Apple pie baklava

I don't know why I've been having this recipe sitting around gathering cobwebs but it's rather selfish of me. I sat here enjoying my apple baklava sensation thinking only of myself, shame shame shame on me. This dessert is not as sweet as your ordinary baklava but rather tart with a hint of sweetness like Apple pie. Serve it as is or with a scoop of French vanilla icecream, I'm telling you all. It's to die for! And I don't just go dying around over nothing. lol


Ingredients
4 large granny smith apples cut into small cubes
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
1oz bittersweet orange preserve
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
*step 2 ingredients*
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups mixed toasted nuts
2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 pack Phillo dough
1 cup melted butter

Syrup
1/4 cup reserved apple juices
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 inch piece cinnamon
2 cloves
2 inch lemon rind


Directions
Place the all the first ingredients on the list in a heavy saucepan over medium low heat and cook for approximately 5 minutes or just until the apples take in all the spices, make sure NOT to cook the apples until they become soft, they should still have a crunch to them. Remove the filling from the pan and strain the juices. Set the reserved juices aside.

In a food processor, finely pulse the toasted nuts into very small pieces, the bigger pieces of nuts will add texture to the filling while the powderized nuts will obsorb some of the juices from the apples.

Mix the nuts and apples, add the step 2 ingredients and fold to combine.

Preheat the oven to 325* F.

Place the syrup ingredients and reserved apple juices into a saucepan and a stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved, Bring to the boil, then boil for a further 10 minutes or until the mixture has thickened slightly.

Brush the base of a 12 x 8in pan with butter. Using the pan as a guide cut the sheets of filo dough to fit the pan exactly. Place one sheet of pastry into the pan and brush with melted butter then repeat until you have used half of the pastry sheets. Cover the remaining pastry with a clean dish towel and set aside. Spread half of the filling over the pastry and cover with 3 to 4 layers of filo, brushing with butter as you go. Spread the remaining filling over the pastry, finish by using the remaining sheets of filo brushing with melted butter as you go. Finally brush the top of the pastry liberally with butter, ensuring that you cover the whole surface.

Using a sharp knife, carefully mark the pastry into squares, almost cutting through the filling. Bake in a preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes or until crisp and golden brown.

Once the baklava is baked, pour 1/3 to 1/2 of the strained syrup over the baklava and leave to soak for a few hours. Cut the baklava into squares and serve with some of the reserved syrup and top with chopped toasted nuts.

Basboosa

This recipe is one that I usually turn to during Ramadan. After a day of fasting who wouldn't want to sink their teeth into something sweet and cocoNUTY. The recipe can be found in an earlier post right here on my blog, this batch is for a bigger quantity of basboosa, perfect for sharing with friends and family during Ramadan. The coconut in the actual basboosa is unsweetened and a bit dry, very different from sweetened flaked coconut so make sure to use unsweetened dried coconut for best results. I do however top the basboosa with sweetened flaked coconut, not only does it look nice but it turns perfectly golden brown after baking.


Ingredients
3 cups Semolina
2 1/4 cups coconut (unsweetened)
3/4 cup of oil (I use sunflower oil)
2 cups of plain yogurt
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup Sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon rose water
1 teaspoon vanilla powder

Topping
1 cup sweetened coconut

Syrup
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
Lemon peel (3 strips)
1 table spoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons spoon honey
1 tablespoon rosewater

Directions
Preheat oven to 360*. Butter a your baking dish and set aside.
Sift the semolina, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a large bowl. With your hands mix in the dried coconut into the semolina mix. In a medium bowl whisk the yogurt with the milk until smooth, slowly stream in the oil and whisk to combine. With your hands mix the dry and wet ingrediets together until well combined. Spread the semolina batter into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan and slice into diamond or squares. Bake the basboosa for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. The basboosa must be golden brown all around if the top appears to be lighter in color, place it under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes.

While the basboosa is baking, in a med sauce pan combine sugar, water, lemon juice and lemon peel bring to a boil and cook for at least 5 min or until sugar grains have been dissolved. Remove from heat, add your honey flavored water and mix, set aside. Once the basboosa is out of the oven, pour your syrup *Evenly* over your baked basboosa. Let rest for a couple of hours or until the syrup has been fully absorbed.

