baking - Obscure Journey

Making an American Apple Pie and Recipe

Publié le 9 Janvier 2022 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #dessert, #baking, #food, #recipe, #sweets, #tips

Hello World~~~

Happy new year as well!

It's been a long time since I last shared a recipe with you. The last recipe i shared here is from June '21.

In fact, i haven't made this pie in a very long time. This recipe was originally posted on my cooking site/blog in 2014. That's where it all this obscure blogging journey started.

This recipe was first shared in May of 2014, but now i re-share it in mid-winter, aka January 2022.

Sure pies are best enjoyed in autumn with fresh, local fruits. However, I find it a shame not to enjoy an apple pie at any time of the year if you think the apples are affordable enough. Plus, a homemade pie is better than any other sweet, isn't it?

If you want a Romanian apple pie, you might be disappointed. I know I am, unless some relative of somebody I know makes it.

I knew the recipe for some time now, I even tried it out a few times before posting it. Why didn't I share it? To be honest, i have no idea why. my original reply was due to its square shape. This sounds very silly right now.

I'm not sure why many places sell squared apple pie slices, most likely because they bake rectangular pies. I asked my friend to take a picture of a slice of pie, so I can share "my own" picture.

I'll have to make this pie again, to take more and better pictures of it.

apple pie slice with cream on top on a white plate

Brown sugar is rather expensive here, and I didn't have it on hand. Maybe I will in the future if anyone will ever want me to cook for them and to pay me. ;) I may have altered the recipe a bit, but in my opinion, it only added to its taste.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Kg apples
150 g caster sugar
1-2 pinches salt
1-2 teaspoon(s) lemon juice
1 spoon of (all-purpose) flour
145 g (1 cup) raisins
some cinnamon
pie sheets (or crust)
1 small to medium egg

EXTRAS

any type of whipped cream
some vanilla sugar

METHOD:

Peel and remove the core from each apple. Slice them. Mix them with the raisins.

Mix the sugar, salt, flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice well. Include some vanilla sugar for more flavor.

Preheat the oven. Prepare your baking tray, however, you are used to. Place the pie sheets or crust onto the tray. Make sure you have some left to cover the top of the pie.

Pour the mixture over the apples, or the apples on top of the mixture. Make sure all slices get well coated with a sugary mixture.

Nicely place the coated fruits on top of the pie crust in the baking tray.

Beat the egg. Pour the egg on top of the pie and spread it well to cover the top using a kitchen brush. Sprinkle some sugar or some more vanilla sugar on top.

Place the pie in the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. I baked mine for some 37 minutes on really low heat. When it's done, remove it from the oven and let it chill. When it's chill enough put it in the fridge till you're ready to serve.

When you serve, decorate with some whipped cream or ice cream, maybe some cinnamon, and whatever else you think might taste good. And, of course, don't forget to slice it up as well.

NOTES:

I use a gas oven, with real fire. The fire was on its lowest, but I preheated it for a longer time than I intended.
I used whipped cream powder that I had to beat with milk. Water is also good, as it makes the cream lighter and less nauseous.
For me, many sweets and foods taste better when they're cold. The pie is one of them.

Bon Appetit!

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Toasting Bread [blog entry]

Publié le 22 Novembre 2021 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #baking, #food, #life experience

Hi all. Long time no sign. Sorry about that.

This entry appeared back in 2015 on my first ever blog that i deleted.

It's a very short entry, and most of the story is told through a drawing. We all know that a picture speaks a thousand words.

This is a true story. It was quite normal back then for this to happen. It didn't happen i recent times anymore. This is because I started using a timer to avoid this from happening.

Whenever I want to toast some bread I have to be really careful. Or else my bread will turn to ashes.

I don't own a toaster and so I have to toast my bread in the oven. My oven works with gas and real fire, but the machine itself is so old it's not even funny.

At some point after that, we changed the cooking stove. But it still works with gas and fire, and I still managed to burn the bread meant to be toast.

I also often forget I'm making toast, so I have to set up an alarm for when I think the toast might be done. When using this method, my toast is under-done. Basically, this means the bread is not golden-brown the way you see in commercials and stuff.

This was a rather upsetting event at the time. I even manage to burn water, if you know what i mean.

Can anyone else relate to this?

My eyes are supposed to be green. [in case you were wondering]. Because that's my real eye color.

