Chewy Oatmeal Cookies with Lemon & Raisins

The next batch is baked. And again: it's oatmeal cookies! My constant posts about different kinds of oatmeal cookies might be irretating or even annoying and I apologize for that, but I can't help it. Someday I might even write a book called 'Confessions of an Oatmeal Cookie Addict'. 

These cookies contain a little bit more sugar than I use in general which is a big minus for this recipe, but the extremely chewy consistency mixed with a fruity lemony taste as well as some raisins remains just unbeatable. I'm definitely adding this recipe to my list of favorites (which is probably endless) but nevertheless, I'm going to reduce the amount of sugar the next time.

Chewy Oatmeal Lemon Raisin Cookies
makes about 4 dozen medium to big size cookies

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups oats
1.5 cups sugar (as already said, for me 1 cup or even 3/4 might be enough, use as much as you wish)
3/4 cup oil
1 cup apple juice (or any juice you like)
a pinch of salt
2 tsp of finely grated lemon zest
200gm dark raisins

Line 3 - 4 baking sheets with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 200 C. (Yes those are baked at a very high temperature which gives them nicely crispy sides and a soft and chewy inside.) Whisk together flour and baking powder. Add the sugar, oil, apple juice, salt and lemon zest. Whisk well until incorporated. Now fold in the oats and raisins and mix well. For each cookie drop about 1 tsp of cookie batter onto the lined baking sheet, if you want medium size cookies. Use about half a teaspoon of batter for smaller cookies. Continue to drop the batter on the baking sheets leaving some space in between as the cookies will slightly melt and spread while baking. Bake for about 10 - 12 minutes. After 10 or 12 minutes they might still look undone but please do yourself a favour and don't leave them in the oven for longer than this, you don't want to end up with burned cookies that taste like wood. 10 minutes are perfectly fine. 

Enjoy them with some coffee or tea (I dunked them, as always...)

Simple Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (Eggless)

You definitely don't want to live without the experience of eating a fresh and still hot cookie with big melted chocolate chunks in it. Go one step further and sprinkle the top of the cookie dough with some sugar before baking, for a sweet and crunchy sugar crust. Then make yourself a cup of hot strong coffee or tea and dunk your fresh from the oven chocolate chip oatmeal cookie in it. If you think I'm overdoing it, you're mistaken. This can enormously sweeten up your life. And that's what cookies are made for, right?!

This is the first eggless oatmeal cookie recipe that I've ever tried. I'm actually not into eating vegan at all (I'm sorry, beef steak is my passion...) but I got this recipe from a very good friend of mine who is vegan. And since I needed to indulge my passion for oatmeal cookies I just had to bake them right away. As already said, they turned out really good, seriously. Although I - for some reason - prefer baking cookies using eggs, this is still a very simple and delicious recipe and I'm definitely going to bake these again as soon as possible.

Simple Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (Eggless)
makes about 20 medium size cookies

1 c sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch salt
2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 c apple juice (or any juice you like)
2 c oats
100gm chocolate chips (or just regular chocolate, chopped in small pieces)

Preheat your oven to 150 C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients, just throw everything together and whisk well until you have a very sticky and lumpy dough. Drop tablespoons of batter on the lined baking sheets (I used between 1 and 1.5 tablespoons of dough for each cookie). Bake for about 25 minutes until done and nicely golden. Enjoy warm and fresh from the oven or completely cooled.

Optional: To get a nice sugar crust, sprinkle the top of the cookies with a little bit of sugar before you place them in the oven.

