Apple Pastry

The nice thing about this dessert is that there's sections for those that really like crust and for those that care more about the apples. This is a sweet empanada dough with apple filling. Each BD put together a fish - kid friendly.

• 3 c flour
• 1/4 c sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 5-6 T cold water
• 7-8 apples, peeled - divided
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• cornstarch/flour/thickener
• optional: raisins, almonds
• sugar, cinnamon
• wash: 1 egg

1. Make the dough.
1. Combine flour, sugar and salt. Cut butter in large pieces.
2. Mix in eggs and water until crumbly.
3. Shape into 2 balls. Flatten and refrigerate for at least 30 min.
2. Prepare the filling.

1. Dice 2 apples and combine with brown sugar and cinnamon in small pan. 
2. Saute on low heat until softened and liquid has come out. 
3. Mix in cornstarch to thicken the liquid.
4.  Remove from heat and let cool.
3. Roll out dough very thin. Cut into desired shape (of fish). Place on parchment paper on baking tray.
4. Cover head tail and fins with 1/2 of the apple filling. Spread the filling on body as well.
5. Cover the body of the fish with apple slices, to look like fish scales.
6. Roll out leftover pieces of dough again and cut out shape for head, tail and fins coverage. Use any remaining dough to make railing for sides so juice won't drip off the fish. Optional: Make eyeball out of small ball of dough.
7. Repeat with other dough and remaining apples.
8. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
9. Sprinkle apple slices with sugar and cinnamon.
10. Brush egg wash on pastry.
11. Bake for 30-35 min at 375 F until nicely browned.
12. Let cool before eating.

Apple Blintzes/Dessert Crepes

Being still on an apple kick with no yeast in the house I made apple blintzes today - or crepes wrapped around apple filling. One was filled with mini chocolate chips and banana slices. Other filling options are chocolate mousse, jam, butter and cinnamon sugar, or savory (in which case leave the sugar out of the batter) - cheese, ham, spinach, mushrooms.
June 2023 Nutella banana crepes - delicious! Used a palm-free oil chocolate-hazelnut spread (not actual Nutella brand). Made 2 batches (1 shared).

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c milk
• 1/2 c water
• 1/4 t salt
• Chinese spoonful of sugar (or up to 1/4 c)
• 1 c flour
• 2 T butter, melted
• butter for cooking
• filling of choice

1. If required, prepare filling of choice. For apple filling:
1. Dice 2 apples.
2.  Saute for 10 min on low heat with heaping spoonful of sugar and 1/2 t cinnamon. 
3. If too much liquid, add cornstarch slurry to thicken.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs. 
3. Stir in the milk, water, salt and sugar.
4. Slowly sift in flour and stir to combine.
5. Quickly stir in melted butter.
6. Drop ~1/4 c into greased pan over medium-low heat. Immediately tilt the pan so the batter spreads evenly into circle, covering the bottom. (If batter is not thin enough to spread easily, add a bit of milk to the batter for the next one.)
7. Cook for up to 2 min until golden. Then flip and cook about 30 seconds more until done. 
8. Fill with deliciousness - roll, folding in ends as you go.

Variations

Egg White Crepes - if you have leftover egg whites to use up

Pancakey Crepes - thicker than crepes

Cong You Bing - Scallion Pancakes

My family made these quite often when I was a kid. A successful bing has many layers.
4/26/20 For one bing I put in spicy chutney powder instead of cong+salt. Deliciously spicy!

Dough

• 2 c flour
• 3/4 c boiling water (up to 1 cup)

Filling

• 2 stems of scallions
• salt
• oil (sesame, canola)

1. Slowly add the boiling water to the flour in a food processor and process for 15 seconds OR mix by hand.
2. Let sit covered in an oiled boil for 30 min (or longer).
3. Divide dough into 4 pieces.
4. Roll into large flat shape, as thin as possible.
5. Cover with oil and salt. Spread with fingers. Sprinkle chopped scallions on top.
6. Roll the long side. Start coiling into a snail, end with a second snail coil on top of the first.
7. Squash it with your hand and roll out to final size (NOT as thin as the first time).
8. Cook on low-medium heat in oiled frying pan until nicely browned on each side.
9. Slice into wedges and enjoy warm.

Apple Tea Bread

I was craving an apple bread that was fun to make - found a recipe for tea bread and adapted it with an apple filling.

• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 c milk
• 1/4 c water
• 1/8 c butter
• 1 egg
• 2.5 c flour
• 2 1/4 t yeast
• Wash: 1 egg + 1 T water
• Filling: 2 apples, 1/3 c sugar, 1/2 t cinnamon, cornstarch or flour

1. Place dough ingredients in bread machine and set to dough cycle.
2. Prepare filling
1. Dice the apples. 
2. Cook over low heat with sugar and cinnamon for 10 min.
3. Add cornstarch or flour to thicken sauce.
4. Let cool.
3. Roll dough out to 12"x15". Spread filling. Roll long end.
4. Place on parchment paper into circle shape.
5. Use scissors to make cuts 1" apart, 1" from center, all around.
6. Optional: turn the cut slices to the side.
7. Cover with cloth for 30 min.
8. Brush with egg wash.
9. Bake at 350 for 25-30 min until golden brown.
10. Enjoy warm or cooled.

Baked Apple Donut Shapes

I had a craving for doughnuts but don't like deep frying things so found this baked recipe from my to try list (from 10 years ago!). Substituted butter for the olive oil and almond flour for the wheat germ and it turned out just fine. I think a filling of sauted cubed apples might make it more appley - as is it is more like just a cinnamon donut. 
6/27/20 I wanted more apple oomph so this time sauted an additional 2 c diced apples with sugar+cinnamon to scoop in as a filling.