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Homemade vegetarian pizza -recipe

Publié le 9 Juin 2019 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #DIY, #baking, #food, #recipe, #tips

Hello all~~

I have no idea who doesn't like pizza. But there are people out there that have dietary restrictions, and so ordering pizza can be difficult. For us, it is a little overpriced, depending on where you oder it from and it's not always good either.

A's mom started making pizza at home, and it's a really good one too. spicy, with lots of ingredients, and several of them. one is big enough to fill you up, especially if you don't eat a crazy amount of food at once. But A's mom moved out of city, and it's difficult or us to go there to get pizza if we were to ask her to make some. Also getting the ingredients is difficult for A's parents because they don't own a car, so they have to either call a cab (it can get expensive) or rely on the public transportation that is not always reliable.

Long story short, we decided to make our own pizza. A asked for the recipe, and she said she's going to make it. I said "fine" because I think there's a trick to making pizza that I'm not aware of.

INGREDIENTS:

pizza dough -or base, or whatever you want to call it. We can find it already made in stores over here. At Carrefour it's really cheap too. we got 2 packs, with 2 pizza dough in each.
2-3 medium tomatoes
mozarella cheese - ALL the cheese you want or like. make sure it melts, like mozarella cheese does.
200 grams olives - get the pitted ones or the already sliced ones, you'll save time.

mushrooms - as much as you want, i guess. The pizza in these pictures didn't have mushrooms. :(
1 bell pepper - red would be best
corn - we like corn on the pizza.

tomato sauce - you can use pizza sauce, but regular tomato sauce is fine too
aromatic herbs -basil, thyme, parsley, whatever you like
some ground black pepper
some salt

NOTES:

You should know there's no set amount of anything when it comes to the ingredients. A just adds "as much as it fits on the pizza dough."

If you're eating meat, you can add salami, sausages,maybe bacon. Basically any type of meat you like. A says it's a "trial and error" until you find the balance you like. Of course you can replace some of the ingredients with others, but the pizza made with these ones was by far the best.

METHOD:

Spread the tomato sauce on the pizza dough.

Sprinkle with the condiments - or the aromatic herbs you chose.
Add cheese. The more the merrier. ;) It's better to slice it before putting it on the pizza

Then add everything else. Make sure to slice the tomatoes, mushrooms and anything that is either too big or has a shape preventing it from staying put on the pizza. Chopped also works.

Add more condiments on top.
Bake for 15 minutes, on a really high heat setting, on baking paper. Our oven has a special "pizza" setting, and anymore than 15 minutes in the oven can burn it. NOBODY likes burnt pizza.

Now you can enjoy it straight from the oven, though leaving it for the next day is perfectly acceptable too.

Bon appetit~~

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Recipe for Roasted Potatoes

Publié le 17 Avril 2019 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #advice, #baking, #customs, #food, #recipe, #romanian tradition, #tips, #vegan

Hello everyone!

The Great Lent started in Romania - this is the lent before Pascha (or Easter). It lasts for 7 weeks and is the longest of them all, hence the name. OK, now it's close to the end, as I kept on delaying editing pictures and writing. The article is finally here!

During any Lent, Romanians are supposed to fast by eating a vegan diet - so no meats including fish, no eggs and no dairy products. (hmm, I actually don't know if honey is forbidden or allowed.) This page explains better the rules of fasting. It also makes no mention of honey, and thus I think it's allowed.

In any case, when buying premade foods in Romania, we should pay attention to the packaging to say "de post" - this means the product is vegan-friendly. If you don't want to eat honey, search for the word "miere" (=honey) in the ingredients. Fish is allowed for consumption on certain days during the Lent (fasting period).

Romanians don't celebrate Fat Tuesday nor Ash Wednesday. Good Friday is not a public holiday either, but the 2nd day of Pascha (Monday) is a bank holiday, and only hospitals, police, public transportation, and a few shops still stay in business.

I already have a few vegan-friendly recipes posted, and I want to share with you the recipe for Roasted Potatoes as well - this is an important recipe to know how to make if you love potatoes because they're awesome when roasted.

INGREDIENTS:

3-4 larger potatoes, preferably suited for baking
salt
oil
powder black pepper
other herbs or condiments you like
also, a baking tray

METHOD:

Peel and slice your potatoes. Make sure to have rather thick slices and not thin. If they're thin, reduce the cooking time by 15 minutes to avoid burning them.

Take a baking tray, smear it with cooking oil, place your potato slices in it.

Smear your potato slices with cooking oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and all the condiments and herbs.

Let bake in the oven for some 45 minutes, on medium heat, preferably on the middle rack of the oven.

