Apple Chocolate Muffins

Today is the Day of the Apple in Norway.... No, it's got nothing to do with Steve Jobs' passing away or any of those beloved iProducts... Just those ordinary old fashioned apples... To celebrate this "huge" event, I made some Apple Chocolate Muffins.

As October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I bought some pink muffin forms to support the Pink Ribbon Campaign. Would you like to support this great cause, you can buy these muffin forms online at Cacas - a Norwegian supplier of baking and cake decorating equipment.

Apple Chocolate Muffins
(makes about 18)

Ingredients:
125 gr butter, melted
4,5 dl all-purpose flour
1 dl sugar
2 tsp baking powder
300 gr vanilla quark
2 eggs
75 gr dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2-3 apples, skinned, deseeded and chopped finely
1 dl dessicated coconut

Preparation:
1.) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2.) Melt the butter and set aside.
3.) Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder into a medium sized bowl.
4.) Add the eggs, vanilla quark and melted butter and stir, turning the mixture into a dough.
5.) Add the dark chocolate and the pieces of apple and stir.
5.) Line a muffin tin with paper cups and fill each cup two thirds up.
6.) Sprinkle a little dessicated coconut on each muffin. (I made some without the coconut sprinkled on top, and I definitely prefered those with coconut...it made all the different tastes of vanilla, chocolate and apple come together!)
7.) Bake the muffins for 25 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.
8.) Let the muffins cool down for five minutes in the muffin tin, before removing them to a rack to cool down more.

Hubby rating: 3

Enjoy!

Tilslørte bondepiker...

... is the name of a typical, traditional Norwegian dessert. After living in Norway for over nine years, I still have no clue why this delicious and easy dessert is called "Veiled Farm Girls". I have been given several different explanations, but none of them seem "true" to me, so I guess I will never get to know the story behind the name and the invention of this dessert.

Anyway, I made this dessert today as it's Norwegian Apple Day today and as apple sauce is one of the ingredients in this traditional dessert.


Tilslørte bondepiker / Veiled Farm Girls
(4 persons)

Ingredients:
oatmeal cookies or sweet crispbreads, crushed
walnuts, crushed
cinnamon
cream, whipped

- for the apple sauce:
0,5 kg of apple, peeled, deseeded and chopped
3 tbsp water
2 tbsp of sugar

1.) Crush the oatmeal cookies/crispbreads and walnuts ( I just put them into a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush them - a great way to get rid of some hidden frustrations!).
2.) Mix the oatmeal cookie crumbs and walnut crumbs with cinnamon, and set aside.

3.) Whip the cream, and set aside.

4.) Boil the chopped apples together with water and sugar, until softened.
5.) Turn of the heat and use a mixer or blender to turn it into a sauce.

6.) Layer whipped cream, apple sauce and the crumb mixture into tall glasses and finish with a layer of crumbs.

Serve and enjoy !!!

Blackberry Apple Crumble Cake

With the weather changing along with the season, it won't be long until the market stalls in the city centre disappear almost as sudden as they arrived in spring. So last Friday I took advantage of the opportunity of still being able to get some fresh berries at the market. The selection definitely had shrunk, but I got a couple of baskets of blackberries - especially because only hours before I had found a recipe for Blackberry Apple Crumble Cake on the website of BBC's Good Food Magazine.

I made it on Sunday, as we were expecting the in-laws to drop by for dinner. Well, guess what? The doorbell rang the second I took the cake out of the oven. Great timing! I served the cake lukewarm with vanilla ice cream. In one word......DELICIOUS!!!

Blackberry Apple Crumble Cake
(Ø 20 cm; serves 8)

Ingredients:
- for the cake:
175 gr butter
150 gr golden caster sugar, pluss 1 tbsp
3 eggs, beaten
200 gr all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
150 gr crème fraîche
150 gr blackberries
4 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges each

- for the crumble:
50 gr butter
50 gr brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
75 gr all-purpose flour
50 gr hazelnuts, roughly chopped

- to serve:
3-4 tbsp clear honey or maple syrup
vanilla ice cream or crème fraîche

1.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2.) Butter and line a Ø 20 cm springform tin with baking parchment.
3.) Make the crumble topping by melting the flour. Then mix in the brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and chopped hazelnuts. Stir well and set aside.
4.) Heat 25 gr of butter in a large frying pan. Add 1 tbsp of caster sugar and the apple wedges. Cook for about 10 minutes until the apples are tender and golden. Set aside and cool.
5.) Beat together in a large bowl the remaining butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.
6.) Gradually mix in the eggs.
7.) Using a large metal spoon, fold in the flour and baking powder.
8.) Add the crème fraiche and mix until smooth.
9.) Spoon roughly two-thirds of the cake mixture into the tin, spread level and scatter over one-third of the crumble mixture.
10.) Top with the remaining cake mixture and level again, then scatter over another third of the crumble mixture.
11.) Arrange the apple wedges and blackberries on top, and top with the remaining crumble.
12.) Bake on the lower rack of the oven for about 1,5 hours. Loosely cover the top of the cake with a sheet of baking parchment or foil halfway through the cooking time if it is browning too quickly.
13.) Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes and then transfer to a serving plate.
14.) Drizzle warm honey over the cake.
15.) Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or crème fraîche.

Enjoy!!!