Apple Crumble

With all the chocolate and peanut butter and caramel going on around here and on the blog, even I'm getting tired of it and am itching for something fruity, and dare I say, healthy? That's why I was so grateful for the apples that SMB had so diligently collected from mealtime leftovers, with the express purpose of being baked. (This being the oft repeated condition that as long as you bring me some raw ingredient to bake with, I will make whatever you want!) So apple crumble it was! Simple yet homey, warming and satisfying. Sliced apples with some apple juice, some sugar, spice and thickener go into a dish and are topped with crumble. Easy! The intensity of the appley scent was so.. comforting, for lack of a better word. Oh, and inviting, too. In fact the scent of this crumble baking drew a whole line of students in seconds and the pan emptied even faster than that. I barely tasted a slice of apple! Thrilled to have something fruity and not so cloying, my craving was satisfied. It was so good! This week we have a three day trip coming up to the North of Israel, the Golan and the Galilee. That means that I'll be away and not posting. Don't miss me too much!

Apple Crumble

adapted from KAF Baker's Companion

Filling:

3 pounds apples, use any combination or one variety

1/4 cup apple juice

2 tbsp margarine, melted

dash vanilla

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

3 tbsp tapioca flour

1/4 tsp salt

Crumble Topping:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup quick cooking oats

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp baking powder

8 tbsp margarine

Preheat your oven to 350. Have ready a 9 inch deep dish pie plate or a 9x9 inch cake pan. Set aside.

Peel, core, and slice the apples. Place into a bowl.
To this, add all of the filling ingredients.
Stir vigorously to combine,
and pour the mixture into the prepared dish. Set aside while you assemble the crumb topping.
In a bowl, place all of the ingredients, except the margarine.
Stir together.
Add the margarine in pieces and rub together with your fingers until crumbly. Don't overmix, you want some nice big pieces and small ones, too.
Sprinkle evenly over the apples.Bake for about sixty-seventy minutes until golden brown and bubbly and delicious. Serve with ice cream or not. Let cool to lukewarm before serving.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

For those who know me well, the following should come as no surprise. I think I've mentioned before that I'm quite anal about throwing away anything I don't need and compulsively deleting anything on my hard drive that isn't useful to save space. Same goes for my ipod, my closet and my recipe files. I can't explain this tendency, but if it's lying around and it has no purpose, to the trash it goes, with no regrets. I'm the same regarding food. When I open a jar of something, I don't like to have it lying around on the pantry shelf forever. Such raw baking materials I would never throw out, G-d forbid!, but I do like to use it up as fast as I can. That's why, on the blog, you'll often see recipes starring the same ingredients posted very closely together. My jar of peanut butter was sitting on the shelf with about a cup left in it. Wednesday, my in day, seemed the perfect opportunity to use it all up. (Next week, I'll have to deal with the leftover dulce de leche!) I'd long been wanting to make a homemade version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups so working from a Baked recipe, I made them. They're fast, simple, adorable to look at, identical to the original and most importantly, supremely delicious, if a bit rich. These are made with but a few simple ingredients that you likely already have in the kitchen. The few who tasted these proclaimed these the best things I've ever made. Really? Not sure about that, but they were definitely up there. These are also so authentic looking that I swelled with pride every time someone pulled back the wrapper... This batch makes twenty four mini cups. If you can find black or brown mini muffin cups by all means use them. Your consumers are sure to be fooled. Be warned though.... these are far better than store bought....

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

based on Baked

Bottom Layer:

5 ounces milk chocolate

1 cup smooth peanut butter

Top Layer:

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1/2 tsp light corn syrup

4 tbsp butter or margarine

Line mini muffin tins with mini liners. You'll need two trays. Set aside.
Place the peanut butter and chocolate in pan,
and heat until melted. Stir until smooth.
Using a mini ice cream scoop, scoop this mixture evenly into all your liners. Set in the fridge to chill while you make the top.
Place the topping ingredients in a pan or a microwaveable bowl.
Melt, stirring until smooth.
Scoop this on top of the chilled peanut butter. Use a small offset spatula to spread the coating to the edges if necessary. Chill.
Serve. How easy was that??