Mallorcan Ensaimadas

This wonderful recipe comes from Majorca Spain, very similar to the cinnamon bun you would think but it's far from that. These sweet little coils are crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. You may want to double up on the recipe, mine were cleared of the table before my oven even went back to normal temperature. The traditional recipe doesn't include vanilla but my vanilla bean twist on these Spanish buns gave them I would say 10 EXTRA points in flavor. Brushing with water is a MUST

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons yeast
6 tablespoons lukewark milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (optional)
1/4 cup butter, melted
confectioners sugar for dusting (vanilla sugar recipe follows)
water for brushing

Directions
sift the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Set aside. In a seperate bowl beat your egg, oil, and vanilla. Set aside. In a small bowl or in your stand mixer mix the yeast with the milk and allow it to sit for 5 minutes. Add a few tablespoons of flour to the yeast mixture and beat until a smooth batter is formed. Set the mix aside for 5 more minutes. After 5 minutes whisk the egg mixture into the rested yeast batter until smooth. Slowly add the flour until a smooth dough is formed. Make sure to kneed the dough for a few minutes for better results. Place the dough on a lightly oiled bowl cover with plastic and let rise, in a warm place, for 1hr or until doubled in size.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Punch down and cut into 8 to 16 equal size pieces (Use a knife to cut). Shape each piece into a thin rope about 15 inches long. Dip each rope into the melted butter on the baking sheet, curl each rope into a spiral, spacing each roll well apart. Tuck the ends under to seal. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile preheat your oven to 375* F. Brush the rolls with water and dust with powder sugar. Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool slightly on a wire rack and dust again with powder sugar. Serve warm....

Pizza dough...

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I came up with this pizza dough recipe a few weeks ago and its definitely a keeper, using pastry flour makes the dough very elactic and easy to stretch out by hand without the use of a rolling pin. The topping of choice, sauce, and cheese are entirely up to you. One thing I do recommend is shaping the dough by hand using oiled hands over a lightly floured surface (I use corlmeal). Bake the pizza at 380* F on the lowest rack and bake until golden brown. Because of the amount of olive oil used in the recipe the crust will be golden in color with the perfect crunch yet soft in the inside which is just how I like my pizza. This recipe makes 2 large pizza crust. Enjoy!

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup pastry flour
2 teaspoon fast acting yeast
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup lukewarm water

Directions
Sift your flour, sugar, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine the yeast, with a pinch of sugar and 3 tablespoons of water and stir gently to dissolve. Let the mixture stand until the yeast comes alive and starts to foam, 3 to 5 minutes.

If you're using a stand mixer combine your water and half of your flour mix and beat until a cake like batter is formed. Add your oil, and yeast mix and beat for 1 minute, gradually add the remainder of your flour.

When the dough starts to come together, increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough gathers into a ball. This should take about 2 minutes. Stop the machine periodically to scrape the dough off the hook.

Feel the dough as you're making it by squeezing a small amount together between your thumb and fingers. If it's crumbly, add more water, if it's sticky, add more flour, 1tablespoon at a time. Turn the dough out onto a lightly "oiled" surface and fold it over itself a few times, kneading until it's smooth and elastic.

Form the dough into a round and put it into a lightly oiled bowl, turning it over to coat the dough entirely with the oil. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

This dough recipe uses more oil than your basic pizza dough giving it a nice golden crust on the outside when baked. Shape the pizza using oiled hands and bake at 380*F on the lowest rack.

M'hanncha (coiled like a snake) two ways...

This popular Moroccan recipe is simply divine. The name Um'hanncha translate's to "Coiled like a snake" and it will fly off of your dessert table faster than a snake I guarantee. The traditional filling is made of Almond paste scented with orange blossom water and spiced with cinnamon powder. I created my own version of M'hanncha using a traditional baklava filling with turned out amazing I must say. Drizzle or drench with honey and decorate with chopped toasted nuts or slivered almonds. M'hanncha can also be served with powder sugar but prefer to serve mine with honey. Cut the M'hanncha with a sarrated knife and serve warm or at room temperature. The pictures you see on this post is what was left of the M'hanncha I served my guest, it was much bigger before.

Ingredients

9 sheets phillo dough (double the amount if you're making both recipes)
1/2 cup melted butter
Honey
rose water
orange blossom water
Toated chopped nuts to decorate

Almond stuffing
2 cups blanched almonds
1 tablespoon butter (room temperature)
1 tablespoon orange blossom water
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/3 cup icing sugar (powder sugar) or more to taste.

