friederike's Reviews
1109 recipes reviewed. Showing 1001 to 1050Sort by: Book Title 
| Date | Rating | Recipe Title
Website: BBC Good Food
It's nice when done well, but it's definitely not easy (not in the meaning of 'not complex'), and it contains several mistakes.
1. Both the potatoes and the aubergines need to be fully cooked. Baking the moussaka for 10 min will only allow the cheese to melt, not cook the vegetables. Grilling the aubergines (esp. without oil on them) won't cook them; it'll only get them partially charred (a.k.a. burnt). I grilled one aubergine, and baked the second one with a little olive oil in the oven, 20 min at 175 degrees C - much better (and less work!). The potatoes need to be fully cooked and cut into thin slices (5 mm max) if you want to have any chance of having more than one layer (I used 5 large-ish potatoes and barely managed two layers in two small casseroles).
2. If you want to end with a layer of aubergine, don't specify to start with a layer of potato, then aubergine, then meat sauce.
I didn't have mixed spice, so I used 1/4 tsp cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg each, and about 1/8 tsp each of coriander, cloves and ginger (all of them ground). I forgot to add the creme fraiche, but we just added it at the table, which was nice as well. I do like that you can prepare this dish in advance and only need to pop it into the oven for 10 min (though you'll probably need more than that when taken straight from the fridge).
useful (0)
Website: BBC Good Food
Just saw that I've never reviewed this recipe! Nice dish, though we've never made the celeriac mash, just the braised beef.
useful (0)
Website: BBC Good Food
Good basic recipe.
useful (0)
Website: BBC Good Food
This was awful, oily, and using bad technique. I would have expected this to be stir-fried and steamed (because why else would you use a wok?), and 'medium heat' does not work in that context. Also, you'll add a total of 4 tbsps of oil - way too much! And last, don't heat sesame oil, and don't use 2 tbsps of it.
Served alongside Braised Pork with Plums - wonderful!
useful (0)
Website: BBC Good Food
Very easy, and fantastic in taste! We used spare ribs, as this was what our butcher recommended, and it was very delicious, albeit heavy in fat (obviously). I omitted the star anise and used 9 damson plums, and the dish could have used much more plums; I'm pretty sure you could also make this with prunes.
Served with rice and Sesame Pak Choi - while pak choi goed really well with the pork, the execution of that dish was awful.
useful (0)
Website: Baking and Books
The whole blog including this recipe has moved to the blog Sweet Happy Life, so my review moved on as well.
useful (0)
Backen macht Freude - Reprint 1952
By Dr. Oetker
Dr. Oetker Verlag - 2015
I made this cake once, about twelve years ago - I definitely wasn't as demanding culinarywise then as I am now, it appears. The cake is fine but a little boring. It features a fairly standard sponge, a few apples on top, then topped off by (the only interesting feature!) a nice crunchy crumble.
I actually forgot the cake in the oven - I baked it 1 hour and 15 min instead of the required 45 min, but that didn't seem to do any harm.
I think you could spruce it up, a little, by making the sponge layer thinner and adding in some spices - I'm thinking cardamom, but maybe also some chili?
useful (0)
The Baby-led Weaning Cookbook: Over 130 delicious recipes for the whole family to enjoy
By Gill Rapley, Tracey Murkett
Vermilion - 2010
We actually just made Spaghetti Bolognese this weekend without know that this book also contained a recipe. We didn't follow any specific recipe (by now we should be able to wing a basic bolognese sauce), but what we made is pretty much exactly this recipe in double the quantity, but then without bacon and mushrooms. And herbs, but only because we forgot them.
And kiddo really enjoyed it! He gave me some problems last week as he refused most dinners I had cooked for him (mainly simple cooked/steamed or fried veggies), so I was really happy to see him enjoy his meal. We gave him the sauce-covered pasta to eat with his has, and the sauce on preloaded spoons - allowing him to grab the meat/sauce with his bare fingers would have made a much bigger mess than it already was, and probably only would have resulted in frustration.
useful (1)
These were really nice! As with the pancakes, I used water instead of milk, which worked really well; I will probably also start using (part) wholewheat flour next time.
