baking tray, spaced about 3 cm apart
- Bake for 12 - 14 mins depending on how crisp you like it.

Winter in Pamporovo, Bulgaria

It's Winter Solstice today, the start of winter, the shortest day, the longest night so it would have been perfect if it snowed, even if it was just a little. It didn't snow and in fact it felt warmer than usual for this time of the year, 10 deg to be exact so there's no hope of having a white Christmas this year. 

However, it sure brought back memories of the times when I was surrounded by snow, snow and more snow!! One of the best was when i went on a snowboarding trip with my friends a couple of years back. Yes, i fell countless times in my very poor attempt to snowboard and was one of my most tiring holiday ever but i thoroughly enjoyed myself, met some great people and of course took in the wonderful scenery that will forever be treasured. 

Absolutely loved just sitting down in the snow, enjoying the beautiful feeling of being up in the mountains. The quietness, tranquillity and fresh air gave me a good opportunity to think and reflect. It's a great place to go to escape the hustle and bustle of daily life. I would really love to make another trip to the mountains to enjoy it all once again maybe with a mug of hot chocolate in front of the fireplace?

Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Squash Cupcakes!!

 Here's another recipe from one of my more well used cookbooks at the moment, Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache by Harry Eastwood. Having previously tried her Banana Courgette Bread and Aubergine Brownie which both turn out well, i was looking forward to try another one of her healthier but still tasty recipes! So i went 'a-flipping' and having just made some peanut butter cookies, the words peanut butter just popped out and of course since I'm not one who would pass up a chance to make something or rather anything with peanut butter this recipe became the chosen one! ;) 

The cupcake wasn't light as a cupcake should be as it was rather like a brownie, chocolatey, dense and the squash did its part to keep the cupcake moist. Though not a typical cupcake, it still taste pretty good especially with that awesome peanut butter icing! I was a little naughty  as i made a little more than the recipe called, fully intending to lick the bowl clean after I was done!!!! haha I think it'll be pretty good with a peanut butter icing filling too...peanut butter overdose?? I think not!!! ;) HO HO HO!!!

Adapted from  Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

100g unsalted peanuts or ground almonds

3 medium free range eggs

200g brown sugar

200g peeled and finely grated butternut squash

100g plain flour

40g cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Icing:

60g smooth peanut butter 

2 tbsp golden icing sugar, sifted

2 tbsp cocoa powder

pinch of salt

5 Tbsp boiling water

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cases.

- If using peanuts, blitz them in a food processor until totally ground. Set aside.

- Whisk the eggs and sugar for 5 minutes, until pale coffee coloured and fluffy. Next, whisk in the grated squash followed by the flour,peanuts or almonds, baking powder, cocoa and salt, until everything is well combined.

- Spoon the batter into the paper cases and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool the muffin tin on a rack for 10 minutes before removing the cupcakes and continuing to cool completely.

- To make the icing, put the peanut butter, icing sugar and cocoa powder together in a small bowl and mix with the back of a spoon to form a paste. Next, slow incorporate the boiling water with balloon whisk, one spoonful at a time until  you get a smooth paste. Ice the cupcakes when completely cold.

Lentil and Chestnut Soup

Am still in a soup frenzy after enjoying the delicious Sweet Potato and Chorizo Soup and having seen this on the menu in St James Tavern recently(more on this in another post), I decided to cook it myself instead of ordering it as it can't be that difficult right? Well, I was partially right as I bought fresh chestnuts so peeling them were quite a chore! Other than that, this velvety and divine tasting soup was easy peasy and the husband loved it!! :)

Adapted from Nigella.com (serves 2-3)
Ingredients

125g red lentils
150g cooked chestnuts 
800ml vegetable stock
1 carrot
1 small onion
half leek
2 tablespoons olive oil
fresh coriander, chopped
Single Cream to serve


Method
1.Finely chop the onion, leek and carrot.
2.Heat the oil in a pan, add the chopped vegetables and let sweat and soften in the oil.
3.Add the lentils and stir, then add the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer until lentils are very soft (about 20 minutes).
4.Add the chestnuts and simmer for a further 15 minutes or so.
5.Liquidise until smooth adding as much water as you need.
6.Whenever you want to serve it reheat, and sprinkle each full bowl of soup with coriander and lace with cream.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

I absolutely love peanut butter!! Whether it's in a sandwich or ice cream or milkshake or cookie or even on it's own... I adore it!!!!!!! It's something about the sticky, salty, sweet combination that made me fall in love with it and have you seen the scene in Meet Joe Black where Brad Pitt ate some peanut butter off the spoon? How can anyone not want to try some after watching that? Peanut Butter can be so sexy! hahaha

Alright, enough of that and back to the recipe. :P I suddenly felt like having some peanut butter cookies and since I always have peanut butter at home, i went searching for recipes. One in particular caught my eye as it didn't contain flour at all. The main ingredients were just peanut butter, sugar and eggs. As always, interesting recipes like this don't fail to intrigue me and I just had to try it out, again with some scepticism.

