b a k e a h o l i c

Italian, Pie

Apple Crostata

August 11, 2011

The best thing about living in B.C is the local produce. Every summer I look forward to baking and cooking with fresh produce and fruit grown locally.

I have already visited Krause Berry Farms and sampled some of their delicious fruit and products. This past week my mom was in Osoyoos, the interior of B.C and Keremeos is also known as ‘fruit stand capital of B.C.’ There are tons of local farm markets you can visit and sample all the fresh and delicious fruit. Oliver is also the wine capital of Canada, an entirely different kind of fruit product 😉

When she came home, she said she had bought lots of fruit and was going to give me some. She brought back Peaches, Cherries, Transparent Apples, and green and yellow Zucchini.

The apples were very different than I had seen before, they felt as though they were made of foam! Very light and sponge like. She said they would probably be good for baking with. Translation: Make Pie.

I happily took home the veggies and fruit, and decided that I would make a pie to bring over for dinner the next night.

A Crostata is an Italian style pie. I have never made one, but thought since I’m Italian, I had better try it! 🙂 Another pie I really want to try before the summer is through is a lattice-top 🙂

There are a couple differences for Crostata from a traditional pie dough. First, the addition of eggs. More specifically, egg yolks. Also, sugar. Lots of sugar. This creates an almost ‘cake-like’ pie crust, as Adam put it. It is more dense, but just as flakey and tender. It is really good! You could definitely serve this with a scoop of ice cream, or whipped cream. I simply sifted some icing sugar on top. You can serve it warm or cold, I had mine at room temperature and it was delicious!

Now, the apples I used were definitely not ‘hard’ apples. They were quite soft. So in the baking process, when you cook the apples first before baking it in the oven, they got extra soft. I think If I used a softer apple next time I might skip the first cooking process, and just bake it in the oven.

I also made my dough the night before, and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

I will definitely be making Crostata’s in the future. Maybe even mini ones! I think this would be great for Easter, or ‘Pasqua’ in Italian 😉 I’m sure other fruits would be delicious as well!

Apple Crostata
Recipe Adapted from Martha Stewart’s New Pie’s and Tarts

Ingredients

Filling:

3 Tbs. Butter
6-7 medium/large Granny Smith Apples, or Green Apples, peeled, cored and cut into cubes
1 1/2. Tsp. Lemon Zest
1/4 cup sugar
Sprinkling of Cinnamon

Crust:

2 1/2 cups Flour (WW or AP)
1/2 cup sugar
2 sticks plus 1 tbs. butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
4 large egg yolks
3 tbs. ice water (use as needed)

Also: sanding sugar or granulated sugar for sprinkling, and one egg for egg wash

Directions

To make the crust, mix flour, sugar, and butter on medium speed until mixture resembles coarse sand. Add the yolks; mix slightly. Add ice water one tbs. at a time. Mix until just combined. Form dough into disk; wrap in plastic. Chill for 1 hour or up to 3 days.
To make the filling, melt butter in a large pan on high heat. Add apples, and zest stirring until coated. Sprinkle sugar, and saute, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, liquid has thickened, and apples are almost golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a baking sheet, and let cool to room temperature.
To assemble, flour surface lightly. Roll chilled dough into a 1/4-inch-thick circle. Place dough on cookie sheet ( I used a pizza pan!). Mound cooled apple mixture in center, leaving a 3-inch border. Fold edges of the dough on top of apples, overlapping and leaving about a 6-inch round opening. Feel free to ‘tear off” any large amounts of excess dough. You can trim it with a pizza cutting as well before placing on baking sheet. Refrigerate until dough is firm, about 30 minutes.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush edge of crust with egg, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until pastry is golden brown and apples are tender, about 30-40 minutes, up to 50 minutes if needed.Ciao~ Enjoy :)* I think the dough really makes this Crostata, but I may just use a regular apple pie filling next time, without the additional cooking, and butter. I also used two who eggs instead of four egg yolks this time, as I did not want to waste four egg whites =)

Lainey was helping too, of course. =)

Raw, Vegan

Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

August 9, 2011

That title is a mouthful! Almost as big of a mouthful as these yummy little things themselves 😉

The other night I had a craving for something sweet, quick, and somewhat good for you. I knew just where to look for some inspiration. Averie’s website Love’s Veggies and Yoga always has so many great recipe’s for quick sweets requiring little ingredients!

These are perfect for a sweet tooth moment, and also to munch on while studying. Like me. Tomorrow is my first final for the summer semester. I already handed in two final papers, one 15 pages long! And now have two final exams. Then I get two weeks off before fall semester begins. The only good thing is Adam and I are going to VEGAS at the end of August. I cannot wait!! I love Vegas.

For the recipe I used my new KitchenAid food processor, if you don’t own a food processor you can definitely use a blender. However, after reading other people’s opinions before I now know that a processor and blender are definitely not the same! I love love love using a processor. It can do so much!

