So, this is the last day of the challenge.. I’ve been baking and blogging continuously (except for one rest day) for 11 days and even if I’m terribly exhausted, I’m so glad I made this challenge. After cutting cookies for hours yesterday, I decided to make something easy but delicious today: Apple Strudel. First, I was going to use the book my aunt brought me from Austria, but then I decided to use a recipe from mom’s recipe notebook she prepared years ago. I didn’t make my own Strudel dough, and bought some fresh phyllo dough from a phyllo shop (yes, there is such thing in Turkey).

Since it’s freezing outside, I opted for custard instead of ice cream with my Strudel. Now, if you allow me, I will eat some Strudel while catching up with my TV shows.. And after that, I don’t want to see any sort of sweet food around me for a while, which I think is a good New Year’s resolution for my belly. And that ends the 11-day New Year Dessert Challenge..

Happy New Year!

Apple Strudel

serves 4

Ingredients:

• 4 large sheets (about 25 cm- 10 in. long) phyllo dough
• 1 apple, grated (Don’t use a very sweet and soft apple. I used Granny Smith)
• 50 gr (1.75 oz.) butter, melted
• 1-2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, grated
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• a pinch of salt

for serving:

• confectioners’ sugar (for dusting)
• custard (creme anglaise), recipe from here

Directions:

Mix the apples, lemon juice, sugar and spices in a bowl.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F).

Lay the first sheet of dough on a flat surface and brush with butter. Put the second sheet on the first sheet and brush with butter again. Repeat this process until all the sheets are layered and brushed with butter. Sprinkle the dough with the apple mix and roll the dough into a log.

Bake the dough for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Dust the Strudel with confectioners’ sugar and depending on the season, serve with either ice cream or custard sauce.

I love grained photos in winter!

Today, I have a very interesting and very impromptu recipe to share. So, I knew I had to bake something, so I looked at the fruit bowl and saw that we have some tangerines, apples, pears, a quince and some oranges. I decided to make apple and pear cake by using my beloved Carrot Cake recipe as the base. And since I came by this deliciousness today, I decided to lay some pears on the bottom of the cake mold.

Then, I decided to double my carrot cake recipe, since I know that it doesn’t yield much. But, doubling came with pain..

After sifting a cup of whole-wheat flour, I realized that I don’t have any more flour left, and still 3 more cups of flour to add. So, instead I added a cup of rice flour, a cup of processed oatmeal and a cup of processed almonds.

I put 1/3 of the batter to muffin cups, and 2/3 of it to a cake mold. But, since I used a deep mold, it took the cake an hour to bake. So I really recommend baking this recipe in a shallow pan, as I usually do. Nevertheless, the cake turned out to be amazing. I could totally taste the almonds and apples and pears and cinnamon!! Yummy!!

Pear Apple Cake with Mixed Flours

makes 2 batches of cake

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 cup oat flour (or simply processed oatmeal)
• 1 cup almond flour (or simply processed almonds)
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 5 cups coarsely grated pears and apples
• 3-4 pears to lay on bottom, sliced and dipped into honey
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 teaspoons cinnamon
• a pinch of salt
• 4 teaspoons baking soda

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F).

In a bowl, beat together eggs, oil and sugar.

Stir in vanilla, flours, and cinnamon, and mix well. Finally, add the baking soda into the mixture and stir.

At this stage, don’t worry if the mixture is not so liquid. It should be something between cookie dough and cake batter.

Add the grated fruits and form an even mixture. Don’t worry again that the fruits are too much. They will dissolve after cooked.

Option 1- Take two shallow pans. Lay the bottoms with sliced pears. Divide the mixture into two and pour inside the pans.

Option 2- Simply pour the mixture into muffin cups and out the sliced pears on top.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until cooked.

It’s been a long time since my last post, I know.. But I was very busy with my midterms, quizzes and projects, and I didn’t even have time to sleep and thought I was going to die because of headache. Anyway, I’m better now, and am here with an incredible recipe: apple meringue cake!

This apple cake was inspired by my French teacher’s mom’s cake. Well, a month ago I ate that apple cake, and it was crispy on the top, which was a very unusual thing for an apple cake. I did not ask what her mother used for the cake, but I kept thinking about this cake. And I concluded that the “thing” on the top of the cake can only be egg whites. So, I tried to reinvent the cake and came up with a slightly different than I imagined, but an ammmazing thing! (The crispy layer in the original cake was thinner than in my cake, and my cake was juicier than the original cake) Enjoy!!

Apple Meringue Cake

Merengue adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

• 4 apples (I used 2 red, 2 green apples), grated
• 1 egg + 3 egg yolks
• 1 ½ cups whole-wheat flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup yogurt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• pinch of salt

For the top:

• 3 egg whites
• 130 gr (4.6 oz.) powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (320 degrees F).

In a bowl, mix together eggs, sugar olive oil and yogurt. Add flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda, and mix well.

Add grated apples to the mixture and blend.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until “snowy”. Without mixing too much (don’t let the egg whites dry!), add the granulated sugar and cinnamon to egg whites.

In a mid-size pan, pour the cake mixture (it should be a thin layer, otherwise the cake won’t cook on the inside) and on the top of that, spread the meringue mixture.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until both layers are cooked.

I don’t know how to name these muffins. The idea popped into my mind while I was trying to sleep (I think a lot about these kind of unnecessary things before I sleep). I thought about putting a layer of sugary-apples between the muffins, and make some apple “layer” muffins. Enjoy!

Apple Layer Muffins

makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 ¾ cups whole-wheat flour
• ¾ cups brown sugar
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• a pinch of salt

For the apple layer:

• 3 apples
• 5 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Dice the apples. Add lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon, and blend well.

In another bowl, mix together eggs, sugar olive oil, yogurt and vanilla. Add flour, cinnamon, salt and finally baking soda, and mix well.

Prepare the muffin cups, and pour one layer of muffin mixture, then the apples, then the muffin mixture again to each of the cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until cooked.

It was another boring night with nothing to do, and apples on the kitchen table. So, it was a “must” to take a risk and make something totally improvisational. I mixed everything that comes into my mind to make a cake, and this is the result. Try!

Semolina Muffins with Apple and Coconut

makes 24 muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 cup milk (I used low-fat)
• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups semolina (you can use 2 cups flour and 1 cup semolina instead)
• 3 apples, grated
• 1 cup coconut flakes
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 lemon’s zest
• 4 teaspoons baking soda or baking powder

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F).

In a bowl, beat together eggs, milk, oil and sugar.

Stir in vanilla, flour, semolina and coconuts, and mix well.

Add cloves, salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Then, add the apples and pour the mixture into muffin cups.

Before cooking the muffins, sprinkle the tops with lemon zest, and bake your muffins for about 25 minutes.

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