These turn out crispy on the side, a little chewy in the centre and it was stuffed with the taste of peanut butter so yeah! it's a winner!!!!!!!!

Adapted from All Recipes
Ingredients (Makes around 20)
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup soft brown sugar 
(Note: Using Soft Brown Sugar will make the cookie softer. Use White castor sugar if you like a crisper one)
1 egg
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda



Method
- Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease cookie sheets.
- In a medium bowl, stir peanut butter and sugar together until smooth. 
- Beat in the egg  then stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. 
- Bake for 8 - 10 minutes in the preheated oven. 
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

This post has been submitted to the #cookielove bloghop! If you like to join in the fun, just link up any cookie recipe from the month of Dec 2011 to show some #cookielove!

EQUIVALENTS AND CONVERSIONS

While surfing around for recipes, I came across the following on Nigella's website. Thought that it'll be handy to have this guide so I'm sharing it here. :)

UK/US Equivalent guide

Double cream	Heavy cream
Single cream	Light cream
Cornflour	Corn starch
Shortcrust	Pie crust
Caster sugar	Superfine sugar
Icing sugar	Confectioners' sugar
Grill	Broil
Aubergine	Eggplant
Courgette	Zucchini
Mangetout	Snow peas
Coriander	Cilantro
Clingfilm	Saran wrap
Beef mince	Ground beef
Prawns	Shrimp
Digestive biscuits	Graham crackers (substitute)
Sultanas	Raisins
Trifle sponges	Ladyfingers
Spring onions	Scallions
Semi-skimmed milk	2% milk
Dark/plain chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)	Bittersweet chocolate
Milk/plain chocolate (less than 70% cocoa solids)	Semi-sweet chocolate
Bicarbonate of soda	Baking soda
Horlicks	UK brand of malted milk powder
Maltesers	UK brand of malted milk balls

TEMPERATURES

Gas Mark 1	140C	275F	Very cool
Gas Mark 2	150C	300F	Cool
Gas Mark 3	160C	325F	Warm
Gas Mark 4	180C	350F	Moderate
Gas Mark 5	190C	375F	Fairly Hot
Gas Mark 6	200C	400F	Fairly Hot
Gas Mark 7	210C	425F	Hot
Gas Mark 8	220C	450F	Very Hot
Gas Mark 9	240C	475F	Very Hot

VOLUME AND LIQUID MEASUREMENTS

5 ml	one-sixth fl oz	1 teaspoon
15ml	half fl oz	1 tablespoon (NOTE: Australian tablespoon = 20ml)
30ml	1 fl oz	2 tablespoons
45ml	1 and half fl oz	3 tablespoons
60ml	2 fl oz	quarter cup
75ml	2 and half fl oz	one-third cup
125ml	4 fl oz	half cup
150ml	5 fl oz	two-thirds cup
175ml	6 fl oz	three-quarters cup
250ml	8 fl oz	1 cup
600ml	1 pint	2 and half cups
900ml	1 and half pints	3 and three-quarter cups
1 litre	1 and three-quarter pints	4 cups

SOME USEFUL CUP CONVERSIONS

Please note that these are approximations

1 cup sugar	200g
1 cup icing sugar	125g
1 cup flour	140g
1 cup rice	200g
1 cup frozen peas	125g
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs	70g
1 cup grated cheese	100g
1 cup chocolate chips	175g
1 cup sultanas	150g
1 cup honey/syrup	300g
1 stick of butter	110g 4oz

WEIGHT CONVERSIONS

15g	half oz
30g	1 oz
45g	1 and half oz
60g	2 oz
75g	2 and half oz
90g	3 oz
100g	3 and half oz
125g	4 oz
150g	5 oz
175g	6 oz
200g	7 oz
250g	8 oz
275g	9 oz
300g	10 oz
325g	11 oz
350g	12 oz
375g	13 oz
400g	14 oz
450g	15 oz
500g	1 lb

CAKE TINS SIZES

20cm	8 inch
23cm	9 inch
25cm	10 inch

LOAF TIN SIZES

450g	1lb
900g	2lb