Quick and Easy Apple Pie

At first it seemed that we would have totally appleless autumn. How wrong we were! Now I have received  several big boxes of apples from my dad and from my mother-in-law. I am very grateful of all the apples but right now I wish I would have no apples left - there are still so many apples to dry in the veggie dryer and there are still so many apples to turn into a jam. And since making jam and drying starts to be a bit boring I decided to make a really quick apple pie.

My pie tin was 25 cm (appr. 9-10 inch)
I measured most of the ingredients in small glass and used that during the whole recipe where I needed the glass.

A glass of eggs (I used four eggs)
A glass of sugar
A glass of all purpose flour
1-2 tsp of baking powder
(100 grams (3.5274 oz) chopped almonds)
appr. 100 grams (3.5274 oz) melted butter


1. Whisk the eggs and the sugar into foam.
2. Add the melted butter (make sure it's not hot) and mix lightly.
3. Mix the all purpose flour and baking powder and add them into the pie batter. (Add the chopped almonds) Mix just as much as you need to get it mixed - no more.
4. Pour the batter into a well greased pie tin.
5. Add the apple jam/pieces on the the pie so that all the pie is covered with them. They will fall on the bottom but that is what it is supposed to do.
6. Bake in the 180 °C (360°F) for about 30-40 minutes (or longer if the apples are really moist or if you want to use more apples in a pie.)  Keep checking the pie.

If you want you can drop the almonds from the recipe. I sometimes use them and sometimes not.

Apple jam I had made earlier today. You can also use store bought jam. My apple jam for pies has big pieces of apples and I spiced the jam with cinnamon and some sugar. I used about 450-500 (1-1.1023 lb) grams of this in my apple pie.

I  used about 1200 grams (2.4251 lb) chopped apples and added appr. 100 grams (3.5274 oz)  sugar, about 100 grams (3.5274 oz) water and 4 tsp cinnamon and let it simmer on the stove as along as it takes for apples to soften and break a little. That depends on the apple variety. So this is not really a jam after all, Maybe it should be called soft and spiced apple pieces. It's good though and not too sweet.

This works well with most jams or fruit pieces. use what ever you have in your kitchen.

Even better this pie is if you serve it with vanilla sauce or ice cream. Nothing beats the classic I guess. Enjoy!

Courgette pies

 Courgettes are great but when you are starting to drown into them the situation becomes desperate. There is a fine line between having enough of them and having way too much of them. Currently we are dealing with the last option so I needed to dig up my old and trustworthy courgette recipe I came up with several years ago during a really courgette filled summer.

I usually make 12 small ones and one larger one (appr. 20cm / 8 inch)

My children simply love this pie and they are not big fans of courgettes so it's good that there is at least one (real food, chocolate cakes are not counted as real food even though chocolate is almost like real food but don't let my children know what I just said...) recipe that they think is actually delicious. I am happy about that too!

I guess I need to prepare this recipe a few times more this year before we run out of all the courgettes in the vegetable garden. But it is just good that you get food from your own garden. Cheaper and healthier. :)


Filling:
1 kg (2.205 lb) courgettes
500 grams (1.102 lb)  red bell peppers
130 grams (4.586 oz) leeks
appr. 3 tbsp dried dill (fresh goes well too)
3 eggs
black pepper
salt
appr. 200 grams (7.055 oz) feta cheese

Goat cheese (or some other cheese) for grating on the top of the pie.

The crust:
460 grams (1.014 lb) barley flour
200  grams (7.055 oz) water
1/2 tsp salt
olive oil


1. Mix the barley flour, cold water and salt. Mix well. Add the oil. Add as much as you need to get all the still dry flours into the mix. If it gets too wet add a bit more flour. This dough is usually always made by how it feels and looks like. The measurements are not exact - especially the water.

2. Wash, trim and chop the courgettes. Put them on the hot pan with olive oil. Season with salt, peppers and dill. Let them simmer there until they become quite soft and they change color. Don't let them burn though.

3. Wash, trip and chop the bell peppers and leeks.

4. Mix the courgettes, bell peppers and leaks in a bowl. Add black pepper and salt. Add the crumbled feta cheese.

5. Butter the muffin holes/pie pan and spread the dough quite thinly onto the *muffin pan* / pie pan by using your hands. This dough is pretty difficult to roll but if you want to you can put it between two baking sheets and roll. I just find it easier to do with my hands. Once the dough is ready spread the filling on  and grade some goat cheese on the top.

6. Bake in 200 °C (400 °F) for about 25 minutes when using muffin tray and about 45 if making a bigger pie.

I usually use onions and not leeks but I had leeks and needed to use them. If you want you can substitute the leeks with onions - just add a bit more of those and fry them with courgettes until they are transparent. Onions make a filling a bit more sweeter.