Directions
Add all of your ingredients into a food processor and process until a smooth paste forms. If the mixture is taking a while to form into a paste, uncover the food processor and mix the almonds with a fork and process again until a smooth paste is formed. Roll the paste into 9 equal sized balls and roll into logs, approximately 4 to 5 inches long. Set aside.

Walnut, Almond, and hazelnut stuffing
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoon clear thick honey
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
1 3/4 cups blanched almonds
1 3/4 cups walnuts (toasted)
3/4 cup hazelnuts

Directions
Add 2/3 of your nut mixture into the food processor and process until a fine mixture is formed (it wont be a paste). Pulse the remainder of your nuts until bread crumb size nuts form, mix both together in a large bowl. Set aside. Place the lemon juice, honey, and sugar in a pan and heat gently, stirring continuously until the sugar has completely dissolved. Stir in the cinnamon and nuts and stirr to combine. Remove the mixture from the heat and allow it to come to room temperature.

How to assemble the pastry

Almond filling
Place 1 sheet of phyllo dough on a clean surface and brush with butter, add two more sheets brushing each time with butter. Place 3 logs on the edge of the pastry nearest to you and roll the pastry up tightly, sealing the edges. Repeat the process with the remainder of phyllo dough and almond logs. Coil the first log into a spiral and continue with the 2 rolls until a snake like pastry is formed. If your pastry tears, seal with a piece of leftover phyllo dough and brush with butter. Place on a buttered round baking dish and brush the entire snake with melted butter. Bake in a 350*F preheated oven for approximately 25 minutes or until golden in color. Cool slightly and drizzle with warm honey and scented water mix. If you're making an almond filled M'hanncha mix the honey with orange blossom water to taste and heat over medium heat.

Mixed nut filling
Place 1 sheet of phyllo dough on a clean surface and brush with butter, add two more sheets brushing each time with butter. Hand form a log using 1/3 of your nut mixture 2 inches from the edge of pastry nearest to you and fold over pressing tightly, roll the pastry tightly to form a log. Continue with the remainder of pastry and nut filling. Coil each log around each other closing the edges tightly until a snake like coil spiral is formed. Place onto a buttered round pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden in color. Cool slightly before you add a honey mixture. Mixed nut M'hanncha goes well with rose water scented honey and sprinkled with chopped nuts.

Note, you can either drizzle the spirals with honey or drench. If you would rather cover with powder sugar, allow the M'hanncha to cool completely before dusting. Adding honey to the M'hanncha with start to lift up the pastry sheets, so if you're not serving on the same day and would like to have a flawless presentation, do not cover with honey until the day you're serving the M'hanncha. Warm the M'hanncha for a couple of minutes under low broil before covering with honey.

US phyllo dough VS Middle Eastern phyllo dough.

After my experience baking with phyllo dough, I find that Middle Eastern phyllo is much thicker than American Phyllo dough, if you're using Middle Eastern sold dough, you can use 2 sheets of Phyllo per log and cut the dough into a 17 by 12 inch rectangle.

Rose petal and almond cupcakes.

We had a few guest over this past Saturday afternoon and of course I did the baking and my husband the cooking. I wanted to make a few Moroccan desserts and some new creations of my own. Looking through my ingredients I stumbled across a jar or Rose petal jam my husband brought home from one of his tastings. This jam is simply amazing but I'm not one to eat it on its own or even with toast, it's far too fancy for that. So, I decided to incorporate it into one of my all time favorite desserts and that's simple American "Cupcakes". Why not, right? What can possibly go wrong with a little rose petals in our cupcakes. Well well, these little rose scented cupcakes were a big hit at our lunch in. I chose to top them with basic buttercream but you can stay on the healthy side and top them with slivered almonds but don't dare call them "Cupcakes" they'll be more like a Muffin.



Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup rose petal jam
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup melted butter
1 drop red food colorant (just enough to make them pink, not red)

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350*F. In a large bowl, sift your flour, almond meal, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a seperate bowl beat your eggs and sugar until fluffy and light in color (you can add the food coloring at this point). Beat in your melted butter and rose jam. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to the egg mixture in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Pour into your prepare cupcake pan and bake for approximately 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpic inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.