Yeasted Apple Pancakes

Coming from a family of many different races and ethnicities I grew up learning a lot about the Kazakh, Greek, Russian, Armenian, German, Korean, Jewish and Ukrainian cuisine, to mention only a few. Korean glass noodle salad, Russian black bread, Armenian kefir and Kazakh syrup sweets - as a child, I had all of this together (Goodness, I'll never forget the good old days...) If you are also of a mixed family background you'll probably know what I'm talking about. But anyway, I'm straying from the subject, let's get back to the main story I wanted to talk about: yeasted apple pancakes. As a child, I ate a lot of pancakes. No matter if those were Russian or German or Greek pancakes, no matter if they were made with buttermilk, yeast or whole wheat flour, no matter if I added honey or jam or cream cheese on top - I've tried endlessly many different kinds of pancakes. And, honestly, I still haven't fallen out of love with pancakes. They're always great, no matter what. That's why I wanted to share an amazingly delicious pancake recipe with you which uses yeast for the batter, apple slices for the top and which is perfect for a warm, fruity and sweet breakfast meal. Trust me. These. Are. Simply. Good.

Yeasted Apple Pancakes

250gm flour (I was using regular white flour, use whole wheat flour if you prefer to live on the healthy side of life)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 Tabsp sugar
20gm fresh yeast, in crumbles or small pieces
250gm warm milk
3 Tabsp melted butter or margarine
3 eggs
2 apples, in thick slices
some butter for frying

In a large glass bowl, combine flour, salt and cinnamon and mix well. Slightly press in the top of the flour mixture using your fingers to make sort of a pit or deepening, in which you have to place the crumbled yeast, sugar, melted butter and milk. Gently stir, just until a bit combined and let sit for a few minutes until the yeast mixture on top of the dry mixture starts to get light and foamy. Add eggs and start beating the batter using a hand mixer on high speed until everything is well incorporated. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or a plastic wrap and let sit at a very warm place for about 40 - 60 minutes until the batter has risen a little bit. Now make the pancakes: melt some butter in a frying pan at medium heat, drop about 2 - 3 tablespoons of batter in the pan and place one apple slice on top of the pancake. Fry on both sides at medium heat for about 3 minutes until golden brown. Continue until batter and apple slices are used up. 

Serve while still warm adding some liquid honey or maple syrup on top of the pancakes.

 

Apple Chocolate Cheesecake

The combination of a nice buttery crust, a heavy chocolate cheesecake and a fruity apple cake is weird. I admit that. But still, it's really worth trying. If you are a passionate breakfast lover like me you're going to adore this cake. It's perfect for breakfast. 

Apple Chocolate Cheesecake

dough
5 Tabsp butter
1 1/4 cups flour
1 egg
a pinch of salt
1 Tabsp sugar
1/4 cup water

Combine the ingredients for the base. Place on a floured surface and knead until the dough is soft and elastic. Roll it out. Line a medium size baking pan. Place the dough in the lined baking pan with the sides of the dough hanging out.

batter/filling
500gm curd cheese
2 eggs
100gm butter
150gm chocolate
2 Tabsp corn starch
5 Tabsp semolina
3 Tabsp cocoa powder
100gm sugar

+ 5 large baking apples, cut into slices or pieces
 
Preheat the oven to 200C. Melt together the butter and chocolate in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, curd cheese and sugar. Sift together the dry ingredients and sieve over the wet mixture. Beat in quickly until incorporated. 
Arrange half of the apple slices on the dough in the baking pan and spread about one half of the cheesecake mixture on top of the apples. Arrange the remaining apples on the cake mixture and spread the rest of the batter on the apples.
Fold back the sides of the dough. Bake for about 40 - 50 minutes until done and nicely browned. 
Dust with some icing sugar if you like.

 

 

 

 

Viennese Apfelstrudel

After two posts about baking with apples I honestly still don't have enough of them. You can create soo many delicious things using apples, they seem to be kind of a miracle in my kitchen. There are things like apple jam, apple buns, apple muffins, apple pancakes, apple cakes, apple tarts and no matter where you put the apples in, everything turns out delicious. That's why I'm going to show you another amazing apple recipe. I'm not Austrian and I've never been to Vienna but the traditional viennese Apfelstrudel is what I fell in love with.