The drop scones were a bit less easy to eat for kiddo; at least in part because they were thicker, but they were probably also a little harder in texture. Adding some mashed banana (about half a banana per recipe) helped (and gave a really pleasant taste!) - all in all, this is probably a dish you can better serve once your little one has teeth and/or has become quite good at eating.
useful (0)
As the Baba Ganoush already contained too much garlic and lemon juice, I was careful with both, using only one garlic clove and 2 tbsp of lemon juice. Still, that was too much, especially too much garlic, as the raw garlic has a tendency to intensify over time - it was okayish on the first day, but already overpowering on the second. Otherwise a nice idea. Don't use canned chickpeas, they're very likely to be too salty, and if you cook them, make sure you cook them long enough and don't let them dry out afterwards.
useful (0)
Quite nice, really easy, and (with a little salt and pepper) also something you can serve as a snack for adults! I omitted the yoghurt to simplify it even more.
However, I am placing a question mark regarding it's nutritional value - I mean, it's basically 50% salmon, 50% ricotta. That's fine eaten as an appetizer, but realistically, I don't think lots of babies eat appetizers, followed by the 'real meal' (unless the latter is a breast or bottle, but that's not weaning), nor will there be many parents who will be willing to prepare a multiple course dinner for their little darlings.
Also, they also suggest using tuna instead of salmon for variation - but until now I haven't found a single source that didn't advise against tuna due to potentially high levels of mercury. Not very reassuring!
useful (0)
I love this dish! One garlic clove is probably too much, as is the juice of a whole lemon, but other than that I really liked it, even without salt. Next time though I would probably make at least triple the quantity - one for kiddo, one to freeze, and one for me.
useful (0)
Luckily, I only added one out of the two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar - I'm glad I didn't add more, as even one tbsp seemed more than enough. The same applies to the onion - I only added half a shallot instead of a whole onion, and it probably could have used less. In fact, after adding the vinegar and the shallots, I could hardly taste the beans and the carrots at all. It didn't help of course that normally I would have added a little salt. So definitely cut back the onion/shallot and the vinegar.
I also only realized afterwards that it would have been a really good idea to add lemon juice instead of vinegar - lemon juice is of course a good source of vitamin C, which you'll need to absorb iron from non-haem iron sources like legumes.
useful (0)
I thought we were trying to make eating solids enticing?
The chicken was severely overcooked (I was actually tempted to turn off the heat after just six minutes instead of ten, but I - naively! - thought that the recipe probably wouldn't be wrong by such a large margin), the sauce was way too liquid, and a bit too sour.
Actually I was quite sceptic in the beginning if this would work at all, because you're basically cooking/boiling 2-3 chicken filets in a mere two tablespoons of lemon juice. Turns out that that is more than enough, and that the chicken filets might release quite a bit of liquid as well. Here comes the problem, though: you need to keep the pan covered, as otherwise the chicken not covered with liquid won't cook - but because you're keeping the pan covered, the liquids released by the chicken cannot evaporate. Hmm, actually I'm wondering whether the liquids were released the moment the chicken began to overcook - that at least sounds logical given that the chicken was so dry (as overcooked chicken usually is). It would also mean that there's a really simple solution - stop cooking the chicken the moment it begins to relase liquids!
I would probably also use less lemon juice. One tablespoon lemon juice, and perhaps, possibly, one tablespoon water?
useful (0)
We had the cod-and-herbs variant for dinner yesterday, and it was quite nice, similar to the Salmon en Papillote with Watercress Sauce we had recently. Unfortunately, though, the cooking time isn't correct - we only cooked the cod for 13 instead of 15 minutes, and it still was horribly overcooked. Also, it's a bit simple; I added a shallot, but even then it may have a little something extra for adults - a sauce, maybe? But then again this just may be me; maybe this book is written for people who are perfectly happy for a recipe as simple as this one.
useful (0)
No, I won't write a review of a recipe for basic French Toast - it's just too easy! Just popped in to note that kiddo loved eating French Toast at 7 mths old, so I can definitely recommend this.
useful (0)
Na, didn't really work. The recipe didn't indicate that you should use parchment paper or a lightly greased baking dish, do I didn't - the result was that the porridge stuck to the bottom of the dish. I scraped it out while still warm and managed to roll fingers. For such a simple recipe I think such a mistake is just too much.
Served like that, along with apple slices - he didn't enjoy himself as much as for instance yesterday when he ate his Ratatouille, or last week when he had French Toast.
useful (0)
Very easy, and okay in taste, although for grownups you should definitely add some salt and/or tomato concentrate. The quantities are a little off - I think it serves about 3 or even 4 adults and a baby (or maybe 3 adults and two kids), and I would probably use only one courgette (zucchini) instead of two next time. Also, don't keep it covered while cooking, lest you end up with way too much liquid.
