Tropical Apple Pie

The second I saw this recipe I knew - this is going to be the best apple pie in the Universe. So I made it, twice bigger than the original recipe says ;) And I was perfectly right :) I had quite a lot of it, all the guests were smitten with it, I gave some 'takeaway' portions and I was receiving calls and txt messages with compliments and asks for the recipe for the entire afternoon ;)

So, here, again, bravo for KS for another wonderful recipe!

I changed the original recipe, I've added more margarine, thanks to this change it has absolutely different taste and is way better, believe me!

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 6 glasses of flour
• 12 tablespoons of powdered sugar
• 2 pinches of salt
• 345g of butter
• 235g of margarine
• optionally - if the dough isn't sticky enough - add a little water

Filling:

• 1800g of apples (cut into a little bit thicker slices)
• 900g of pineapple (fresh or tinned, cut into small pieces) 
• 1/2 glass of brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 1 vanilla sugar
• 2 packagings (40g each) of vanilla powdered budyń (or 1/2 glass of potato starch)
• a handful of almond flakes or shredded coconut

Optionally:

• filling: a handful of raisins (of course if You like raisins, add as much as You like, though not more than 1 glass)
• top: 1 beaten egg to spread on the top, before baking
• top: powdered sugar, to sprinkle the top of the cake, after baking

Preparation:

Dough:

1. Take a big bowl, sieve flour and powdered sugar inside, add salt as well as butter and margarine cut into small pieces. Knead or mix till everything links (especially butter and margarine). If the dough isn't sticky enough and You can't form a ball, add a little water.
2. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, cover with foil and put in the fridge for an hour.
3. During that time, prepare a suitable baking pan (around 30x40 cm) - grease it and cover with baking paper. Also, during that time, prepare the filling.

Filling:

1. Wash, peel, cut the apples (cut out the kernels and throw away) and put in a big pot or bowl. 
2. Do the same with the pineapple and mix with apples.
3. Optionally, add raisins to the same pot/bowl and mix.
4. Add sugar, cinnamon, vanilla sugar and budyń/potato starch and mix precisely.

Baking:

1. Start preheating the oven to 190C.
2. Take the first part of the dough, distribute all over the bottom of the baking pan and its sides.
3. Add mixed filling.
4. Sprinkle with almond flakes or shredded coconut.
5. Take the second part of the dough from the fridge and - either make a crumble or roll out the pastry thinly and cover the cake or roll out the dough thinly, cut into stripes and make a chequered pattern.
6. Optionally - beat 1 egg and distribute all over the top.
7. If the oven is ready, put the cake inside and bake for 70 minutes till golden brown.
8. If the top or bottom is getting too dark and isn't ready - cover the top with a piece of foil and the bottom, for example with baking tray.
9. Take out from the oven and serve for instance with powdered sugar on the top or with some vanilla ice cream.
10. Bon Appetit! :)

Tropical Pavlova

I have no idea why I was hesitating for such long time... this is absolutely gorgeous... It exceeded all my expectations :) not only its appearance on the table is wonderful but the taste is just overdelicious! sweet meringue with tropical fruits! this is a real feast for senses ;) I do recommend! :) 

For those afraid of baking a meringue - here is a tip - you can buy a ready-made one in a good bakery ;) And they are probably available in a few sizes - you can make a couple of small pavlovas or one, very big :) all of them will be same delicious :)

Recipe for the meringue comes from this website, the rest is my idea, as Pavlova might be prepared in plenty different ways and will always taste good :)

Note: meringue and lemon curd might be prepared earlier. But - lemon curd must be stored in a closed box, in the fridge.

Ingredients:

Meringue:

• 4 egg whites from 4 big eggs 
• 250g of sugar 
• 1 teaspoon of potato starch 
• 1 teaspoon of white or rice vinegar 

Lemon curd:

• 3 eggs 
• lemon zest and lemon juice from 3 lemons 
• 100g of powdered sugar 
• 100g of cool butter 

Whipped cream:

• 500 ml of 36% cream 
• 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar 
• 1-2 packages of powdered whipped cream (to stiffen the whipped cream, or polish smietan-fix*) 

* remember to stick to the proportions while using powdered products. If powder package says it is enough for 200 ml of cream/milk (no difference), and you're using 500ml of cream - add 2 packages.

