apple

Traditional Apple Pie

/ sarahgiebens / 43 Comments

Hi guys!

It’s getting colder, darker, wetter and a little bit more cosy inside. I’ve even busted myself at thinking about Christmas already…
Can you blame me? ;)

I love apples. And I love Apple Pie even more! I bet you do too.
I’ve always wanted to make a gorgeous traditional Apple Pie. You know, the one with the weaved crust on top. I find it so beautiful :)

And here it is! I’ve finally took the time to make one myself. With weavings and all :)
It was the perfect weather for it anyways! Rainy, dark and very cold so what better way to warm the house than with an oven turned on ;)

Apple Pie

What we need (1 pie):

  • 6 apples
  • 65 g white sugar
  • 65 g brown sugar
  • 45 g all-purpose flour
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
  • 1 pinch of nutmeg
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 premade pie crusts
  • Baking tin
  • 2 tablespoons of butter (+- 20 g)

How to:

  1. Peel, cut, dice the apples and put them in a bowl
  2. Squize the lemon and poor the juice over the apples
  3. Add sugar, flour and spices to the apples and combine it all together.
  4. Butter your baking tin or spray it with baking spray (I just recently bought one for the first time)
  5. Put one pie crust in the baking tin
  6. Add the apple-spices mixture
  7. Cut the butter in pieces and put them on top of your apples.
  8. Roll out the other pie crust. Cut out long strings, try to make them equal in size. Cut in the long direction (vertical), not horizontally
  9. Place strings on top of your Apple Pie
  10. Pull up the alternated strings and put a string horizontally
    IMG_2483
  11. Now pull up the other strings and place a string horizontally
    IMG_2485
  12. Do this until your whole pie is covered with weaved strings
    Apple Pie 01
  13. Whisk your egg and put it on the weaved strings to allow them to bake golden brown
  14. Bake the Apple Pie for about 35 minutes at 220 degrees centigrade

Omnomnom!

I made a bit of a non-traditional Traditional Apple Pie because my pie crusts were rectangle instead of round… But it tasted great! And I actually like my rectangle pie :)

Apple Pie 03

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

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Apple & Pear Cake

/ sarahgiebens / 18 Comments

Hi guys!

I’m very excited about this cake I made because it is my very first complete own recipe :)
Maybe someone else has one too, but I didn’t use any so I consider this as mine ^^

Someone told me it’s quite risky to use apple and pear in the same cake. I wanted to prove him wrong and did it anyway. It turned out great!

The cake is quite moist and very delicious! The almond powder I put in it gives it a rich texture.

pac

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Fiesta Friday #35: Apple & Cinnamon Muffins

/ sarahgiebens / 30 Comments

Hi guys!

It’s party time!
What better to celebrate it with than with these Apple & Cinnamon Muffins?!
What I really like about these Muffins? The fact that your kitchen smells great, the whole time! (due to the cinnamon, of course)
My Dad even thought I had already baked the Muffins when he entered the kitchen. “No Dad, I’m sorry. It’s just the cinnamon…”

Muffin

My Muffins aren’t exactly how I had hoped them to be. At our Bakery Store they have these “real” Muffins. You know, they’re big and fluffy… Mine aren’t big and fluffy at all. My (delicious) Muffins are small and not that fluffy. But I’m not complaining. I’ve had worse, believe me :p
My friends and parents all loved these little Muffins! And isn’t that the most important? That’s why I bake. To make people happy with my food!

Muffin2

So, are you guys ready to get happy? ;)

What do we need:

  • 375 g self-raising flour
  • 125 g brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 eggs
  • 160 g melted butter
  • 2,5 dl milk
  • 3 apples
  • baking tin
  • large bowl

For the crumble layer:

  • 50 g flour
  • 30 g butter
  • 2 spoons brown sugar

Muffin3

How to:

Sift the self-raising flour and put it in a large bowl. Add the brown sugar and the cinnamon. Blend it together.
Make a little hole in the middle. Mix the eggs together with the milk.
Add this mixture, together with the melted butter, to the flour. (poor it in the hole)
Stir with a wooden spoon.
Peel the apples and cut them in little pieces. Add the pieces to the dough.
Let’s make the crumble: Put the flour, butter and sugar in a bowl and knead until it’s crumbly.
Put the dough in your baking tin and add a little bit of the crumble on top.
Bake the muffins for 25 minutes at 210 degrees centigrade.
Done? Check with a sharp knife and let them cool.

Muffin4

I hope you all enjoy it and have a wonderful Fiesta Friday with Angie and everyone else! :D
Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

Fiesta Friday #29: BBQ with the neighbours

/ sarahgiebens / 22 Comments

Hi guys!

Last weekend, we had our annual BBQ with the neighbours.
We (the street) try to do this every year.
I believe it all started as a way to stay in touch with the neighbours and to become a bit more than “just” neighbours.
I have to say we’re pretty close with most of our neighbours, and not because of that BBQ :)
My dad likes to ride his bike and two of our neighbours do too! So I guess you already heard me coming when I tell you that they started their own little club (that has three members) ;)
Well, they are also members of a larger group.