Viennese Apfelstrudel

dough
250gm white flour
2gm salt
1 egg
100gm lukewarm water
20gm oil

some melted butter for brushing
some sliced almonds for sprinkling

filling
1kg apples, in pieces or chunks
140gm sugar
10gm cinnamon
170gm raisins
50gm melted butter

Combine the ingredients for the dough using your hands and knead until the dough becomes very elastic and soft. Add a bit more oil if the dough sticks to your fingers.
Place in a bowl and let sit for about 30 minutes.

Combine the ingredients for the filling and mix well.
Preheat oven to 190C.
Roll out the dough in a rectangular shape on a floured surface. The dough should be very thin. Place a clean towel on the rolled out dough and roll it in very carefully making sure not to tear the dough.Flip over the rolled in towel and roll it out in the opposite direction so that the dough is now on top of the towel and not unterneath.
Arrange the filling evenly on top of the dough leaving the sides without filling.
Fold in the sides of the dough. Slowly roll in the dough with the filling using the towel.
Place on a lined baking sheet. Brush with some melted butter and sprinkle some sliced almonds on top.
Bake for about 30 - 40 minutes until golden brown. 
Enjoy :)

Apple Cinnamon Rolls ❤

Let me introduce to you the best baked stuff that has ever been made: the one and only apple cinnamon rolls. A soft and fluffy yeasted dough, heavy and sweet apple pieces and a lightly caramelized cinnamon sugar crust. The moment I took the fresh and hot rolls out of the oven we just couldn't resist the impulse to eat almost everything within few minutes...

Apple Cinnamon Rolls

dough
42gm fresh yeast, in crumbles
3 Tabsp sugar
450ml warm milk
180gm melted butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1kg white flour
2 tsp salt
a pinch of nutmeg
+ some milk for brushing

Combine yeast, sugar and half of the milk in a glass bowl and let sit until the mixture is creamy and bubbly and the sugar is dissolved.
Sieve flour, salt and nutmeg into a very large glass bowl. Add the yeast mixture, butter, remaining milk and eggs. Stir with a wooden spoon until well incorporated. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead on a floured surface for about 4 minutes until the texture becomes very soft and elastic. 
Put it back into the glass bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and let rise at a very warm place for about 1 hour.

apple filling
2 cups apples in very small pieces
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon (or as much as desired)
1/2 cup sugar

Combine the ingredients for the filling. 
Line a baking sheet or a deep baking pan with baking paper.
Take the risen dough out of the glass bowl and knead again for a few minutes. Roll it out evenly into a rectangular shape.
Arrange the apple mixture on the rolled out dough and spread evenly.
Carefully roll in the dough and cut into 12 equal parts. Place the 12 rolls in the lined baking pan. (Sprinkle with even more sugar and cinnamon, if wanted.)
Let rise again at a very warm place for about another hour. Brush the top with some milk.
Preheat oven to 175C. Bake for about 35 - 45 minutes until golden brown.
Enjoy.

Torta Di Mele

Does this cake need any introduction? To be honest, no. It's an Italian recipe which has no complicated baking procedure, no special ingredients, just some fresh apples and a simple batter. The result is stunning. This is one of the fluffiest and softest cakes I've ever baked, so, believe me, it's absolutely worth trying!

Torta Di Mele

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/4 cup white flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 Tabsp cream (or milk)
+ 3 - 4 apples, thinly sliced
+ some sliced almonds for sprinkling, if desired

Preheat oven to 175C. Line a round tart pan with baking paper. Whisk together sugar, butter, eggs and lemon zest until well combined. Sieve over flour together with baking powder and whisk it in until there are no lumps left. Add cream and whisk in as well. 

The batter should be pretty liquid but very smooth.

Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. Arrange apples on top, sprinkle almonds onto the sliced apples. Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown. Let cool completely.

And enjoy.

Galette aux pommes

The french cuisine is quite impressive and this french galette aux pommes is one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten. So, am I going to write this post in french then? Nope. Let me tell you about my yummy galette in a less complicated language...

Do you love a lightly browned crust combined with soft and sweet apples as much as I do? This galette has quite everything that a bakerheart can ask for. The sides are a bit crispy, the inside is soft and moist, the dough is incredibly easy to prepare and the result is yumyum. Apples can be replaced by pears, yogurt can be replaced by sour cream, so just take out some simple ingredients and start. Seriously, you don't wanna miss this...