You can now serve!

I made this recipe over and over, and I didn't always take pictures. This is why some of them are dated "December 2018." The light is bad because I usually cook in the evening and therefore the artificial light is not great.

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End of the year updates and a recipe

Publié le 21 Décembre 2017 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #food, #dessert, #sweets, #updates, #baking, #recipe

Wow, hello to whoever checks this out!

What are my updates? Firstly I hope my "cooking block" will stop and that I'll be able to share more stuff here. Well I do have a few recipes to share, and I can't wait to do so because I feel some of you did wonder if I'll ever post anything here or not.

Another update is that now I have an online identity, as you can see - points to the "author's name" and I hope that one day [in the next 5 years?] I will have a book published under this name.

It's a pen-name but I feel it represents me well [I feel no connection to my ID name, sorry parents]. The book I want to publish will be a collection of short stories - horror and fictional? is that what they're called? - that I'm yet to write. :P

not my picture :(

I think you want the recipe more than anything, right? I wish there was a spoiler function for the other part.

marble poundcake with poppy seeds

This recipe is rather good for Christmas [or New Years] dinner [or lunch], so it came just in time. I have to warn you that I didn't follow any recipe this time, so you can refer to this one for specific instructions and more pictures.

I will however tell you the [approximate] quantities:

2 eggs
2 full table spoons of yoghurt [I used one with 1.5% fat content. Can be replaced with any fat percentage yoghurt, and even better, sour milk. ;) ]
300 grams sugar [measured]
regular cooking oil [1 table spoon? I didn't measure it]
10 grams of baking powder [most of baking powder in Romania comes in packets of 10 grams]
some orange essence [just because I didn't have vanilla essence. I didn't measure how much I used]
all purpose flour [not measured; enough to give the right consistency to the dough]
poppy seeds [I didn't measure, maybe 10 grams? a teaspoon? It's a very popular ingredient in Romania.]
cocoa powder, unsweetened [maybe 2 teaspoons?]

METHOD:

Preheat the oven. This is a step you can't skip, especially when cooking with gas.

This time, unlike other times, I just poured everything together in the bowl - except the flour, cocoa, and the poppy seeds. I mixed for some 20 seconds. I looked at the hour on my wrist watch for this one. ;)

Then I added in the poppy and the flour and mixed well. I prepared my round tray - maybe some 25 cm in diameter? and poured most of the dough in it. I saved maybe some 4 or 5 spoons in the bowl and added the cocoa powder.

I added the cocoa dough on top, trying to make some design - but you can't really see it since I didn't take pictures this time. I baked the cake for 45 minutes - 35 to 40 minutes would have been enough, but last times it was still underbaked [undocumented times] and I didn't want that to happen again.

When it finished baking, I just covered it in vanilla sugar and sliced it as you can see.

When it finished baking, I just covered it in vanilla sugar and sliced it as you can see.

I had my first try this morning, and I was pleasantly surprised and inspired to write this entry. YAY!

The coffee is from Japan, from the brand AGF Blendy. I have a Japanese friend and he kindly send me some Japanese coffee. I can barely read some hiragana and katakana... And although I started to learn some Chinese, it's definitely NOT enough to read the instructions. LOL

What can I say? This coffee was more bitter than life but really good :) The sachet in the cup was packed in the envelope I'm holding, and it smelled really good when I opened it. I added milk [off camera] to be able to drink it and also be sure I won't get shaky.

I hope you'll be able to try this recipe out.

I wish you Happy Holidays and lots of health in the upcoming year!

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Poundcake with oranges

Publié le 18 Mars 2017 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #dessert, #food, #sweets, #baking, #fruits, #recipe

My friend had this recipe for a cake made with natural orange juice and orange slices on top. The recipe is in Romanian, and I will try my best to translate it for you. Because you should try it the next time you want something different.

The recipe was recently found at the bottom of a drawer - it was being kept VERY safe as you can tell [aka we had no idea where it was]. I was cleaning that closet and the recipe resurfaced. yay! I don't have much to say at this point, so let's see what this cake is all about!

INGREDIENTS

For the batter:

175 grams [real] butter
175 grams [caster] sugar
2 eggs [beaten]
225 grams all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 oranges [peel and juice] - see below

175 grams almonds [grounded] - I substituted with some almond essence
a pinch of salt

For the syrup:

9 oranges
100 grams [caster] sugar
150 ml water

METHOD

Making the batter:

[disclaimer] the recipe said to mix all the ingredients at once. i didn't do that, because i know the consistency differs depending on how you mix them. so i will tell you how i mixed my ingredients. please use a mixer, and not a hand beater like i did [the cake turned out fine, just look at the pictures, but i don't think the ingredients ere mixed as they should have been.