Caramel Swirl Hunks

Another rain filled day. Boy am I glad I am inside on a day like this. Thankfully, this was an off day and an in day at SFW. The idea of walking around campus and trudging to class in this weather is not exactly my idea of appealing. Although I hope it's still rainy tomorrow, I would love to not be stuck in this and get to school safely. All I can say is, out come the rain boots! Anyway, in baking land... I recently purchased a container of dulce de leche (it's mehadrin, chalav yisrael, yay!!!) and couldn't wait to make something with it. I was going to make the Millionaire Shortbread from Baked (and I still might!) but instead I went for something far more low maintenance, but still equally delicious. I made these Caramel Swirl Hunks from my old favorite, A Passion for Baking. I haven't put it to use in a while and the photograph was really tempting. So that was a no-brainer. The recipe calls for ingredients that you'd have in your pantry on any given afternoon, except for the dulce de leche. But even that you could make at home if you happen to have sweetened condensed milk laying around your pantry. I cut this recipe in half because I couldnt stand the thought of using two cups of margarine and three cups of sugar to make a 9x13 inch pan. I know by cutting it in half and using a nine by nine inch pan, the proportion is still the same and this is by no means a guilt free recipe but...somehow I felt better about it. Don't ask me why. I had a bit of trouble swirling, a la the peanut butter brownies, and I would probably add more dulce de leche next time to insure that each bite has plenty but other than that no complaints at all. They turned out rich and moist and so full of buttery-milky caramely goodness. Anyone who tasted them loved them. Since we had meat for dinner (so they can't be eaten with anything milk), most girls will likely not being able to have them. But it's okay- at least I'll be fully prepared for the madrichot meeting tomorrow.

Caramel Swirl Hunks

from A Passion for Baking

(this recipe is easily doubled for baking in a nine by thirteen inch pan)

1 cup unsalted butter or margarine, melted

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3 tbsp white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup quick oats

2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 bottle dulce de leche-- I didnt use nearly this amount

Preheat your oven to 350. Line a nine by nine inch pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

Place the melted margarine and sugars in a bowl.
Whisk to combine.
Add the oats, eggs and vanilla,
and stir until smooth.
Add the dry ingredients,
and gently fold it in.
Add the chocolate,
and mix.
Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
Dollop the dulce de leche over the top, and swirl it as best as you can.
Bake for about 40 minutes or until batter is set. If they are still not ready after that amount of time, turn the oven down to 325 and bake an additional 15 minutes. Refrigerate or freeze for one hour. Cut and serve!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Brownie Bars

The rainy season is, thankfully, in full swing and winter is finally upon us! Friday morning, it began raining all over the country. I'm not talking about drizzling. I'm talking about such storms and such rain that the Kineret, pretty much our only natural fresh water source in Israel, has risen a few centimeters. This is a big deal as there's been a shortage of rain and we're totally dependent on G-d for our rain and sustenance. So thank G-d! Let the rains keep coming! As for the winter, today I finally wore a turtleneck and boots and tights! And wasnt the only one! I'm so excited! It's been hot for far too long. Anyway, this Shabbat was a sort of girl's weekend. I spent it in a city outside of Jerusalem called Maale Adumim with my friend L (who just got engaged!), A (whose birthday we were celebrating-- Happy birthday, didush!) and E. I had a good time meeting L's family and sisters and just catching up with the girls. Of course, as I was being hosted and we had a birthday to celebrate, I baked challot (they were raving about them!) and peanut butter chocolate brownies. Those were baked specially for A, the next best thing for her after Chocolate Mint Squares (which after making for her twice, I refuse to make again!). This recipe comes from Cindy Mushet's huge and authoritative baking tome, The Art and Soul of Baking. I've been wanting to bake from this for the longest time, but never had anything to bake from it until now. These brownies are nice and peanut buttery with a really good chew. They were addictive, just as the recipe describes them and they disappeared well before it was even officially A's birthday. I guess it doesnt really matter- as she had most of them :) Easy to assemble, I found the most annoying part to be that my peanut butter swirl sunk, possibly because I let them go a few minutes too long, or maybe because it just darkened in the oven and blended in. Either way, aesthetics were irrelevant because these really were delicious. I let my girls go at the scrap corners, and they agreed. Pretty much the only change I made was to omit the peanuts. But IMHO, no one missed them. Also, using a scale, if you have one, makes measuring the peanut butter a breeze.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Brownie Bars

from the Art and Soul of Baking

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1 stick unsalted butter or margarine, softened

2 cups brown sugar

3/4 cup (6 3/4 ounces) smooth peanut butter

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups (6 ounces) flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a nine by thirteen inch pan with a sheet of parchment. Set aside.

Break up the chocolate and place it in a saucepan.
Melt, stirring until smooth. Set aside.Place the sugar and margarine in a bowl.

Cream on medium for about five minutes until much lighter in color. The texture will be sandy- that's ok.Add the peanut butter,
and continue beating until the peanut butter is thoroughly incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add the eggs one a time,
(add the vanilla too!) and beat until well incorporated.
This is what you should have.
Add in your dry ingredients,
and stir without overmixing.
Remove half of the batter and add it to the chocolate mixture.
Combine the two as best as you can.
Take half of the remaining plain batter and spread it in an even layer in the pan. It will be skimpy, but that's fine.
Spoon the chocolate/peanut mixture over this bottom layer,
and spread it out evenly. An offset spatula helps here.
Dollop the remaining plain batter over the top,
and using a toothpick, swirl as attractively as you can manage. I didnt do such a good job. Oh well.
Bake the bars for 3-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. My swirl disappeared and so they look like ordinary brownies. But one bite..... Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for 20-30 minutes. Cut and plate!