Top:

• Tropical fruit (any, tinned or fresh) 
• peach 
• mango 
• passionfruit 
• lychee 
• pineapple 
• guava 
• ... :) 
• a handful of shredded coconut, to sprinkle the top 

Preparation:

Meringue:

1. Preheat the oven to 120C (without convection, just this time) 
2. Prepare a baking sheet, cover with baking paper. Draw a circle (diameter: for M size eggs - 18 cm, for L size eggs - 20 cm). Put aside. 
3. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites inside, start beating. After a while, start adding sugar, one tablespoon after another, stiring precisely all the time. The beating should take 10-15 minutes, not less. The meringue after the beating should be stiff and shiny. 
4. When done, add potato starch and vinegar and beat for another few minutes so that it links. 
5. Using a spoon or spatula, distribute the meringue on the baking sheet, on the drawn circle. Pull up the sides. (please don't play with it much, just few good moves, because the meringue might be destroyed). 
6. Put in the oven and bake for 30 min in 120C. After that time, lower the temperature to 100C and bake for another 3 hours. 

Lemon curd:

Lemon curd requires a 'bath' so it is necessary to have a suitable pot and a bowl, that can be put one on another.

1. Chop the butter into smaller pieces. 
2. Take a pot, put some water inside, start boiling it. 
3. Take a bowl that matches the pot, put eggs inside, beat. 
4. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, powdered sugar and stir till everything links and there are no lumps. 
5. Now put the bowl on the top of your pot (make sure the bowl stands out from the pot so that you don't get burn) and slowly keep heating up the mixture (don't boil it). 
6. Keep adding the butter, one piece after another, stiring after adding. 
7. When all the butter is melted in the mixture, turn off the heat and put the bowl with lemon curd somewhere aside, to let it cool down. 
8. Then put your lemon curd in the fridge so that it stiffens more. 

Finishing:

1. Prepare fruit. If fresh - wash, peel (if necessaroy) and chop. Dry them on a paper towel. Put aside for a while. If tinned - half of the job is already done - just chop and dry. 
2. When the meringue is baked and cooled down, distribute cooled down lemon curd all over the top. 
3. Now, prepare whipped cream going through the steps below:
   
   Whipped cream: 
   1. Before preparing the whipped cream make sure your cream is really, really cool (I always put it in the freezer before beating, for around 10-15 minutes). 
   2. Take a mixer and its bowl, put cream inside, start mixing. After a while add powdered sugar and something to stiffen it (powdered whipped cream/smietan-fix). 
   3. Beat for around 10 minutes (depending on the power of a mixer it might take more or less time, keep paying attention not to make butter).
   
   
4. Distribute whipped cream all over the top. 
5. Just for the sake of safety, dry all the fruit again on a paper towel, before putting them on the meringue with whipped cream (as the juice from fruit may destroy both whipped cream and meringue). Make any pattern you wish out of the fruit. 
6. Sprinkle with shredded coconut. 
7. Store in the fridge. 
8. Bon Appetit! ;) 

Piña Colada Cake

Well I decided to make a birthday gift for myself. What could it be? Self-made cake seemed to be a perfect idea :) And so it was :) Soft sponge cake, refreshing pineapple, mouth-watering, sweet cream and tongue tickling shredded coconut. What else do a palate need? ;)

Recipe comes from Kwestia Smaku.

Some useful tips on 'before baking':

• It is better to use fresh pineapple, not tinned one.
• While mixing the sponge cake, remember to mix only in one direction!
• It is possible to prepare the sponge cake one day earlier.
• Actually, preparing the entire cake one day earlier is a fantastic idea - the cake is getting better and better with time! 
• A good idea to cut the sponge cake is to use a thread.
• It is possible to prepare that cake in non-alcohol version - don't impregnate the sponge cake with anything.
• If the coconut liqueur is unavailable, it is also a good idea to use rum.
• Instead of ricotta cheese it is possible to use ground curd cheese.
• About coconut milk: shake before opening the tin. If there is a transparent liquid - highly probably this coconut milk is useless and preparing the coconut cream will be impossible. It needs to be white, milk-like liquid, as the title says: 'coconut MILK' not 'coconut water'.