As for the kiddo - he loved eating this, and it's really healthy, so I guess it's a good choice.
Edited 26 December 2015:
I'm a bit divided - on the one hand, this dish is a good choice as it's chokeful of veggies, easy to prepare, and doesn't contain anything that might be controversial - think dairy, wheat/gluten, or even meat (not that I'd have a problem with the latter). On the other: nevermind how I cut the peppers, he isn't able to eat them because they're too hard and the skin is in the way - roast them in the oven, skin them and you'll be fine. The courgettes (zucchinis) have a problem - the skin is too hard to eat, but if you skin them (or only use the bits from the middle, they'll end up being too soft so he can't eat them with his hands. Basically, if you want him to feed himself exclusively (without spoons, although I know you can use spoons in BLW), you end up with aubergines in tomato sauce. The tomatoes, on the other hand, don't need to be skinned, it's good enough to just roughly chop them.
useful (0)
A simple recipe, easy to make and produces wonderfully thin pancakes. Better yet: kiddo loves them, especially when served with a little salt-free peanut butter (you should have seen him beam with joy!)
Edited 4 November 2015:
After learning more about iron deficits (see my book review), I've decided to try to substitute water for milk, and using half plain flour, half whole wheat flour - works perfectly! I only needed 200 ml water (instead of 300 ml milk), and it produced very nice crisp pancakes.
useful (0)
This was the first 'real' dish we made from this cookbook, and it was quite nice! I made a few fish finger-shaped cakes for the kiddo, then added salt and made patties for us - be careful, you won't need a lot of salt!
useful (0)
I baked them for quite a while longer, and yet they never seemed to be done; I'm pretty sure the reason is that I had loads of mashed bananas - our bananas were quite large. Why did they ask for 'four bananas, mashed' in this recipe, but '200 g bananas, mashed' in the banana cake recipe just two pages later?
Also, I baked them early in the morning to have them ready for breakfast, which was definitely a mistake - I used normal flour and forgot to add baking powder, so the first few muffins came out really flat...
useful (0)
It was quite bland, but not quite as bad as I had feared. I thought it was an interesting idea to use a Bechamel in a casserole, but that didn't necessarily help with the blandness. You'll need quite a number of pots and pans to prepare everything, but you can prepare it in advance quite easily so you'll just pop it in the oven at the very end. We loved the cheese and breadcrumb, though there definitely wasn't enough of it, especially not enough cheese.
useful (0)
The cake is not too bad, actually. Of course, it's sugarfree, and therefore not (very) sweet, and I'd definitely be disappointed with it as my birthday cake, but what does my son know? (I don't think it'll pass with his three-year old niece. I guess we'll have to give her a piece of the adult's cake).
It didn't really rise, though, and I'm not sure why. Lack of sugar shouldn't have anything to do with it, should it? I used 2 tsp of baking powder for just two handsful of batter! Will probably make cupcakes on the big day, as the cake looks pityfully flat even in our smallest cake dish.
Edited 25 March 2016:
I forgot to comment on the baking process. This is another baking recipe, similar to this one, where I suspect that the author had little idea of what she was doing. First you are instructed to mix flour, spices and baking powder; then to add the butter and rub it between your fingers until the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs - this latter step is a technique for making shortcrust pastry (hint: banana cake does not contain a shortcrust pastry. Not even this particular recipe.). Then you are instructed to mix the mashed bananas and the egg (= the wet ingredients) in a separate bowl, and at the very end, fold them into the flour mixture - classical muffin making technique, with the exception that butter is a wet ingredient and was supposed to go into the second bowl.
To make matters worse, the raisins go in one bowl, the walnuts into another - that doesn't make sense. Also, the walnuts are optional and can be added either finely chopped or ground - but if ground, they would change the ratio of dry vs. wet ingredients, the same way you can often substitute part of the flour with ground nuts of your choice.
