THE fall cake: apples!!

In this time of the year, I really love apple pies. The apples are now tasty and juicy and apple pies fit so good the cold foggy days.

So, if you are a feed up with the Christmas preparations, you can enjoy this easy and fast apple pie. With a food processor you will need just 10minutes.

170g butter @roomtemperature

200g sugar

220g flour

80g potato flour

1ts vanilla sugar

1ts vanilla extract

2 ts baking powder

Grated lemon peel

2 ts

1 or 2 Apples (I used 3, but they were small organic apples)

Milk

1 ts Rum

Salt

For the finishing: cinnamon and powdered sugar

Cut some baking paper in the shape of the bottom of the tray. Fold the tray and leave the walls uncovered. Peel the apples, remove the seeds and cut 1/3 in small cubes, the rest in thin slices.

Pre heat the oven at 160°C.

Whisk the soft butter until it gets spiky. Then add the sugar and go on in whisking until the sugar is melted.

Add the eggs, but only one at time even if you use a food processor. Mix in the next egg only when the previous has been absorbed.

Now add a pinch of salt and all the flavors.

Mix together the flours and the baking powder. Add the dry mixture to the main mix in big spoons alternatively to a bit of milk (in spoons). Add only the amount of milk that you need to have a soft but dense dough, not liquid. You will get the right consistency when the dough can heavily fell off in a big amount from a tilted spoon.

Last mix in the apple cubes.

Pour gently the mix in the baking tray and cover the top with the apple slices. You can arrange them in a star or a rose shape. Just press them a bit into the dough.

Bake for approximately 40minutes in the middle level of the oven at 160°C. To be sure of baking process, at the end test the cake with a toothpick (if you pull it out dirty with liquid dough extend the baking time until dry).

When cold, sprinkle the powdered sugar mixed with a pinch of cinnamon. 

Some very healthy stuff: Passato di verdure

When I was a child I really did not like vegetables (surprising eh?) and there was a permanent fight during the meals between me and Mum because of this.

One of the most hated preparations was the vegetables soup. My Mum was smartly pureeing everything so that I could not recognize what was detail in my dish but this helped very limited because a piece of bean or half chard leave was always escaping to operation and floating in the dish. I was then refusing to go on in eating after the discovery. 

Only several years later I realized that a vegetable soup is in fact a very healthy food and that I was caring about healthy food. And that after few days of jag and revelry it is in fact a good idea. And that after all if I put in only the vegetables that I like in fact a vegetable soup does not taste so bad. 

This is one of the foods that I cook in a bigger amount and to store it for 1 or 2 more days in a fridge or deep froze for emergency times. Now in cold November evenings it is definitively a good solution for a warm dinner.

This recipe is also one which traditionally takes a bit of time to get ready. Because of this I find very convenient to make it in a pressure cooker.

Below I listed some ingredients, but the amount and the types are very indicative. You can put whatever you´d like or you have in the fridge according also the season. I just skip tomatoes because of acidity and potatoes because of high amid level. 

Ingredients below are for 4 persons

For me all of them are organic…

2 small or 1 big Zucchini

2 Onions

3 Carrots

2 clove of garlic

2 tbs Extra virgin olive oil

5 frozen cubes Spinaches or 1 Chard head

1 Broccoli

4-6 slides of bread (even 1 day old)

Salt, pepper and 2 ts Bouillon cube powder (I use organic monosodium glutamate free one)

Put the olive oil in the cooker and in the while it warms up start chopping in big pieces onions, carrots, zucchini and broccoli. Put them in the cooker, with 1 garlic clove too and let them quickly brown at strong heat.

Add the spinaches on the top. Then sprinkle with salt, pepper and bouillon powder.

Last add 2 or 3 water caps and cover. Cook under pressure for about 25minutes.

With the help of an immersion blender puree the vegetables.

Toast the bread and when still warm rub them with a garlic clove slightly crushed with the side of a knife blade.

Put 1 or 2 slices of toasted bread per dish and pour over the soup. Last finish with a bit of olive oil or spicy oil.

If you plan to serve it to young or older children not comfortable with vegetables a good trick is to sprinkle with parmesan or when still hot dip in small cheese cube which will melt. The cheese will tend to cover the vegetables taste and make it more acceptable. As you can guess this was one of my trials to eat the vegetable soup when I was a child..