Tag: pie

Apricot Meringue Pie

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

This is one of my favorite desserts from my Mom’s recipe notebook. The original recipe is a square shape but I like the pie shape so I transformed it to my liking 😉

My Mom used to eat it hot, straight from the oven!

It is creamy and crispy at the same time and the soft meringue on top is very silky. You can use apricot compote or fresh apricots instead of the jam, but make sure to peel the skin off and sprinkle some sugar on top.

Ingredients

  • apricot jam

Dough

  • 150 g (1 cup + 3 tbsp) all-purpose flour
  • 100 g (¾ cup) unsalted, room-temperature butter
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tbsp sour cream
  • 1 tbsp white wine
  • a pinch of baking powder

Cream

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 70 g (½ cup +1 tbsp) sugar
  • 2 tsp all-purpose flour
  • 150 ml ( ½ cup + 2 tbsp) of milk

Preparation

Dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C (338 °F).
  2. Combine all the ingredients to make the dough. You can make it in the food processor or by hand.
  3. Shape the dough into a small ball and wrap it up in a cling foil.
  4. Let it rest in the refrigerator for half an hour.
  5. Roll the dough and place it in a round baking pan 20-25 cm wide. Make sure you cover the sides with the dough as well.
  6. Bake it until golden, 10-15 min.

Cream/Meringue

  1. While the pastry is baking, prepare the cream and the meringue.
  2. In a double boiler or on steam whisk egg yolks with sugar.
  3. After the sugar dissolves, add the flour and slowly pour in the milk while whisking constantly.
  4. The cream is done when it thickens.
  5. Cool it down.
  6. In a separate big bowl mix 3 egg whites with 2 tablespoons of icing sugar until stiff.

Cake

  1. When the pastry is baked, spread a thick layer of apricot jam.
  2. Pour the cream on the jam and evenly smear.
  3. In the end, pour the meringue.
  4. Bake for another 5 min at 200 °C (400 °F) until the meringue becomes golden.

Cool off before serving or eat it hot like my Mum used to do.

What is your favorite pie flavor?

Yogurt Pie with Berries

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

A perfect summer dessert needs to be refreshing and light, just like this yogurt pie ☺

My fruit of choice is always tangy berries to balance the sweetness of the cream. This time I used blackberries and blueberries. But strawberries, raspberries, or even cranberries would be an excellent choice.

It’s an easy-to-make and easy-to-eat cake that will accompany any summer day or BBQ.

Ingredients for the dough

  • 4 egg yolks
  • 170 g (3/4 cup) cold butter
  • 300 g (2 1/4 cup) all-purpose flour
  • 100 g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
  • 10 g (2 1/2 tsp) baking powder

Ingredients for the cream

  • 4 egg whites
  • 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar
  • 600 ml ( 2 1/2 cups) Greek yogurt
  • 400 ml (1 1/2 cup) sour cream
  • 40 g (5 tbsp) all-purpose flour
  • 10 g vanilla sugar (1 sachet) or 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 200 g (1 1/4 cup) of preferred fruit

+ some powder sugar for dusting

Preparation:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (355 °F).
  2. Combine all the dough ingredients with your hands or in a food processor.
  3. Divide into two equal parts and wrap in cling foil.
  4. The first part of the dough flatten a bit and put in the fridge.
  5. With the second part form a ball and leave in the freezer.
  6. While the dough is resting, prepare the cream.
  7. In the standing mixer or with a hand mixer mix egg whites with both sugars until stiff.
  8. Add the yogurt, sour cream, and flour gently with the spatula.
  9. Mix in about 350 g of berries of your choice.
  10. Roll the dough (kept in the fridge) evenly on a 9×13” baking sheet.
  11. Pour over the cream.
  12. Grate the second part of the dough onto the cream.
  13. Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown.
  14. When cooled, dust with powdered sugar.

What would be your fruit of choice for this pie?

Ham Pie, Parisian way – Le clafoutis au jambon de Paris

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

When I started learning French in grade school, one of the first things I enjoyed was finding French recipes and translating them to Croatian.
When I got older, I enjoyed making them into food 😀

This is one of my favorite dishes to make with leftover ham form Easter. You can serve as breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner 😄

Ham Pie, Parisian way

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 500 ml milk
  • 150 g ham
  • 6 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 8 tbsp grated cheese (cheddar, Gouda or something similar)
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • salt to taste
  • black pepper to taste

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C (395 °F).
  2. Grease the baking pan with a little butter.
  3. Cut the ham into little squares and place it on the bottom of the pan.
  4. In a big bowl mix butter, grated cheese, milk, flour, salt and pepper.
  5. Add whole eggs and mix well with spatula until the mixture gets smooth.
  6. Pour the mixture on the ham.
  7. Bake for about 35 minutes until golden brown.

