girlwithanearring

I have been sitting around lazy on my free time and binge-watching show after show. September was so busy, stressful with work I didn't want to do anything this month. The last time I updated my Youtube Channel was the end of July and it's the middle of October now. Talk about slacking... A week ago, my cousin who was under quarantine because she was in contact with another cousin of ours with Covid -unbeknown to everybody of course- told me to hold an apple pie bake-off! 

Why "MINI APPLE POT PIES," you asked? We both have tiny miny mini Staub casseroles and wanted to make something fun. In the video, there are no sound me cutting the apples etc. because we were face-timing the whole time informing each other where we at. We might make this a tradition and make this bake-off on Instagram live. Maybe.

For the dough, I used my own recipe. It's not crunchy like a traditional American apple pie. It's more like a cookie dough: soft and melting in your mouth. It's the Turkish version. I adjusted the recipe from my mother's apple rolls dough, which I will also make in the future. 

So the other day, I bake three different types of bread with the same dough. One of them was these cinnamon rolls with walnuts and butter sauce. The dough is my usual fresh yeast recipe. I totally winged the whole thing and let my cast iron pot do its wonder. As a result, the sugar inside the bread was well caramelised and it was so tasty. Here is the recipe: 

2 + 1/4 cup flour

10 gr fresh yeast

1 cup of warm water

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

100gr butter, soft

10 tbsp sugar

5 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup walnuts, roughly crushed

Melt the yeast in warm water, add the olive oil. 

Combine the flour and the salt in a large bowl. 

Pour the liquid in and stir with a wooden spoon. 

Mix everything and knead if necessary to get a smooth dough. 

Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap let it rise for 1+1/2 hour. 

Put the risen dough into a floured surface and knead a little bit to get a smooth dough. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a rectangular shape of 1/2 cm thick. 

With a spatula spread the soft butter to cover the surface. You don't have to use all the butter if the surface was covered enough. 

Mix the sugar and the cinnamon in a bowl and sprinkle all over the butter layer. 

Sprinkle the roughly crushed walnuts. 

Starting at the long side of the rectangle farthest from you, roll up the rectangle into a log. 

With a sharp knife, I cut one big slice for the middle part and nine smaller slices, as I wanted to shape it like a flower. 

Spread a baking sheet on the counter, put your cast iron pot on it then measure and mark the paper if necessary. 

Meanwhile, place the large slice in the middle of your baking paper as the cut side up. Lightly press it with your hand. Then arrange the other smaller slices as the petals around the crown, always the cut side is up. I lightly pressed every slice. 

Set the rolls aside for the second rise for another hour.

Put the cast iron pot into the oven 250C with fan to let it heat up. 

Take the hot pot out of the oven. 

Place the cinnamon rolls by holding the edges of the baking paper into the pot. Cut the excess paper quickly and cover the lid and let it bake for 30 minutes. 

For the sauce, in a small pot, melt the butter and add the milk.Whisk. Add the sugar, salt and vanilla extract and continue whisking until it's a creamy sauce. Pour the sauce all over the cinnamon rolls and serve it warm. 

The pot I used is @silverdokum Cast Iron Cusinero 24 cm, Blue. 

Bon Appetit,

Usually, a sticky date pudding is really sugary and heavy. I really love Nigella Lawson's Sticky Toffee Pudding, I think it's perfect and was what I was set out to bake. However, with quarantine and all, I didn't have all the ingredients at hand so I improvised and made it a blonde version, which also turned out to be really tasty lighter version. 

This post is about the best and the easiest chocolate pudding ever!

(Disclaimer: since this chocolate pudding is eaten as soon as possible, even though i made it a million times, i still have no proper photo of it. so sorry about that. next time, i promise, i swear, -i don't know if i can do it- won't eat it right away and take a proper picture of it and post it here!)

As for the ingredients, I'm sure if you use wild mushrooms it would taste million times better. I used button mushrooms which are rather bland compared to wild mushrooms. And beets, I love beets. I use them in soups which I might say the colour of soup with beets is amazing. I also love them pickled and make a really tasty and colourful dressing with pickled beets for a tuna salad, or just simply chop some pickled beets and put them over arugula and iceberg lettuce, the best salad ever. Once I roasted them with garlic and olive oil, then pureed everything and used it as a pasta sauce. Yummy and pink.

This is the video in which I prepared the Roasted Beets and Mushrooms with Arugula Salad:


What makes this salad different is the "roasting" which makes everything better and richer in flavour and the dressing. For the video of preparing the dressing scroll down.

ingredients

500 gr. button mushrooms, you can also use wild mushrooms
10 baby beets or 2 large beets
200 gr arugula, washed
olive oil
salt
black pepper
optional: dried mint and red pepper flakes
juice of 1/2 lemon

for the dressing,
1 large shallot, minced
3 tsp pomegranate sauce
1 tsp dijon mustard (or whatever mustard you have)
3 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
black pepper
salt

method

if you have baby beets there is no need to trim them just cut in half or cut in four pieces.
if you have large beets, peel them and cut them into four pieces then slice them half a cm thick. (watch the video for a much clear sense)
in a bowl or on a baking paper, like I did, place the beets and sprinkle some olive oil, about 3 tbsp.
sprinkle 1 tbsp lemon juice, some salt, ground black pepper and some dried mint and red pepper flakes. the last two items are optional I sometimes do that and sometimes don't.
toss them gently and set aside.
cut the mushrooms in half.
in a bowl or on a baking paper, place the mushrooms and sprinkle with olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, salt, black pepper.

(if the beets are too big I sometimes cover them with another baking sheet and then aluminium foil for the first 15 minutes. Then take the cover off and let them roast for 5 more minutes.)

place them side by side in a baking tray and roast them until they are tender.
mushrooms will cook much quicker than the beets.
take the mushrooms out and check the beets with a knife.

if you are doing this for the next day, keep the beets and mushrooms in baking paper covered with another baking paper and preserved them in the refrigerator if it's summer or in the oven if it's not, depending on the weather.

in a serving bowl, put the arugulas in big chunky pieces. I don't cut them if they are too small and fresh but if you don't like that just cut them in 3 cm wide.
place the beets on top of the arugula and then the mushrooms.

for the dressing,

in a small bowl, whisk together the minced shallot, vinegar, mustard and pomegranate sauce. Add 1/3 cup olive oil, salt, black pepper and whisk.
you can pour the dressing immediately or put it in a dressing jug for the presentation and pour it on the table with your guests.

Don't forget to check out my videos for my table set-ups and other menu items for brunch and afternoon teatime. 

This is the video in which I prepared the dressing and the menu and table set-up for a brunch:

here are the recipes for some of the salads:

For the 1st recipe click: roasted beet and mushroom salad with arugula

Bon Appétit,