Finnish Blueberry Rooster - Mustikkakukko - Rättänä

 Mustikkakukko (Mustikka=blueberry, kukko=rooster) is a traditional Finnish dessert from the Savo region.  It is also called Rättänä which is totally impossible to translate! It's very simply and only a few ingredients are needed. In other words: a perfect dessert for busy people. What's great about it is that no wheat is needed either. The almost only "bad" thing for you in it is the sugar...well OK maybe a bit much butter too...  I know that some people make it without the sugar and they use 50 grams less butter so if you want a version with a little less calories, feel free to cut down the butter.  I could see it working like that too. But I still added the sugar and the whole amount of butter! :D Serve this fresh from the oven with whipped cream, ice cream or vanilla sauce or eat it just like that. Delicious in every way!

For the crust:

250 grams (8.819 oz) butter

140 grams  (4.938 oz) sugar

300 grams ( 10.582 oz) rye flour

1 tsp baking powder

For the filling:

250 grams (8.819 oz) frozen or fresh blueberries

80 grams (2.822 oz) sugar

(2-3 tbsp potato flour)

1. Melt the butter.
2. Mix the flour sugar and baking powder and add the little cooled butter with them. Mix well.
3. Take 8 ramekins, butter them lightly and cover the bottom and the sides of the ramekins with the dough. Don't add too thickly.
4. Mix the blueberries and sugar. If using frozen blueberries add 2-3 tablespoons of potato flour and mix. Add the blueberry mix on to ramekins.
5. Sprinkle the rest of the dough on top of the little "roosters". (I added a tiny piece of butter on top of each one before I put them in the oven.)
6. Bake in 200°C (400°F) for about 25-30 minutes. Or if you make one large one appr. 22 cm (9-10 inch) diameter then you need to bake it about 45-60 minutes or so.

Rhubarb Strawberry Pie

Rhubarb is probably the first plant in the garden you can see in the spring. It comes up from the ground with spring flowers and I think it looks like a flower when it's small. People tend to use these a lot in spring time but seems that most people forget that rhubarbs grow all summer!

In Finland people make pies, kissel, juice and lots of other things out of rhubarb - but maybe kissel and pies are the most common ones. There are lots of variations of rhubarb pies.

Rhubarbs are wonderfully sweet and sour. When you add strawberries with them the whole experience changes more sweeter. I especially love the rhubarbs which are beautifully red. I could swear they even taste better! I have that sort of rhubarb growing in my garden. I took the plant from my childhood home before it was sold about  5 years ago. It's a nice memory of childhood's care free days when we used the big rhubarb leaves as hats.

The rhubarbs in our yard are big and they grow really well but even though we have them quite much, I am still planing to plant more of them next summer. There are just so many things you can do with rhubarb. This pie and rhubarb rice porridge are my two favourite ones.

Soon the rhubarb season will be over. The autumn is coming eventually but a few more weeks we will still have summer.  After that it's  time to enjoy all those frozen rhubarbs I have in my freezer - the little memories of the summer past.

The pie batter:  (Pan size 30cm x 20 cm / 12 inch x 8 inch)

4 eggs
190 grams (6.702 oz) sugar
400 grams (14.110 oz) all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2-3 tsp vanilla extract  ( *This is my favourite one* )
200 grams (7.055 oz) water 
200 grams (7.055 oz) melted butter

1. Whisk the eggs and sugar
2. Add the vanilla extract
3. Mix the baking powder and flour together
4. Add water and flour mix into the batter. Mix gently.
5 Add cooled, melted butter and mix again gently.


For the topping /crumble

200 grams (7.055 oz)  frozen or fresh strawberries chopped
250 grams (8.819 oz) chopped rhubarbs

130 grams (4.586 oz) all purpose flour
90 grams (3.175 oz) sugar 
4 tsp vanilla sugar
70 grams (2.469 oz) butter

1.Mix the flour, butter, vanilla sugar and sugar with your hands.

Pour the pie batter into papered baking pan. Add the rhubarb and strawberry pieces on it and finally add the crumble on top of them. Bake in 200 °C (400°F) about 30-40 minutes or longer if needed.  Test with a toothpick.

This is wonderfully moist pie if you don't over bake it. And with this pie it's very fine line between over baked and just wonderfully baked so keep your eyes on the pie!

Kale Pie with Feta Cheese

Kale is great! Sad thing is that I just recently really discovered it. How many years I have wasted for not eating this treat! Kale is similar to spinach in many ways. The taste is rather similar and so is the use. Kale is very rich in vitamins and iron too so it's also really good for you!