Galette aux pommes

1 1/4 cup white flour

8 Tabsp cold butter or margarine

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup yogurt or sour cream

3 Tabsp cold water

1/2 cup white sugar

2-3 apples, thinly sliced

some sugar for sprinkling (I was using about 1 tablespoon)

Place flour, salt, sugar and cold butter into a bowl and combine using a fork (or your fingers) until you have a very crumbly mixture.

Add yogurt and water and knead until you achieve a dough which has a smooth and soft texture. If the dough is still dry or crumbly, add some water and knead in, and if it's still too sticky sieve over some flour and knead in as well.

Cover with a plastic wrap and let sit in fridge for about 2 hours. (The dough can be prepared even a day before baking and let sit in fridge over night.)

Preheat oven to 175C.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Take your cooled dough out of the fridge and place it onto the lined baking sheet. Roll it out or strech with your fingers evenly to a round shape.

Arrange the thinly sliced apples on top, as you wish. Sprinkle with sugar.

Fold the sides of the dough onto the apples and gently press them on.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes until golden browned.

Let cool completely and dust with icing sugar, if desired.

Enjoy. 

It's Chai Time ~ Apple Spice Cake

What is the right thing to do when you have a large bucket of baking apples in your kitchen?? Yes, it's wise to take some butter, eggs and milk out of the fridge and combine them with flour and a LOT of cinnamon. A perfect apple cake on a cold fall day can't exist without cinnamon. A LOT of cinnamon.

Some weeks ago I was reading the blog of David Lebovitz and found a nice picture of an apple kugelhupf. So I baked it, immediately. With a LOT of cinnamon. It turned out wonderfully soft, spicey and fruity. I have to admit, that I was missing some raisins. Although David's recipe doesn't mention any raisins and this simple apple cake is pretty delicious even without raisins, I totally missed them. As soon as possible I'm going to bake this cake again, but raisins definitely have to be in there.

Apple Spice Cake
adapted from David Lebovitz

apples
30gm butter
4 large baking apples (or more)
40gm sugar

Melt butter in a medium size saucepan on medium heat. Add apples and cook until they turn golden. Add sugar, stir and continue cooking until apples are nicely browned and glazed. Remove from heat and let cool a bit.

batter
170gm butter or margarine (I cut down to 140gm)
200gm sugar (original recipe says 350gm)
4 eggs
1 cup dates, in pieces (I skipped this as I didn't have any dates)
420gm flour
2 Tabsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 Tabsp cinnamon
120g milk (original recipe says yogurt)

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a large bundt pan.

Beat butter and sugar using a mixer on high speed until fluffy. Beat in eggs until very light and bubbly. Add milk and beat in as well.

Sieve over flour, baking powder and spices. Quickly beat in just until incorporated.

Gently fold in the cooled apples.

Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes, then take out of the pan. 

Let cool completely.

Dust with icing sugar if desired.

It's Chai Time ~ Jewish Cake

I don't know if this cake can be called 'jewish cake' cause the recipe for the batter is adapted from a jewish apple cake but I did not want an apple cake. So I decided to skip the part with apples and just bake the batter. (Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen). 

However, this cake is soft, fluffy and delicious. My mom loves this cake even more than I do, I think I definitely have to bake this cake again.

Jewish Cake

3 cups white flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup orange lemonade (or orange juice)
1 tsp salt


Preheat oven to 160degC. Grease a bundt pan (or a basic round pan). Sieve together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together oil, lemonade, sugar and eggs, until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture and whisk until well combined. Bake for about 1h - 1.5h until done. Enjoy :)

I think I did not use enough butter when greasing the bundt pan, I wasn't able to remove the cake from the pan. That's why I just left the cake in there, to avoid breaking the cake. 


