Welcome Baby Chloe - Quick Apple Cake

For those of you that follow this page you are probably guessing that the reason I haven’t been around for a week or so is that yes I finally made it to the hospital & now have a gorgeous baby girl – Chloe. Both Michael & I are over the moon & loving every minute together as a new family. Today she is one week old & to celebrate I thought baking a cake was only due. As I haven’t really been up to any cooking yet, only having got back home on Saturday I kept things very simple & made a bit of an apple cake using yet again more Granny Smiths from the tree out the back.

This recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander’s ‘The Cooks Companion’. Very easy & was in the oven before Chloe cook utter a whimper of neglect. A nice cake to have with an afternoon cuppa.

Quick Apple Cake

2 cups peeled & chopped eating apple
2 tablespoons apple brandy, brandy or rum
140g unsalted butter
160g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
120g caster sugar

Soak fruit in spirit for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 200c. Butter a 24cm ring tin or 22cm round cake tin. Melt butter & allow to cool. Sift flour & baking powder. Beat eggs & sugar until thick & fluffy & fold in flour mixture gently. Drizzle in melted butter, then fold in. Fold in apple & any juice. Spoon into tin & bake for 40 minutes until ckae is golden brown & tests clean.

Simple Apple Tart

Another very simple recipe to use up some of my Granny Smiths, this recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander’s ‘The Cooks Companion’. Very easy, hardly seemed like cooking as just a couple of ingredients thrown together. A very nice & light tart which we had with some ice cream while it was still warm out of the oven.

Simple Apple Tart

1 quantity Shortcrust pastry
4 tablespoons apricot jam
3 eating apples, peeled & thinly sliced

Line an 18 or 20cm loose-bottomed flan tin with pastry. Blind bake at 200c for 20 minutes or until golden (note mine took much less time). Remove from oven, allow to cool for a few minutes & reduce temperature to 180c. Warm jam & brush some over case. Arrange apples in slightly overlapping concentric circles. Bake for 15 minutes. Baste with remaining jam & cook for 15-20 minutes until apple looks a little caramelized on the edges.

Rustic Olive Bread

Flicking through the latest Gourmet Traveller which I rec’d last night in the mail I noticed this recipe for Rustic Olive Bread & thought it would be great to give it a go. I haven’t baked much bread & love olive bread so thought it was about time I tried to make my own & it should go well with the risotto I’m making for Michael’s mum & sister Julie for dinner tonight.

The recipe is adapted from Stephanie Alexanders in the Cooks Companion so I grabbed that off the shelf & compared the differences. The ingredients are exactly the same & only the method is slightly different. Stephanie’s says to knead the dough on an oiled workbench & the magazine’s says floured. I ended up going with floured as the mixture was quite sticky & felt it needed the extra though as I said I really don’t have much experience so could be wrong. Apart from that Stephanie suggests different shapes you can bake it in, loaf or focaccia.

For the olives I used 2/3 kalamata from a jar that I bought at the supermarket & then when they ran out for the last third I used delicious herb & garlic kalamata olives by Nicolas of Dimboola, I picked these up at the Vic produce market last weekend.

I also kneaded by hand rather than using my electric mixer.

The end result was delicious & will definitely be playing with more bread again soon

Rustic Olive Bread

600gm unbleached ‘00’ (strong) flour
1 tablespoon instant dried yeast
150gm pitted black olives (such as Kalamata) roughly chopped
2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Sift flour, yeast & salt into a large bowl, stir through olives & rosemary, make a well in the centre & add combined oil & 300ml warm water. Stir to combine. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface & knead with oiled hands (or transfer to an electric mixer with bread hooks) for 15 minutes or until dough is smooth & elastic. Transfr to a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat, cover with a clean tea towel and stand in a draught free palce for 15 minutes or until doubles in size.

Transfer dough to am oiled baking tray & flatten into a 2-3cm thick rectangle, scatter with sea salt flakes, drizzle with olive oil & rest for 30 minutes. Bake at 220c for 20 minutes or until brown & crisp.