The other night I made these with cocoa camino organic chocolate chips, but since I ate all those, I simply made some chocolate chunks (to make it a true vegan recipe) by combinging cocoa with vanilla and (supposed to be Agave syrup but I didn’t have any) so I used maple syrup. You combine it all, place it between some saran wrap and roll into a flat thin rectangle then freeze. Once frozen, cut into tiny chunks. I actually preferred the chocolate chips but this will do in a pinch. Also, the original recipe called for cashews, I had none so I used Almonds instead.

Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls
Recipe adapted from Averie @ Love’s Veggies and Yoga

Ingredients:

2/3 c Almonds
1/3 c Whole Rolled Oats – Not instant or quick oats (I used gluten & wheat free from TJ’s)
2 Tsp. Maple Syrup
1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
6 Whole Dates
2 Tbs. Unsweetened Coconut
1/4 cup Chocolate Chips

Gather up your ingredients

Combine Oats and Almonds in your blender

Mix together until it becomes an Almond / Oat flour

Add the Vanilla and syrup and blend again. It will begin to clump togeher

Add in the dates next and blend once again

Pour the coconut in next and blend once more

Lastly, add in your chocolate chips and mix until just blended. It will clump together more

Once you mixed in the chocolate chips, using your hand scoop out a small amount, a few tablespoons worth and form into balls.

Lastly, eat them! They taste just like cookie dough. You can leave out the coconut if you like or add other ingredients. Maybe raisins and cinnamin for oatmeal-raisin cookies? Yum!

These are more like coconut-chocolate cookie dough balls. I think I will go get some cashews and try to make it with those for a more chocolate-chip cookie dough feel, as it seems more smooth and dough-like. These are almost like a raw macaroon style! And oh-so-good too.

These are the ones I made first! I prefer the whole chocolate chips to the ‘raw vegan’ ones. I also had a few cashews that I used up in these ones.

The perfect summer treat! No bake, and full of delicious ingredients! I would suggest storing them in a reusable container, plastic bag or saran wrap for 1-2, maybe 3 days. If they last that long 😉

Home, Life, Vancouver

Some Finds & DIY

August 8, 2011

So this past weekend I said we went on a culinary store adventure downtown. First stop was Anthropologie. I already want to go back there. Like, now. Somehow I think Adam will make me wait a little while until, ya know, maybe when I have a job and I’m not a poor student? Maybe. We’ll see about that one…

Anyways, what I did buy I absolutely love. I said before we were trying to decide on those cute little knobs, but we could not agree on one, and I probably had about 5 favourites. They were about 8-14$ each so I didn’t want to choose something we both wouldn’t like in the apartment.

Remember these mugs? I saw them as soon as I walked to the back of the store. I have seen them all over the blog-sphere and obviously, wanted to jump on the mug bandwagon. I don’t even drink coffee. I do have tea though, and that requires a mug right? Well, I was swooning over them when Adam came up and while I was saying I wanted one, he quickly informed me that we already owned one. WHAT? How could I not know this?? We have lived together for a year this month! How did this escape me?? I guess not drinking out of a mug every day will show me. But, alas, when we got home he produced an A mug from the cupboard. Apparently his mom bought it for him! All I want to know is, where’s mine?? 😉 hehe just kidding! See, we have the same initial, A (Alicia & Adam), so I GUESS we can share. Though, secretly, I wanted to buy another one anyways. Maybe a C for my last name??

For now, I can rest assured we have one in our house that I can use 🙂 I am now apart of the initial club mug. Do you own one? What’s your initial??

I found this pretty little flower bowl in the sale section of Anthropologie. I always take off my jewelry at the end of the day while I’m doing homework or blogging on my computer in the living room. Now I have a cute little place to put it, so I’m not running around looking for it or asking Adam for the 100th time if he has seen my earrings.

I couldn’t not go home with a few of those little colourful bowls. I chose four of the smaller ones, 3$ each in a few different colours. I love them for using when taking photos for the blog, and for prep bowls. They also had purple, blue, brown, and red. These colours go well with our apartment colours and were so brightly coloured.

I love this bowl. I am always looking for unique and pretty serving dishes. Our poor little kitchen cupboards are about to burst. But a bowl like this can be on display on the counter as well. Maybe a fruit bowl? That would make it our third fruit bowl.

There was something else that caught my attention while we were shopping in Anthro. Did you notice whe was behind those pretty intial mugs? ^^ A wall of magazine stacks. I pointed it out to Adam and he agreed that it looked pretty sweet, and totally able to do this at home. It’s just a stack of similar magazines, 8-10 stacked together and bundled with zap-straps. Luckily I have an electrician boyfriend, with ample amounts of zap-straps at his disposal.

Ta-Da! Seriously, so simple and it looks good! A great way to keep magazines in order that you don’t want to throw away. Plus, you can keep adding to it as you go. I’ll definitely be adding more!