Apple Crumble Pie

X’mas is 22 days left. Are you ready? Taiwan is not a Christ country so that we don’t really celebrate X’mas. Of course, most of us have no ideas what the story of X’Mas. Why do people celebrate X’Mas? Although this is my second X’mas, I really understand the meaning of X’Mas this year. It’s good. People can go travelling every time. But, it is difficult to understand their culture and festivals in their countries. I know why we should be encouraged to go and see the world. Because you will know and learn more during the adventure.

Oven Temperature Setting: 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4

Baking Time: 20~25 minutes
Recipe: A 7” Apple Crumble Pie

Shortcrust Pastry Link

 

 

Steps of Apple Crumble Pie

(1) Prepare a sauce pan. Put sugar, chopped apple and blackberry in the pan. Switch the medium heat on. Cook around 5~10 minutes until it turns soft. Dry the filling. Set aside.

 

(2) Prepare crumble: Add Sugar and flour in a big bowl. Mix a little bit. Add cubed butter in the bowl. Use your finger tips to rub the butter into flour until it turns crumb-like.

 

 

(3) Get shortcrust pastry ready. Pour the apple filling over the top of the pastry. And then, cover the apple filling with crumble. Send into the pre-heat oven at 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 around 20~25 minutes until it turns golden.

 

 

 

I like this kind of pie a lot. It is not really a cake. It is more fruit dessert. Sweet and sour flavor… um… yum… yum… This pie was eaten out by 4 people. We ate with custard and ice cream. So, enjoy it.

Apple Cake

This recipe of Apple Cake is the best one I ever baked. This is Mary Bery’s recipe. On her website, it is called “The Very Best Apple Dessert Cake.” And it is true. I have used this recipe to bake several times. And everyone always tells me to share this recipe. And so far, I still feel it is the best I ever have.

I still remember the first time my friend and I baked this one. When we took the cake out of the baking tin, there were some crumbs dropped to the table. We were planning to try the flavor, but it was too yum that we just used our hand to grab the cake and ate it directly. So, you can see how tasty it is. If you are a big fan of any type of apple dessert, you must try this one.

Oven Temperature Setting: 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3

Baking Time: 70 ~ 90 minutes
Recipe: A 7” round baking tray

 

Steps of Apple Cake

(1) Melt all butter. And set aside

(2) Peel, core, and slice the apple. When slicing the apple, if you put half of the apple in horizontal way and slice. You will find it out it is easier to slice it in similar size.

(3) Add egg, almond extract and melted butter in a bowl. Mix all ingredients well.

(4) Add flour, baking powder, sugar gradually into the bowl. Well-incorporate all of them.

(5) Pour half of the batter into the baking tray.

(6) Lay the sliced apple in the batter.
(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: It is not necessary to place like what I did.)
(7) Spoon the rest of dough into the slot between two sliced apples. It is very hard to do it. If some mixture is over the top of apple, it doesn’t matter. It will melt into the slot when baking it.

(8) Send it the cake into the pre-heat oven at 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3. It takes around 70~90 minutes.

 

Oh… It is so delicious. Again, the crust top is the best among the cake. Serving in hot is the best way to eat this apple cake. And eating with vanilla custard or ice cream just lets it better. I have baked it several times and I will keep baking this recipe.

Vanilla Custard

 

Vanilla Custard is a very popular sauce in the UK. People can buy it either fresh one or tinned one at every shop. It is very suitable for lots of desserts, like Apple Crumble Cake, Blackberry cake. Or, my friend will chop some fruits into a bowl and pour custard sauce over it. Then, EAT it.

Those sold ones in shops are very sweet. So, why not just do it? It is very easy and takes less than 10 minutes.   

 

Recipe

Steps of Vanilla Custard

(1) Whisk egg and milk in a cup first. And add vanilla extract into the batter.

(2) Pour it into a saucepan. Switch the small heat on.

(3) Add flour, corn scratch, and sugar into the pan gradually. Stir it well before adding more.

(4) Keep stirring until it turns thicker.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: When it starts to turn thicker, switch the heat off. Because it will thicken very quickly once it starts.)

Salted Caramel Banana Swiss Roll

Swiss roll is not hard to make, but it is not so easy. I have baked twice before this one. The first one was thrown away directly. Second one was better. But, the shape was not good. The cake of swiss roll is the easy part as long as you know how to measure and how to mix. The difficult part is how to roll it up. So, it is my third time challenge. And… YEAH… I made it. Finally, it works. This success really encourages me to working on some new things. Some difficult things. I love baking. I love to see people’s big smile after they eat the cake. Thank you for all my lovely friends.

Baking Temperature Setting: 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6

Baking Time: 12~15 minutes
Recipe: 1 Salted Caramel Banana Swiss Roll, Around 50 cm

Salted Caramel Custard Link

Steps of Salted Caramel Banana Swiss Roll

(1) Separate egg white and egg yolks into different bowls. Whisk egg white. Add lemon juice when egg white starts to have some bubbles on the top. Egg white should be beaten until it is light and stiff enough. Then, set aside.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: The bowl with egg white needs to be clean and dried totally.  Otherwise, the egg white can’t be whisked to light and stiff.)

(2) Add butter and sugar in a bowl. Whisk them until the butter turns to light and fluffy

(3) Add egg yolks into the butter mixture. Well-mixed all of them.

(4) Add milk and vanilla extract into the bowl. Well-incorporated all ingredients.
(5) Add flour into the batter gradually. Mix everything well before next mix.

(6) Fold in stiff egg white into the cake mixture gradually and lightly.
(7) Pour the mixture into the baking tray with baking paper. Use a spatula to make sure the cake mixture is even. Then, send it into the pre-heat oven at 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 around 12~15 minutes.

 

Steps of Assembly
(1) When cake is ready, leave it at room temperature around 5 minutes to cool down.
(2) Put another rack on the top of cake. It is easier to help me turn the cake over.
(3) Then, remove the baking paper from the cake. Then, turn it back.

(4) Slice three or four at the side (not down to the bottom) you would start to roll it up.

(5) Roll it up and set aside around 20~30 minutes to cool it down.

(6) Unroll the cake. Spread salted caramel custard over the top.

(7) Slice the banana into small pieces and spread even over the top.
(8) Roll it up again. Leave in the fridge. Cut it before serving it.

 

I was so happy when I finished the assembly. This swiss roll is bigger than I did before. And it rolls up good. It has proved that everything will work if believing yourself and keeping practicing. So, enjoy my Salted Caramel Banana Swiss Roll.

Salted Caramel Custard

 

Custard sauce is a very useful sauce for dessert. For some cakes, like crumble cake, you can eat with it. For some desserts, like swiss roll, you can wrap custard sauce in. For some desserts, like magic cake, you make custard as part of cake. I think the reason we like custard is because we love the silky and creamy flavor in our mouth.

I did salted caramel custard for my swiss roll. Though I don’t mind the double cream, too much cream will be too over for me. Then, I think, why not wrap custard sauce in?

Recipe: Around 300 ml

                                
 Salted Caramel Sauce Link

 

Step

(1) Prepare a saucepan. Heat up milk by small heat

(2) Add egg yolks into the milk. Whisk the yolks into the milk
(3) Add sugar, flour and corn starch into milk mixture gradually. Mix everything well before adding more.

(4) Add salted caramel sauce into the pan. Mix it. Keep whisking it when simmering it. Cook it until it turns thick. Then, switch off the heat.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: When it starts to turn thick, I’ll switch off the heat. I’ll use the heat left in the pan to cook it. If we switch off the heat too late, it might overcook.)