Apple Turnovers

Having used half a pack of Silly Yak gluten free puff pastry to make our Pecan Cinnamon Twists we decided to have a go at making some Apple Turnovers.

To prepare the filling, about 20g butter was warmed in a pan with a tablespoon of honey and a little ground cinnamon.

Adding a peeled, cored and chopped apple with some lemon juice to the pan, the filling was combined and cooked over a low heat for about 10 minutes.

The pastry was rolled to about 3-4mm thickness and then cut into squares.
Using a beaten egg, this was brushed along the edges of the pastry squares.

Placing small piles of the warmed apple mix in the centre of the square of pastry, the top left corner was folded over, on the diagonal, to the bottom right.   This formed a triangular Turnover.

Using the remainder of the beaten egg, the top of the turnovers was brushed with glaze.  Placing the turnovers on a non-stick tray they were then baked in a 170ºC oven for 10 minutes before checking them and returning them to bake a while longer until they were golden brown and crisp.

After cooling on the baking tray for a few minutes, the turnovers were dusted with icing sugar and served with lightly whipped double cream.

We'll definitely make turnovers again using Silly Yak Puff pastry as they were light, crumbly and easy to eat! 

Small Spicy Bundt Cake

We found this recipe, printed out, from 2012 and finally decided to give it a go.  Using a 1 litre Bundt tin (from Aldi) we gathered the following ingredients

• 375g plain flour (we used Dove's Farm Gluten Free)
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (we used Dr Oetker)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• less than ½ tsp grated nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 medium eggs
• 125 ml sunflower oil
• 72½g/dark muscovado sugar (we used a dessert spoon to break up the naturally forming clumps when it was added to the caster sugar)
• 72½g caster sugar
• 72½g pecans chopped (we used the OXO good grips chopper)
• 225g cored, peeled and diced bramley (cooking) apples

 

   We greased the Bundt tin well with melted butter before lightly flouring with plain Gluten Free flour.

   The eggs were beaten with the vanilla extract and sugar until they had lightened and increased in volume.

   The sunflower oil was then added in a steady stream until batter was quite thick.

   Having sifted the flour, bicarb and spices into a large bowl, they were added, a spoonful at a time, to the batter, mixing well after each spoonful.

Next we folded in the pecans and diced apple.

   The mix (which was quite firm) was then placed in pre-greased Bundt tin and cooked in a pre heated oven to 180ºC for 40 minutes.  We checked with a skewer after 30 minutes but returned the oven until the skewer came out cleanly.

   We allowed the cake to cool in its tin for 10 minutes before turning onto rack to cool completely.

   Finally, the cake was decorated with water icing (you could also add chopped, spiced nuts) once completely cooled.

The cake was a huge success, and rose more than we'd expected it to... a variation we will try next is soaked date in place of the apple and walnuts instead of the pecans.  

Sticky Pork with Apple

In case you overindulged over  the 'Festive Season' and have now embarked on a calorie counted diet or are doing the 5:2 fasting diet, this is a recipe from Jaqueline Whitehart's "the complete 2-day fasting diet" cookbook which our whole family likes.  We made this, with properly weighed out portions for me (doing the 5:2) and the others had theirs with amounts that weren't restricted, potatoes over the 'measured' amount and served together with peas and sweetcorn.

The ingredients we used for one were 100g pork tenderloin (fat and sinew removed and sliced), half a red apple (cored and sliced), half a shallot (peeled and thinly sliced), garlic clove (peeled and crushed), half a Tablespoon of grainy mustard, half a Tablespoon of maple syrup and one teaspoon of cider vinegar.  Using a small amount of olive oil for cooking (half a teaspoon), one portion represents 242 calories and, served with 100g of boiled new potatoes, is 312 calories for the meal.

We started by frying off the pork and sliced shallot, cooking the meat until it was lightly browned on each side.

At this point the meat was removed from the pan and put to one side to rest.

Adding the apple to the pan, it was cooked through for a few minutes until it began to soften.  Next, the garlic, maple syrup, vinegar and water (one and a half Tablespoons for the 'counted' version) was added was stirred through.

The contents were brought up to the boil and the pork was returned to the pan.  Spooning the sauce over the pork, the dish was cooked for a further five minutes, over a low heat, until heated through.

Finally the mustard was mixed through and the dish was ready to serve.

We cooked my, measured, meal in a small skillet and the remainder, for the rest of the family, in a frying pan to ensure portion size for me, the 'faster', was maintained as accurately as possible.

This is a tasty dish and one we'll make again.

Summer Dipping Sauce

We have been eating outdoors a lot in the hot weather we've had in the UK over the last week.  This has prompted a seasonal interest in dips and dippers.  Sous Chef J particularly likes such food as it means NO CUTLERY required!

So, having decided to look at our range of dip recipes, we went for a simple version of Marie Rose Sauce.

As ever, few ingredients are involved.  Sous Chef J found all the items we needed - mayonnaise, lemon, tomato puree and Tabasco (pepper sauce).







Placing a couple of tablespoons of mayo in a bowl together with about a heaped teaspoon of tomato puree, a good squeeze of lemon juice was added (the more lemon juice you add, the runnier the 'dip) and mixed well.  Then a healthy dash of Tabasco was added and stirred through.  Et voila.  Dip ready!

Next the dippers were prepared.  This time we had some spicy tortilla chips, chopped up peppers, cucumber, apple, tomatoes and cheese.  If you want you can also use prawns, crabsticks (although we don't these days as they aren't gluten free) and/or crisps.

Baked Apple and Almond Pudding

Back in 2006, I found this recipe on deliaonline.com  it's already Gluten Free and makes use of apples (or which we've carrier bags full from pals' trees) hence we decided to give it a go.

As ever, Sous Chef J began by gathering the ingredients together.  A slight variance from Delia's recipe is that we used eating apples rather than Bramleys so no sugar was added to the apples during cooking.





First of all, the apples were prepared - cored, peeled and chopped - and added to a pan with 2 Tablespoons of water to simmer gently until they were softened.  They were then added to the base of a  Pyrex bowl that Sous Chef J had expertly buttered in preparation.

Then we then creamed the softened butter and sugar....

... before adding the beaten eggs and then folding in the ground almonds.

This was then spread over the apple mix and placed a preheated 170ºC fan oven.  As stated in Delia's recipe, we cooked it for exactly one hour... it even had its own timer.

At the appointed time, we removed the pudding and it looked like this...

... and here's Sous Chef J's portion.

Delia's recipe says it keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days... I don't think ours will last that long though!