Sometimes I think it's too bad Ms Rapley didn't ask a cook or a nutrionist (or both!) to help her write this book.
useful (0)
Autumn Cooking: Using the Season's Finest Ingredients (Seasonal Cooking)
By Bridget Jones
Lorenz Books - 2003
I made this more than a year ago, and to be honest, I don’t remember much, which, in a way, is a good sign: it must mean that it was nice, not excessively delicious, but nothing wrong with it either. It nearly exclusively uses store-cupboard staples and looks quite inexpensive, too. I’ll try it again soon.
useful (1)
Fish Pie with Saffron Potato Mash / Visovenschotel met Saffraanpuree / Fischauflauf mit Saffranpüree
I made this at least a year ago, and I remember vaguely that it was delicious, but very tedious and not really worth the extra effort in comparison with any other normal fish pie. I’ll rather hang on to the basic version....
useful (1)
Aufläufe & Gratins
Very delicious, but... very very cheesy. I don't dislike cheese, on the contrary, I love cheese (and especially when melted), but here it's loads of cream cheese mixed with oil and herbs. Just not something of which you could eat more than a few bites. That shouldn't prevent you from serving this dish as finger food on a buffet (especially as it really looks great!), as long as you provide a suffient number of other dishes. Also, the dish could improve if you use about half the amount of filling.
PS: I chose Breakfast/Brunch as a course type as it's probably the closest thing to finger food...
PPS: DB just read this review and strongly disagrees - he didn't mind the cheesyness as much and would definitely give a 4-star rating...
useful (1)
I actually quite enjoyed it but DB didn't, probably because I like pumpkin and he doesn't. So that brings you back to nowhere.
I liked that it was something different than the usual pumpkin soup (which is write in every other pumpkin recipe review), and I though the chili was a good idea, though we only used one instead of three chilis - I believe they meant different ones. The rosemary (one teaspoon dried rosemary instead of one tablespoon fresh) was a good contrast to the chili's hotness and paired well with the sweet soft texture of the pumpkin. On the other side I found it difficult to really taste all of the ingredients because especially the chili and the rosemary were slightly dominant. The mozzarella in any case was a complete waste, of course it couldn't hold up against chili.
One point that annoyed both of us is that according to the recipe, 20 min in the oven is supposed to be enough. Of course it isn't. In our case the pumpkin was done only after about 50 min.
So, would I make it again? I don't know, I'm on the fence. It looked good and makes a nice looking vegetarian appetizer, and it was definitely interesting but maybe just not 100% convincing.
useful (1)
This was really, really nice comfort food. Think of coming home from a day of skiing or skating, what kind of food would you like to have? And what is more, DH said it was the nicest dish with white cabbage he ever had - not that that have been so many, but still.
It does involve a lot of work - not necessarily that you're busy all the time, and there is quite a portion you could also prepare a day in advance, just don't expect this is something you can make without some preparation, and without getting several pans dirty. And it doesn't even look appealing, which seemed to be the most important argument to DH why this shouldn't get a 5 star rating - you wouldn't serve it to your guests, at least not unless you're coming home from a day of... well, you get it.
Regarding the cooking process: We cooked the cabbage for only 5 min and let it steam for even less, to retain some bite - a good decision, in my opinion. Also, how much flour you need depends on the potatoes you use, so don't expect the 100g flour to be written in stone.
Much better than the Schupfnudeln we made last time.
Edited 22 January 2017:
DH made them again (though I might have been the one who made them last time, not sure), and oh my, what a difference. He cooked them less than 5 min as they threatened to explode; they stuck to the pan and broke when he fried them, and they tasted wobbly on the inside. Not sure what went wrong - did he add too much flour, or too little? Knead the dough for too long? We probably won't make these again for a while as they really are work-intensive.
useful (0)
Very delicious! I was afraid the dough would go wrong, as it was far too dry at a certain moment - it was supposed to be a sticky dough, but with 5 parts flour to 1 part water (plus a little fresh yeast), it wasn't sticky at all. I just added the water that was supposed to be added in the next step, and the dough turned out very nicely. I did let it rise a several times, more than was instructed.
The other small point of criticism is that there is too little tomato sauce - you need about 1.5 times of what is given. I also only added the basil at the very end - I would never cook it in a sauce, as it would then get bitter (I think). And the pizzas definitely needed extra salt, although that is part of the recipe - just be warned that you really need to add enough salt, especially to the dough.
We just made a plain margherita today; we'll probably add ham, rocket and truffle oil tomorrow, and will use another cheese next time.
Edited 7 April 2013:
Mmh, pizza with ham, tomato, mozzarella, rocket, sour cream and truffle oil - delish!