1. Preheat the oven, prepare your baking tray, and make sure to have your butter at room temperature - it ill work faster this way.

2. Beat your butter and sugar together until you have a creamy looking mixture. My hand beater didn't manage to get the right consistency, luckily this didn't matter much in the end.

3. Add your beaten eggs, salt, baking powder, and orange juice and mix. Mine looked like this:

4. Add your flour, orange peel, and almonds and mix. This is what I had in my bowl at the end:

5. Throw in the oven on medium heat till it's well done. Mine took about 40 minutes. I use a gas stove and oven, and this means I cook and bake with fire. I have 8 heat settings, from 1 [lowest] to 8 [highest] - I can make pizza on settings 6 to 7. I usually cook [in the oven] using the setting 3 or 2, even 1 - I feel the heat is too strong at 3. I baked this cake at setting 2.

Making the syrup!

1. Use a small pot. Place the sugar, water and the juice from 6 oranges in it, and on a small fire [low heat].

2. Mix until the sugar dissolves.

3. Leave it on the fire for 10-15 min, WITHOUT stirring. When it's done, you'll have less juice [syrup] left in the pot.

Assembling!

Peel your remaining 3 oranges and slice them.
Place your cake on something to cool down, for some 10 min. [I left mine in the tray, you'll see why]
Take a fork and pierce the surface of the cake a few times, in different places.
Pour your syrup over the cake [if the cake is in the tray, this step is less messy]
Place your orange slices on top of the cake.

Now, you can devour it! :D

Check out this close up!

My friend can testify this was moist, flavored, and out of ordinary delicious! Much better than any other cake I baked before. I must admit, this time I too liked the texture - I'm picky in this regard.

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Creme brulee or creme caramel..?

Publié le 14 Mars 2015 par Charly C.

Catégories : #tips, #Cooking, #sweets, #dessert, #baking, #recipe, #advice, #learning

Hello World~~

I realize I havent posted anything in a very long time, but this is due to more reasons. The main one is that I haven't cooked something worth sharing, nor something new. If I did cook something different, I didn't take pictures, and recipes without pictures are boring and don't inspire anyone to try out the dish.

Yes, I remember baking a brownie with walnuts some 2 weeks ago. I found the recipe in a local newspaper, but brownie recipes are all the same. I hope to make it again soon enough and also take some pictures for you to enjoy. But, now let's return to today's recipe.

What I wanted to cook was creme brulee, but I had ingredients for creme caramel...? Well, these 2 sweets are very similar, and to know which one is which, you better read this article because it explains things better than me. In the end, I think the result was a cross between these 2 desserts. In any case it was sweet, light, and with a consistency I liked.

I have used this pan a lot. The whole creme caramel was about a finger thick, though the pan is taller than that.

Preparation time: some 15 minutes

Baking time: some 30 minutes

Cooling time: as long as possible, preferably in the fridge. I cooled mine overnight.

INGREDIENTS

For the custard:

1 liter milk
8 eggs
some vanilla essence

For the caramel

250 or 300 grams sugar

METHOD

First of all, you want to make the caramel. Pour all the sugar in a pot that can contain at least 2 liters of liquid. I used an oven pan of 20 x 30 cm, and some 3 cm deep? [I didn't measure it's depth, but it's pretty deep.] Make sure this is a metal oven pan because you'll place it on direct fire or heat before putting it in the oven. Then you preheat the oven to medium heat. Place the pan on medium or fast fire, on the stove to melt and burn the sugar. Be careful how you handle the pan to avoid burning your hands or fingers. The sugar has to turn to a medium golden brown color. It doesn't matter if it turns dark brown because "brulee" means "burnt," so the color would match this description.

While you wait for the sugar to become caramel, beat the eggs in a large container, like for an omelet. Pour the milk and vanilla essence on top and mix. In fact, you can use any type of vanilla flavoring you like or have on hand. You can also use some lemon peel if you have, but not more than 2 teaspoons.

This slice is upside-down.

When all the sugar turned into caramel and covers all the bottom of your pan, pour the egg and milk mixture on top, and place in the oven. Bake on medium heat for some 25 or 30 minutes, but not longer. As the pictures show, mine got a bit too burned with these time and heat settings. Because you're using so many eggs and a lot of milk, it is best to overcook this dessert than to under-cook it.