Let’s get back to our BBQ.
Since the last two or three years, I always make the dessert.
BBQ
Brown + Blond
This year, I went for my all-time favourite Brownies and my super delicious Apple Cake.

Brown
I tried Jhuls’ Blondies and they were A-MAZING!

Brown + Blond 2
Blond

Really, you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted them! The neighbours loved them too :)
So Jhuls, you did an awesome job with these! Thank you for having shared that recipe with us.
Besides the Blondies, I made two entirely new things. A Frangipane and a Speculoos Cake.
I’ll save that Frangipane for later ;)

But I am bringing you this Speculoos Cake for Fiesta Friday!

SpCake
Little secret: this cake is some sort of basic version of my Luxurious Apple Cake. But without the apples and the brown sugar.

What do we need:

  • 125 g butter
  • 125 g crystal sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 125 g self-raising flour
  • 200 g crunched speculoos
  • baking tin

How to:

Mix the butter together with the sugar. Mix in the eggs.
Sift the flour and mix it well together. Stir in the speculoos crumbles.
Put the batter in the baking tin and bake the cake for about 50 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade.

If it’s done, check the cake with a sharp knife. If it comes out clean, your cake is ready to be eaten!

SpeculaasCake

I hope everyone is having a great Fiesta Friday at Angies with the co-hosts and all the others :D
Happy Fiesta Friday!

Have a delicious weekend!
xxx Sarah

Fiesta Friday #25: Sugar-Free Apple Pie!

/ sarahgiebens / 41 Comments

Hi guys!

It is Friday again…
Time REALLY flies!

I have been caloriebombing you the past few weeks but today I’m going sugar free!
Yes, you heard it right, sugar F-R-E-E!

Little secret: I love love love love love LOVE crumbles!
So guess what, today my pie will be a crumble! :D (Woohoo!)
I’m making an apple crumble pie. No, wait. I am making two versions because I’ve got one with crumble and one without it.
Why? Just to try :)

appelcrumblespeculaas

What do we need: (for 1 pie)

  • 4 apples
  • 1 sheet of puff pastry
  • 60g butter
  • 30g self-raising flour
  • 8g stevia or 40g tagatesse
  • 30g almond powder
  • crumble cookies (sugar free).
    I used speculoos. Sorry! Not sugar free :s
  • baking tin (a round one)

How to:

Skin the apples and cut them into large pieces.
Stew the apples until it becomes apple sauce. (It’s completely oay if you still have some small pieces of apple that aren’t completely stewed)
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees centigrade.
Put a sheet of puff pastry in the baking tin.
Put the cookie crumbles on the bottom.
Add the apple sauce on top of it.

Melt the butter.
Mix the flour together with the stevia/tagatesse, the butter and the almond powder until it becomes a dry, granular mixture.
Divide the crumble over the pie.

Cut the leftover of puff pastry away.
I used these leftovers for the decoration of my pie without the crumble.

appeltaart

Bake the apple pie for about 30 minutes.
Let the pie cool and you are ready to go!
Maybe some sugar free ice cream to go along with it?

Enjoy this delicious pie, guilt-free! :D

Happy Fiesta Friday everyone!
Thank you Angie and our co-hosts for this amazing virtual event! <3

Have a delicious day and a wonderful party!
xxx Sarah

FF

 

Fiesta Friday #24: Luxurious Apple Cake

/ sarahgiebens / 39 Comments

Hi guys!

Today, I wanted to make something a little bit more luxurious.
And it had to be a cake, with apples.
So may I present to you: Apple Cake with Biscoff and Brown Sugar!
I really like the sound of that :D
It is a luxurious version of my previous apple cake.

I can’t help but feel the constant need to bake something…
What can I say, I love the smell of freshly baked sweets! You might even say I’m addicted to it! Oh boy…

I told myself I would only be baking something if there was an occasion.
But let’s face it: if you want to bake, you’ll always find a way to make something an occasion!
Besides, it’s FIESTA FRIDAY! :D

Thank you Angie, for hosting this awesome event!
Thank you to the co hosts as well, of course :D

Let’s get started!

What do we need: (1 cake 10,5cmX23cm)

  • 125g butter
  • 125g granulated sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 125g self-raising flour
  • +- 150g Biscoff (crunched)
  • 2 apples
  • 2 spoons of brown sugar

How to:

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees centigrade.
Mix the granulated sugar and the butter together until the sugar is completely absorbed.
Add the eggs and mix it well together.
Sieve the flour, add it and mix it until it is nice and smooth.
Mix the crunched Biscoff gently together with the batter.
Put the batter in the baking tin.
Skin the apples. I have a tool that cuts the apples in 8 pieces.
appletool
Cut the pieces of apple in two (horizontal).
applecut
Now you should have a piece that’s straight and a piece that has a little arch.
applecut2
Cut the straight pieces in cubes. Put these cubes in the batter.
apllecakespecu
Use a spatula to make the batter flat again and the cubes invisible.
Place the other pieces on the batter. They can stick out a little.
apllecakespecu2
Last, but not least: sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the cake!
applecakespecu3
Bake the cake for about 55 minutes.