Serve with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados or red peppers!

What is your favorite ham dish and why?

Royal Pie

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

This is one of those recipes I got from a friend’s grandmother written in an old notebook. It didn’t even have baking temperature nor time written! Well, in the old days they had wooden stoves and weren’t able to regulate it anyway, so this does make sense 🙂

Combination of chocolate and walnuts with a zesty jam will win you over forever 😀

Royal Pie

Ingredients

For the dough

  • 100 g (7 tbsp) butter
  • 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 100 g (1 cup) pastry flour
  • 100 g (1 cup) ground walnuts

For the cream

  • 150 g (10 tbsp) softened butter
  • 150 g (3/4 cup) sugar
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 150 g (10 tbsp) melted dark chocolate
  • 5 egg whites

For the chocolate glaze

  • 100 g (6 1/2 tbsp) dark chocolate
  • 50 g (1/4 cup) butter
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1 beaten egg
  • jam of your choice (I used black current jam)

Preparation

  1. Knead the dough from all the dough ingredients, wrap in cling wrap and let it rest for half an hour in the refrigerator.
  2. Roll the dough and place it in a round 26 cm (10 in) diameter pie pan.
  3. Bake in a preheated oven on 170 °C (340 °F) until baked only half way! (10-12 min).
  4. Meanwhile make the cream. Melt the chocolate either on steam or in the microwave.
  5. In a separate bowl beat egg whites until firm peak.
  6. In a large bowl, mix sugar with egg yolks until foamy, add the butter and the melted chocolate.
  7. With spatula gently mix in previously firmly beaten egg whites.
  8. Take the halfway baked cake out of the oven and spread the jam thinly on the dough.
  9. Pour the cream on the jam. Bake until done, for another 10-15 minutes.
  10. Cool the cake before you put the glaze on.
  11. For the glaze melt the chocolate with butter and oil. Remove from heat and add the beaten egg. This is grandma’s secret touch 🙂

Serving: Sprinkle with some finely chopped walnuts for decoration!

We all have some old recipes passed done from generations before. What’s yours?

Apple Crumble Pie

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

Apples are in season, and that makes perfect timing for all types of apple cakes, tarts, pies, strudels and other apple based goodness… I made mine with maple syrup and it makes all the difference. I am Canadian after all 😀

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Apple Crumble Pie

Tools you need

  • Mixing bowls to mix the dough in 😀
  • Chef’s knife comes handy for cutting the apples
  • Cutting board; also useful for cutting apples
  • Make sure saucepan is big enough for all the apples!
  • Round tart pan. I recommend two piece pan for easy slicing
  • Peeler. Great tool when you need to peel something, like apples 😉
  • Measuring spoons because it’s baking, and measuring is the name of the game 😉
  • Measuring cup. See previous point.
  • Kitchen scale because baking is a fine art and perfection is a little bit more reachable when you quantify things
  • Kitchen mittens. Things get hot in the oven. Burns hurt and take time to heal. You don’t want to take time off from baking, do you?

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry (2x)

  • 220 g pastry flour
  • 50 g sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 130 g cold butter, diced
  • 1 egg, beaten

For the filling

Make two balls of dough with the same ingredients. One ball of dough will be for the bottom of the pie and the other for the top.

In the bowl mix together flour, salt and sugar until combined. Add butter, and mix until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually stream beaten egg into the flour mixture and knead until the dough just comes together. Turn out the dough onto a clean work surface and shape into a flattened disk. One ball wrap in transparent foil and refrigerate for 25-30 minutes and the other one wrap in transparent foil and put in the freezer!

Peel, clean and cut the apples into small cubes. Put them in a medium saucepan, pour over the maple syrup, add cinnamon and vanilla sugar. Simmer the apples over the low heat until soft.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 180 °C. Butter a 26 cm round tart pan.
Roll the chilled dough from a refrigerator on a piece of lightly floured baking paper in a 30 cm circle. Transfer the rolled dough to your tart pan and press it into the bottom and sides of the pan. Cut off excess dough and prick the bottom with a fork.

Pour over the apple filling. Take the dough form the freezer and grate in on top of the filling. Sprinkle with oatmeal.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the dough becomes golden brown.

Enjoy 🙂