TIPS:

Let it cool completely before chilling it in the fridge. It tastes so much better the next day when it is really cold, like an yogurt.
When serving it, make sure to pour some of the brown syrup on top of the custard, because otherwise it will have no taste.

I hope you like this dessert.

Bon Appetit~~~

PS: post copied from the original CookingMyExperience blog I own, and edited in may 2018

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My Linzer torte recipe

Publié le 24 Février 2014 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #baking, #dessert, #food, #recipe, #sweets, #tips

Hello world~~~

I haven't updated in ages. Well, it is time for a brand new recipe, but first a little bit of a back-story. I received this round, flower shaped baking tray, so I had to try it out right away. And, in case you were wondering, yes, it has been used.

The recipe I used is one I posted already, but I twisted it up a little. The recipe is the one for vanilla biscuits. OK, truth be told, I haven't even measured the ingredients, I just freely poured. If you're a beginner, I highly recommend you measure them. The recipe for the vanilla biscuits uses almonds. I had no nuts around the house.

My gifted baking round/flower tray (on my bed) and compared to my hand.

Remember what I called this recipe? Linzer torte? This cake has a crust with some jam on top. If you research the recipe, you'll that the one I used comes really close to it. I used a cherry jam. I also gave up the lattice design the Linzer torte because of not having enough dough.

INGREDIENTS

200 grams butter
250 grams flour
70 grams sugar
some salt
some baking powder
30 ml vanilla essence
jam of choice

OPTIONAL

100 grams almonds or other nuts
some cinnamon
vanilla sugar
confectioner's sugar

METHOD

Leave the jam to a side. Preheat the oven and prepare a baking tray of choice, using your favorite method

Mix all the ingredients in a large enough bowl. You will need to use your hands for this. Get your hands wet so the dough won't stick to them. Mix really well.

Take all the dough and place in the baking tray. Take a lass with a regular shape to help you spread the dough evenly in the tray. It is best to make a little edge to prevent the jam from leaking over. Pour the jam on top, and spread it evenly. Feel free to add more nuts on top.

Place the tray in the oven, in the middle, with a medium-low heat. Baking last about half an hour. Using a toothpick to check if it's done is not very effective due to the jam on top. It is easy to burn this cake, so be careful.

Once it's done, remove it from the oven and let it cool. Once cooled, you can sprinkle confectioner's sugar on top.

Please leave your questions in the comments.

Bon Apetit

Originally posted on Feb 24, 2014 Edited in November 2018.

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"generic" pound cake recipe

Publié le 24 Novembre 2013 par Charly C.

Catégories : #baking, #tips, #Cooking, #dessert, #food, #sweets, #recipe

Hello world~~~

You might have many great pound cake recipes, and I cannot wait to find more. There are a few ingredients needed, just a few steps, and then, BAM! baking and voila!

I'll give you guys the quantities for a single loaf and the ones for 2 loafs in parenthesis, if you like it and want to try it again ;) This recipe doesn't need baking powder because the eggs and oil make it really fluffy.

not my picture :( it belongs to its maker

INGREDIENTS

4 large eggs (7 medium eggs)
1 cup sugar (2 cups)
5 tablespoons water (7 tablespoons)
5 tablespoons oil (7 tablespoons)
some salt
1 cup flour (1 1/2 cups)
vanilla, lemon, or other flavoring you like
cocoa (if you want it marbled)

METHOD

Pre-heat the oven and prepare your baking tray.
Mousse the eggs whites.
Place the sugar in a pot, pour the water over, and melt the sugar over some heat (like on the stove). Make sure you get a syrup like looking ingredient and that you don't burn it.
Pour the above syrup on the mousse and mix well.
Pour the salt over the egg yolks, mix with a fork, and pour over the meringue above. Mix well.
Add the oil and mix well.
Add the flour and mix well.
Add the flavoring and mix well.
Pour the mix in the tray and bake for some 30 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean if you prick the pound cake in the middle.

MARBLED CAKE

Follow the steps 1 to 8.
Pour the mix in the tray saving some 2 or 3 tablespoons of batter over which you pour the cocoa. Mix well and then pour on top of the rest of the batter with a left/right motion.
Bake it like above.

the cocoa mixture on the left. use a teaspoon to 'cut' the batter, to have some cocoa IN the pound-cake

You can further decorate your pound cake with any topping you like. You can also add raisins, nuts, or other dried fruits.

Bon Appetit!

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