Ingredients:

Sponge Cake:

• 7 eggs
• 1 glass of sugar
• 1 glass of flour
• 1/3 glass of potato flour

Pineapple Mousse:

• 2 pineapples
• 2 tablespoons of coconut liqueur
• 2 flat tablespoons of potato flour

Coconut Cream:

• 1 (400ml) tin of coconut milk
• 1/4 glass of coconut liqueur
• 1 glass of sugar
• 500g of mascarpone cheese
• 250 g of ricotta cheese

Impregnating the sponge cake:

• 6-9 tablespoons of rum

Decoration:

• Shredded coconut
• pineapples leaves (if they are in good visual condition)

Preparation:

Sponge cake:

1. Take a springform cake tin, grease it and put the baking paper on the bottom. Grease the sides of the tin.
2. Take a bowl, mix flour with potato flour inside.
3. Start heating the oven to 170C.
4. Take a mixer and its bowl, separate egg whites from yolks so that egg whites are inside the mixer's bowl and yolks are - for example - in a glass.
5. Stir the yolks. Put aside and leave the spoon inside the glass.
6. Start beating the whites on a low rotation for 2 minutes. 
7. After those 2 minutes start adding sugar (gradually, one tablespoon after another).
8. Continute beating the whites on the highest rotation till stiff and shiny (around 7-10 minutes).
9. Without stopping the mixer, start adding the yolks (gradually, one spoon after another - another goes when the previous links perfectly with egg whites).
10. Stop the mixer.
11. Divide flours into 3 parts and add first part to the mixer's bowl. Stir very gently (not to destroy the foam) with a spoon till it links. After that, add the second part, stir and the third - stir again. (It is very important to stir slowly and precisely cause very often, in the middle or on the bottom of the bowl there is unlinked flour).
12. Pour the dough into previously prepared springform cake tin and bake for around 35 minutes in 170C.
13. After that time take it immidiately out of the oven, and throw on the kitchen's surface. Cool down.
14. When the cake is cold take a knife and cut the sides very near to the springform cake tin side, so that the cake can be taken out easily from the springform cake tin.
15. Now cut the sponge cake into 3 parts - using a knife or a thread.

Pineapple Mousse:

1. Cut the pulp, throw away the skins and hard, middle parts of both pineapples. 
2. Take one pineapple, cut the pulp into cubes and put inside a pot, add liqueur and start heating on a low heat for around 30 minutes, stiring from time to time not to let it burn. 
3. Cut the second pineapple into cubes as well and put aside.
4. Mix (using for example a blender) the boiled pineapple, add the second pineapple cut into cubes and start heating again. 
5. Take a glass, put a little water inside. Add potato flour, stir.
6. Add potato flour from the glass to the pot with pineapples. Boil till the mousse becomes really thick, like a jam.
7. Cool down.

Coconut Cream:

1. Take a pot. Put coconut milk and liqueur inside, add sugar and stir till the sugar melts.
2. Boil on an average heat for around 30-40 minutes till the substance getsreally thick (like a gum).
3. Cool down a little bit (it can't be cooled down completely cause it will be impossible to use it).
4. Take a bowl, put mascarpone and ricotta cheese inside. 
5. Using a mixer, mix it on a slow rotation. One spoon after another, keep adding coconut 'gum' while still mixing everything on a very slow rotation and make sure it links with both ricotta and mascarpone.

Preparing the cake:

1. Put the bottom sponge cake piece on a desired plate (it won't be possible to change the plate after preparing!).
2. Sprinkle with rum, put 1/2 of the pineapple mousse on it and 1/3 of the coconut cream. 
3. Put another piece of sponge cake on it. Sprinkle with rum, put the rest of pineapple mousse on it and 1/2 of the coconut cream (leave 1/2 of the coconut cream for the sides and the top of the cake).
4. Put the last piece of sponge cake on the top, sprinkle with rum, put coconut cream all over the cake - top and sides and sprinkle with shredded coconut (unlimited technique).
5. Decorate the top of the cake with the pineapple leaves - if possible.
6. Keep closed in a cake box, in the fridge.
7. Bon Appetit! :)

Smoothie

The easiest and the tastiest juice in this world that will cool you down during a hot day.

The idea for this smoothie comes from this website. But - again - I changed it a little bit :)

Ingredients: (for 2-3 cups)

• orange juice (from 1 orange)
• 1 peeled mango
• 1 banana
• cherries - fresh or frozen

Optional ingredients:

• 1/2 tumbler of milk
• sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons of greek yoghurt
• ice

Preparation:

1. Wash the banana and put it in the freezer.
2. Put orange juice and chopped mango to your blender/mixer/food processor. Mix till smooth.
3. Add banana. Mix till smooth.
4. Now it's time for optional ingredients (except for ice). Add carefully one element, mix, taste it, add another. Try it after every mixing so that you are sure that your smoothie suits your taste.
5. Add ice, mix till smooth.
6. Now you can make two - pour the smoothie in one cup so that you have a yellow smoothie.
7. Leave the rest in your food processor and now add cherries. Mix till smooth.
8. Bon appetit :)