I actually planned that next summer I really need to plant lots of kale. This pie alone is so delicious that I simply cannot let my garden be without this green treat from heaven!

Growing your own food is much fun in many different ways. You get to spent lots of hours in the fresh air, you save money when you don't need to buy so much food and probably the best thing is that once you grow your own veggies you really know what you are eating! My choice is organic.

This pie is similar to the spinach pie I make. And if you don't have access to kale you can easily substitute it with spinach.

This time I made the crust with using all purpose flour only as little as possible and used mostly whole grain spelt flour. It was good but a little heavier crust.


600 grams (1.323 lb) kale
2 large onions
5-6 eggs 
3-4 garlic gloves
400 grams (14.110 oz) milk
150-200 grams (5.291 - 7.055 oz) feta cheese
60 grams (2.116 oz) almonds
salt
black pepper

THE PIE CRUST: (appr. 40cm x 40 cm / 15,7 inch x 15.7 inch pan)

490 grams (1.080 lb) all purpose flour (or a mix of different flours) 
250 grams (8.819 oz)  butter
1 tsp salt
little water if needed

1. Chop the kale and onions. Fry them gently on a pan so that they soften. After they have cooled a little mix them with the milk eggs, finely chopped garlic, salt and spices. If you want you can use hand held food processor to get really fine mix  or if you prefer the bite size pieces of kale don't use it. Either way it's good.

2. Spread either ready made dough or home made on a baking pan. Pour the kale mix on the top, sprinkle chopped almonds (with or without the skins)  on top and feta pieces as well.

3. Bake in 200 °C (400 °F) for about 25-30 minutes.

Less salt is good but in this case remember to use enough salt since this much greens won't taste so good if you don't. :) And like always: remember to enjoy! :)

Blueberry-Ricotta pies

Platter "Linnea" by Arabia 

These little pies are definitely lovely to make. My whole family loves cheese cakes/pies. Mostly those unbaked ones but I haven't yet  seen that any baked cheesecakes would not be eaten in this house. This recipe is for a baked cheese  pie. Make taller or smaller - which ever you prefer.  I made small and not so thick ones so everyone gets his or her own little pie on a plate.

The greatest thing is that I used the Rolled Oats biscuits for the bottom. That way I didn't need to buy any biscuits form the store. I usually never buy any sorts of biscuits since I like to bake those myself and if I need some sort of  crust for a pie or a cake I use the Rolled Oat biscuits. When I bake them for the crust alone I use less butter since I need to add butter again when making the crust so it doesn't really matter if biscuits are little more drier. I  crush the needed amount of biscuits, add some butter and mix it. So easy, so quick and tastes good too! I used loose base tart tins since I simply hate that perfectly good pie gets stuck on the tin. Loose bottom is best if you ask me.

This a recipe that I like quite much. Originally it had whipped cream and lots of different ingredients but I needed to change it since most of the time I had no such ingredients in my fridge. So this is what I came up with. So far people have enjoyed it quite a bit. It is not that sweet as many other cheese cakes or pies I have tasted and I think that is a good thing. It also tastes lighter and more fresh than the heavier and more creamier cheesecakes.

FOR THE  CRUST 
This makes 6 small pies (10cm) and one large one (25cm) 

600 grams (1.323 lb) rolled oats biscuits

250-300 grams (8.819 - 10.582 oz) soft butter

1. Mix butter and crushed rolled oats biscuits well together.

FOR THE FILLING:

3 eggs

150 grams (5.291) oz sugar

750 grams (1.654 lb) ricotta cheese

appr. 460 grams (1.014 lb) yoghurt ( or crème fraîche)

2 tsp vanilla essence

zest of one organic lemon

3 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

1. Whisk eggs and sugar into a light foam.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix lightly.

FOR THE CRUMBLE

100 grams (3.527 oz) all-purpose flour

75 grams (2.646 oz) demerara sugar

90 grams (3.175 oz) melted butter

150 grams (5.291 oz) blueberries (fresh or frozen )

1. Mix flour and demerara  sugar

2. Add the melted butter.

3. Add the blueberries in the very last minute if you use the frozen ones. 

Put the proper amount of the mix into each tin or use just one larger tin with higher sides for making a cake instead of  pies.  For  10cm diameter tins I used about 40-50 grams of the biscuit-butter mix.

Add the filling on to the crust and the crumble on the top. Add some more blueberries if needed. 

Bake in the 175°C ( 350°F) for about 30-35 minutes if you make small pies - bigger pie needs about 60-90 minutes. Cake most definitely that 90 minutes.   Once the pies have cooled enough put them in the fridge for at least 4 hours, best if they stay in the fridge for over night but the pies taste so nice that it's going to be hard to stay away from the fridge that long.