Apple Month: Apple Cinnamon Yoghurt Pancakes

We made these cute pancakes for Mabon and then totally forgot to blog them. I think that everyone had apple pancakes in some point of their life. I always thought they were nice but not too special. These pancakes however are totally delicious. I think the great difference is that instead of just added apple slices on your pancake, the apple is grated in the batter. I loved this idea! The original recipe is from Julia's Album.

Apple Cinnamon Yoghurt Pancakes (makes 12)
- 1 egg
- 0.5 cup Greek yoghurt
- 0.5 cup + 2 tablespoons half-and-half (we don't have that in the Netherlands so use 12% light cream)
- 1 cup flour
- 0.5 tsp baking powder
- 0.25 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon
- 0.25 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large Fuji apple

Mix egg, Greek yoghurt and cream together in a large bowl until evenly mixed. Then add all the other ingredients, except the apple and mix well until creamy. Peel and core the apple. Then grate it by hand or in a food processor. Add apple for the mixture and stir through.

Heat a bit of oil in a pan suitable for pancakes. Add about 0.25 cup of pancake batter at a time for 1 pancake and bake until golden brown underneath. The upper side will puff up and dry around the edges. Then flip the pancake. Bake them for about 2-3 minutes on the other side.

For serving use powdered sugar and syrup. We had agave syrup.

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Apple Month: Yoghurt Cake with Apple and Raspberries

I am very sorry that I haven't been able to post any other recipes in between the last apple recipe and this one. But at least I want to post the apple baked goods I made :)
This cake is another one from the Appeltaart book I got for my b-day. I choose for this recipe because the raspberries are still in season and I don't eat them enough ;) It is best to make this cake when you have a lot of people over to eat them right away. This cake is really delicious when served warm, but doesn't keep very well.

Yoghurt Cake with Apple and Raspberries
- 1 hand apple
- 100 gr raspberries
- 100 gr sugar
- 50 gr unsalted butter on room temperature
- 2 eggs
- 75 ml full fat yoghurt
- 100 gr self rising flour
- 1 tbsp grated almonds
- pinch of salt

Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees. Peel and cube the apple. Mix the apple in the oven dish with the raspberries and 25 gr sugar.
Mix butter with 75 gr sugar and a pinch of salt. Add the eggs one by one, mixing in between. Then add the yoghurt and mix again. Lastly sift the flour and mix until you have a smooth batter.
Scoop the batter over the fruit in the oven dish. Finish it off with the almonds. Bake for 40-45 minutes.
Serve warm.

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Apple Month: Apple Flapjacks

Last month was shortbread month, and I really liked baking with a theme :) Of course I won't bake every month with a theme, but because apple season has started and I got a book on baking with apples for my b-day, it seemed like a good excuse to use this book and blog a lot of apple recipes.

Apple flapjacks seem to be British from origin and are eaten as breakfast or snack bars. This falls in the fairly healthy snack category. But still the sugar content is rather high, but for 1 portion it is not too bad. Especially if you make 12 portion of it instead of the original 6. Of course in this case it really is a snack and no breakfast ;) I choose to make this recipe because we had some maple syrup that was about to expire. Originally this is made with golden syrup, but this works just as well.

Apple Flapjacks (6-12 portions)
- 100 gr unsalted butter (margarine for vegan)
- 100 gr light brown castor sugar
- 100 gr golden syrup (or maple syrup)
- 200 gr oats
- 2 small hand apples
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Optional you can also add dried apple, nuts, raisins, dried cranberries or pine nuts.

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees. Melt in a pan the butter, syrup and sugar. Remove from heat and add oats and cinnamon. Peel and cube the apples and add them to the mixture. Place a baking sheet in an oven dish and scoop the mixture in the dish. Flatten the top with a spoon. Place in the oven for about 30 minutes. Leave to cool for 15 minutes before cutting. This way the outside gets crispy and the inside stays soft. Of course mine crumbled apart ;) But they were still good :)

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Shortbread Month: Blackberry and White Chocolate Shortbread

This will be the last post in the shortbread month. We have tried a variety of recipes to expand the number of different shortbread cookies on the blog. We have found out that the most basic recipes are the best ones. But that shortbread is very forgiving when you add extra ingredients. I know that we won't stop making shortbread because the theme has ended on the blog :D

The recipe that we will be sharing today is another seasonal treat. The recipe was originally with dried cherries, but we couldn't find those and the season for fresh cherries had already ended. So we came up with blackberries which are in season now. I did have to get used to the blackberry flavour for a bit because I haven't eaten them a lot, but the combination with the white chocolate is very nice. They are a but unruly though. These cookies can also be served at Mabon festivities because blackberries are a fruit that is used in a lot of Mabon dishes. The original recipe for Cherry and white chocolate shortbread cookies came from Joyful Scribblings.

Blackberry and White Chocolate Shortbread
- 2 cups butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 cups flour
- 75 gr white chocolate chips
- 1.5 cups blackberries

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees. Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the flour and mix until combined. Carefully stir in chocolate and blackberries. Drop rounded tbsps of dough on a baking sheet and flatten each drop slightly. Bake for about 15 minutes.

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FoodBlogSwap: Apple Sauce

For this months Foodblogswap I was cooking from a blog called Gewoon Lekker Koken. The blog has some easy accessible recipes and is just about non nonsense and tasty food. It seems that I am getting in the habit of cooking multiple recipes from a blog in the past months, because I did so again this month. I choose the apple sauce because it was something that was on my to make list for a long time, but I never felt comfortable enough to do so. But it seemed easy enough, so I thought I would give it a try. Especially since Mabon was approaching at the time I made this and apple recipes fit that theme perfectly. Mine did turn out a bit then. Maybe I used a bit too much water, but it was tasty!

 
Home made Apple Sauce (serves 2)
- 1 apple per person (so in this case 2)
- sugar
- cinnamon

Peel the apples and cut them in little pieces. Bring apples with a tiny bit of water to a boil. Turn heat to low and leave the apples to simmer until they are soft. Stir regularly and break up the apples each time you do so. It will take about 30 minutes for the apples to soften. When the apples are soft, transfer them to a bowl and mash them until you have the structure you want. We used the handheld blender because we like a smooth apple sauce. But just mash it with a fork, if you like it chunky. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste.

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Mabon: Maple Shortbread Cookies

Yes, this is also the third post for shortbread month! But, it will be Mabon as well next Sunday, so I wanted to combine these two things :) I can't believe that in a few days it will be autumn already. Especially when we still have full blown summer temperatures this week. Still the change is already noticeable. Mushrooms are popping up everywhere. Anyway, on to the cookies. I ordered some leaf shaped cookie cutters to match the theme of Mabon for this recipe but it turned out they were mini cookie cutters. Of course you can use any cookie cutter you like. The original recipe for the maple cookies comes from All recipes. The recipe seemed very simple, however when I made it, it was one gooey mess. The original recipe stated 2 cups of flour, which normally would be fine to 1 cup butter, however because of the extra liquid of the maple syrup, I added an extra cup of flour to get a dough and not a batter. The cookies stay light, but are crispy and have a nice subtle maple after taste.

Maple Shortbread Cookies (makes 24 regular or two trays as shown with mini cookies)
- 3 cups flour
- 1 cup butter (use margarine for vegan cookies)
- 0.5 cup maple syrup
- 0.25 tsp salt

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees.
Mix the butter and maple syrup together until smooth. In a separate bowl stir the salt through the flour. Mix them together until just interoperated. Now you can form walnut size balls and flatten them a bit. Or you roll out the dough and use cookie cutters.
Bake them in the oven for about 12-15 minutes.

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