• 1 c milk
• 3 T butter
• 1/4 c almond flour
• 1 egg
• 1 t salt
• 3 T brown sugar
• 2 apples, grated (what would it be like if they were diced?)
• 3 3/4 c flour
• 2.5 t cinnamon
• 1 t ginger
• 2.5 t yeast
• topping: butter, cinnamon, sugar

1. Combine main ingredients in bread machine and set to dough cycle.
2. Move to floured surface.
• Roll out to about 1/2" thick. Cut out ~14 shapes using cookie cutters.
• Take munchkin size balls and roll for donut holes.
• Make larger donuts as flattened balls.
• Make hole donuts by poking thumb through ball and making very large hole, to account for increase in size from rising during rest time and bake time.
• Roll out to 1/4" thick. Cut out circle shape. Place on prepared sheet (as below). Add 1 tsp of diced apple filling. Cover with additional 1/4" circle. Seal edges.
3. Place shapes on parchment paper on cookie sheets.
4. Let rise for 30 minutes.
5. Bake for 15 min (or until browned) at 350F.
6. While hot, melt butter on surface and then dip in cinnamon-sugar mixture.
7. Let cool on rack. Enjoy warm or for snack later.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

We haven't been able to buy cinnamon raisin bagels from Metro grocery store in weeks. Tried making it from scratch using the bread machine. This came out ok - a bit blander than I would have liked, and I should have let it rise more. Could make this again OR try another recipe. BDs want plain bagels next.

1/28/22 Tried the other recipe. Folding the raisins and cinnamon to get the swirls was a nice touch, but otherwise they did not rise enough. Would experiment with the first recipe again.

• 1/2 c raisins, soaked in warm water for 10 min
• 1 T cinnamon
• 1 T sugar
• 1.25 c warm water
• 3 c flour (recipe called for bread but I only had AP)
• 3 1/3 T brown sugar
• 1 t salt
• 2 1/2 t yeast
• EGG WASH: 1 egg + 1 T water

1. Pat the raisins dry and combine with cinnamon and sugar. Dump into bread machine pan followed by remaining main ingredients. Set to dough cycle. Check dough and add water or flour to get right consistency. Remove after the first knead - about 20 min.
2. Place dough on floured surface and divide into 8 pieces.
3. Shape into bagels with very large holes (to account for increase in size during rising and baking time) and place on parchment paper on baking sheets.
4. Let rise for 30 min, until doubled.
5. Boil large pot of water with 1 T sugar. Boil bagels in batches for 1.5 min per side.
6. Cool on wire rack for a minute. Then brush with egg wash.
7. Bake 400F for 20 min.

Recipe #2

1/28/22 These came out rather flat. I forgot to put cornmeal on the parchment paper so when it was time to boil I couldn't get them off the sheet! Remember to butter or cornmeal the sheet next time!

• 1.25 c warm water
• 1 T honey
• 1/2 T sugar
• 1.5 t yeast
• 3.5-4 c flour
• 1.5 t salt
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 c raisins

1. In a small bowl, combine the honey, sugar and warm water.  Sprinkle on the yeast. Stir to dissolve and let sit for 5 min until foamy.
2. In a large bowl combine 2 cups of flour and the salt. Add the frothy yeast and stir until evenly mixed. Add 1/2 cup of flour at a time until it's too hard to stir by hand (about 1 cup). Turn onto floured surface and continue adding flour until the dough is fairly stiff but still kneadable. Knead for a total of 8 minutes.
3. Flatten the dough. Add the cinnamon and raisins down the center. Fold the dough over and knead until the raisins are dispersed and there are swirls of cinnamon in the dough. Knead over raisins that have escaped.
4. Form dough into ball, cover and let rise until doubled (about 45 min).
5. Punch the dough down and form it into a log. Cut into 10 equal pieces.
6. Form each piece into a smooth ball. Pinch the center to make a hole 3x bigger than final size.
7. Place on GREASED baking sheet/parchment paper, or sheet lined with cornmeal. Let rise until doubled for another 45 minutes.
8. Preheat broiler.
9. Boil wide pan of water.
10. [Broil the bagels for 1 min on each side. They should not brown, only become dull on each side and poof up.] - This is when I discovered I'd forgotten to grease the parchment paper so I couldn't flip them. I only broiled on one side and then had to deal with the disaster. The second tray I didn't broil at all. The first tray came out much smoother than the second tray.
11. Boil rapidly for 1 min on each side, flipping with chopstick. Let drip on wire rack.
12. Place back on baking tray and bake at 375/190 for 20-30 min until the surface is golden brown.

Linguine with Clam Sauce

I hadn't made this in over a decade, but finally got around to it again. It was hard to find canned clams here - I only had one can of whole clams to work with but it came out fine. I chopped some of them and left the other ones whole.

• linguine (or pasta of choice)
• 1/4 c olive oil
• 1-2 cans clams, with juice (minced, but whole ok too)
• 1/4 c butter
• 3 t minced garlic
• 1/2 c white wine or chicken broth
• 1 T dried parsley
• black pepper
• 1/4 T dried basil

1. Cook the pasta and douse with olive oil to prevent sticking.
2. Saute butter, garlic and parsley.
3. Add drained clams. Saute 2 min.
4. Add clam juice and wine/broth. 
5. Stir in basil and pepper.
6. Server over pasta with cheese.

Variations

- add 2 T cornstarch with wine to thicken sauce