Thanks for reading :)

Gulchathaii

It's Chai Time ~ Plum Apple Syrup Cake

This is one of the easiest but yummiest cakes ever. Maybe it doesn't look as delicious as it tastes, but I think that's going to get better in time, after all I'm not a professional baker and I don't plan to be one. 

 Simple Plum Apple Cake

3 cups flour
1 teasp baking powder
1 cup semolina
1 cup sugar
1 cup very soft butter
1.5 cups milk
4 eggs

2 - 3 cups plums mixed with apples, in small pieces
2 tabsp sugar
some whole almonds for sprinkling


Preheat oven to 175degC. Butter 2 baking pans. Combine flour, baking powder and semolina. Put sugar and milk into a small saucepan on medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves, remove from heat and let cool. Lightly beat together eggs and butter. Combine syrup and egg mixture by lightly beating. Add flour mixture and lightly beat in as well until incorporated. The batter should be light and smooth but not sticky. Fill some tablespoons of the batter on the bottom of the baking pans and spread all over. Place some plums and apples on top, cover with batter again. Repeat until batter and fruits are used up. Sprinkle the top with sugar and almonds. Bake for about 30-35 minutes until done. Let cool and enjoy :)

 

The batter of the cake was amazingly soft and delicious but still, I think that plums and apples do not go well together, I'm definitely going to use other sorts of fruits next time.

 Anyways, thanks a lot for reading :)

Gulchathaii

It's Chai Time ~ Rhubarb Cake With Stripes

And rhubarb again. Before I made the rhubarb muffins, I baked this cake. This is an adaption of an traditional kazakh cake which I love, so this cake is one of my favorite ones. Enjoy :)

Rhubarb Cake With Stripes

Batter
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tabsp сметана (or yogurt, not low fat!)
1 cup spelt flour

Filling 
about 1.5 - 2 cups rhubarb, in small pieces


Topping/Stripes (opional)
50gm sugar
50gm melted butter
50gm spelt flour


Preheat the oven to 200degC. Combine the ingredients for the batter and mix until smooth. Fill into a lightly greased round pan. Cover with rhubarb pieces. 
(for the stripes: make sure that the butter is melted completely. mix ingredients and knead until smooth. devide into pieces and form the pieces into stripes. place on the rhubarb)
Bake for about 40 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. 

Absolutely delicious. One of the best cakes ever. This cake is even good with a streusel mixture on the top, like nuts with cinnamon or something like that... It's also great with apples instead of rhubarb, originally it's made with apples. 


That's it for today :) Thanks for reading

Gulchathaii

Avocado Apple Streusel Cake

There was this very ripe avocado in the fruit bowl in our kitchen and I was like 'what am I gonna do with this thing' cause I don't like eating plain avocados but I never ever throw away food (in my opinion throwing away food is ridiculous cause there are people on this planet who don't have anything to eat). Then I remembered a recipe for an yummi apple cake from wendyinkk.blogspot.com (her recipes are wonderful!) where she used mashed bananas and then I was like 'hey why not using mashed avocado instead of mashed bananas?!'.

Avocado Apple Streusel Cake


Batter
200gm whole wheat flour
1 tesp baking powder
100gm melted margarine
100gm sugar (or reduce it to 80gm)
2 eggs
1 very ripe mashed avocado


Streusel Mixture
40gm brown sugar
50gm chopped hazelnuts
(50gm chocolate chips, if desired)


+ 1 apple, thinly sliced


Preheat oven to 175degC. Lightly grease the bottom of a round pan. Combine flour and baking powder. Combine melted margarine, sugar, eggs and mashed avocado, mix well. Add flour mixture, mix well. Prepare streusel mixture (add more nuts, if desired, or use almonds/walnuts/pecans/...). Fill the batter into the pan, spread around. Place apple slices on the batter. Cover with streusel mixture. Bake for about 40-45 minutes. Let cool completely. 

As avocado is very fat and oily I reduced the margarine, but it was still too much. Maybe 60-80gm would be enough. Anyways, the cake was/is very yummi, I'm definitely going to bake this cake again. 

 Gulchathaii