Let the cake cool when it’s baked.
To check if the cake is baked, use a knife to put in the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready!
p.s. The very dark spots on the cake aren’t burned, it’s the brown sugar ;)

Enjoy!

LuxeAppleCake
LuxAppleCake
LuxApplecake2
LuxeAppleCake4
I warn you! This is what happens after 2 minutes:
LuxeAppleCake3

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

FF

Biscuit for Birthdays!

/ sarahgiebens / 15 Comments

Hi guys!

Today, I want to share a funny story with you.
What the story is about? My first attempt to make a biscuit…

A biscuit is a typical birthday treat! So I wanted to make one for one of our birthday parties.
I opened my cookbook and thought “this seems easy”. Well, I could have never been so wrong!
The recipe isn’t difficult, that’s for sure! But it is the way you make the biscuit that is the tricky part…
I followed the recipe and added the flour as a last step. I mixed it all together with my robot! NO NO NOOOOOOO!
Little did I know… Okay, the cookbook did say mix it gently together. I guess my robot doesn’t really do gentle…
What happened? My biscuit didn’t rise!

I am a very very lucky girl! Because that night, we (my boyfriend and I) were invited to a birthday party of one of his colleagues.
Guess who was there too? Their pastry chef! I told her my problems and she wrote a recipe down that couldn’t fail! I couldn’t thank her too much!
She really saved our birthday party!

I immediately started with this new (awesome) recipe the next day! It worked!
The problems weren’t over though…
My boyfriend helped me and we wanted to cover the biscuit with whipped cream. My mom got impatient and we had to assemble the biscuit sooner than planned. Therefore the whipped cream wasn’t stiff enough when we took it out of the fridge…
The biscuit looked okay but you shouldn’t wait for 5 more minutes to eat it if you didn’t want soup!
Biscuit1

Last week, we had another little party. I really wanted to try that biscuit again because I knew I could do it right! (The biscuit never failed but that whipped cream did!)
This time, I whipped the cream and covered the biscuit with it without first putting it in the fridge to get stiff… I guess whipped cream should be stiff enough, right?
Finally! The perfect biscuit without any trouble! Woohoo! And it was delicious!

What do we need:

  • 240g sugar
  • 240g flour
  • 8 eggs
  • +- 1L cream (40% fat)
  • 200g powder sugar
  • Fruit

How to:

First, whip the eggs and the sugar. It may take a while but they really need to be stiff.
Siff the flour.
Carefully add the flour while gently stiring the mixture.
Put the batter in a baking tin and preheat the oven at 180 degrees centigrade.
Bake the biscuit for 45 minutes.

Let the biscuit cool.
Cut the biscuit in half (horizontal) and let it cool a bit longer.
Whip the cream.
Put some of the whipped cream on the first layer. Add some fruit :)
Put the second layer on it and cover the biscuit in whipped cream.
Add fruit to decorate.
Tada! Done! Enjoy :D

This one was for my parents’ 47th birthday.
Biscuit2
Biscuit2b
I kept it simple on the decorations but I guess I should have added a little more fruit…
Haha! Next time, a perfect biscuit it will be!

Have a delicious day!
xxx Sarah

Fiesta Friday #22: Apple Cake

/ sarahgiebens / 25 Comments

Woohoo! It’s that Friday again… Fiesta Friday!
Thank you Angie for this amazing virtual party!
Oh and a big thanks for the co-hosts as well of course!
We are going to have a great party! I can tell ;)
Oh god, I am SO excited about this weeks party! (What did I drink??)
Finals are over, results were great (except for Spanish but I’ll take care of that in August…) and it is official: vacation has started! :D

As usual, I brought you some dessert :) Apple cake! I love apple cake!
I normally don’t say this about my own desserts but this is by far the best apple cake I have ever tasted!
I hope you’ll like it as much as I do :)
DSC05350

What do we need:

  • 200g butter
  • 200g sugar
  • 1 bag vanilla sugar (= +- 8g)
  • 4 eggs
  • 200g self-raising four
  • a pinch of salt
  • 3 apples
  • baking tin

How to:

Mix the butter, the sugar and the vanilla sugar together until the sugar is completely absorbed. (Is it just me or is this ALWAYS the first step in any of my desserts..?)
Split the eggs (Ha! This is new ;)) Mix the egg yolks together with the butter-sugar mixture.
Add the flour and the pinch of salt and mix it all together.
Whip up the egg whites and add it carefully to the batter.
Put the batter in the baking tin.
skin the apples and remove the core. Cut the appls in little cubes and put them in the cake.
Bake the cake for 15 minutes at 175 degrees centigrade. Lower the temperature to 160 degrees centigrade and bake for another 35-45 minutes.
Check the cake with a sharp knife (or something like that). If the knife comes out clean, the cake is done :D
Let the cake cool aaaaaaannnnddd ENJOY!

Appelcake

Oh no, this post ain’t done yet! Fiesta Friday is a party after all…
So I have some party tracks for you!
(and some wine and bubbles: serve yourself! If anythings runs out, just shout!)

Happy Fiesta Friday! <3

Haha! This stays good…

This one is a Belgian artist :)

This one is for late at night, you’ll get why ;)

xxx Sarah

FF