Edited 30 April 2013:
DH made the dough this time, and I don't know what happened, but his dough was too wet! He added a lot of flour and was back on track, the dough rose beautifully and made a great pizza. I've decided I wouldn't try other pizza recipes (as hard as that may be) unless we get fed up with this as it's just so good, and I think that warrants an upgrade from 4 to 5 stars!
Topped the pizza with the tomato sauce from this recipe, mozzarella and grilled courgettes, a leftover from this Zucchini, Tomato and Pesto Pizza - very nice! It was still slightly salty - you can probably skip the salt in the tomato sauce altogether. Chargrilling the courgette emphasized its flavour and worked very well, though I'd make the strips short next time, just for ease of eating. DH commented that next time we should set the oven at a higher temperature and bake shorter (it was 20-25 min now).
Edited 8 June 2014:
When I made the dough again yesterday, I was astonished at how oily it gets - don't worry about that, once you have kneaded the dough properly it will feel way less oily. Also, in the beginning it was incredibly dry again, but once I added the rest of the water it was fine. It's enough dough for two baking trays / four servings, and it really rolls out very, very easily.
We topped it with tomato sauce (this recipe, sans basil), grilled veggies (aubergine, zucchini, red pepper), mozzarella and crème fraîche.
Edited 12 September 2014:
Remember that the tomato sauce shouldn't be too liquid, or else your pizza will get soggy everywhere except for the edges.
useful (1)
A bit boring. It didn't really come together as a tart, it rather felt like a few random vegetables interspersed with a little puff pastry.
useful (0)
Aufläufe, Gratins und Souffles.
By Cornelia Adam
Gräfe und Unzer Verlag - 1991
A perfectly fine casserole with an unorthodox combination of flavours (cabbage, mince meat and blue cheese, anyone?).
In the beginning I was a little sceptical about how the blue cheese would blend in, but I was pleasantly surprised. Nonetheless, the taste of the blue cheese was quite strong; I suppose it might not have turned out that way if we really had used a Roquefort and not a stronger (and cheaper) Danica Blue, so it’s definitely worth it to either choose a milder blue cheese, or mix the blue cheese with another mild and creamy cheese (BF’s suggestion is a goat’s cheese, but somehow that doesn’t really fit my definition of creamy mild cheese…)
useful (0)
We left out the bacon to make it vegetarian, which I regretted afterwards; it tasted a little too bland for my taste, and I would have welcomed the saltiness and crispness of the bacon. Otherwise it was quite nice; DB enjoyed it even without bacon.
useful (0)
Nice but nothing special; slightly watery due to the spinach. We slightly tweaked the recipe, substituting two egg yolks with one whole egg and reducing the amount of curd cheese. We also didn't blanch the spinach, something I later read would have reduced the level of nitrat and the bitter-metallic taste; but I don't think it's really that much of an issue.
PS: I actually thought that it contained cheese. Turns out it doesn't. I think it could definitely use some, or possibly a few cubes of bacon.
useful (0)
The Art of Pasta
By Lucio Galletto
Lantern - 2011
A few things were vague about the recipe, such as when to add the salt, or if you had to point the dough in a specific direction when rolling it out for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time, but all in all, it worked! And it tasted quite nice. We had our pasta with the Classic Bolognese Sauce and were very happy with it.
useful (0)
Very nice! It was quite a lot of work (mainly prepping all the ingredients) and had to simmer for quite a while, so this isn't what you should plan for a midweek dinner, but it tasted nice. It contained only a few spoons of tomato purée - I think I would prefer a more tomatoey sauce. Though it didn't say so, I would roughly chop the chicken livers next time. We made our own fresh pasta with the Basic Pasta Dough recipe, and were very glad we did.
useful (0)
It's very delicious, it's beautiful (though not as brilliant as theirs is - see photo, mine left, theirs right), but make sure you start early enough with preparations!
I was a bit worried that if I'd follow the instructions and peel and cut the beetroot into cubes, the beetroot would bleed and loose all colour - but then again, cooking them whole would mean at least an hour cooking time, and given the time and the temperatures, I wasn't too keen on that. Turns out I shouldn't have bothered, I had to cook them for 50 minutes anyway to get them reasonably soft. I mashed them with a potato masher, and puréed them with a hand blender because they wouldn't mash well enough.
We also wondered about the pasta dough, as no explanation is given why he uses a different recipe for this dish and not for any of the others. We had the idea that it tore easily, but once we rolled out the dough that wasn't a problem.
We used a circle shape with a 7cm diameter as we thought 5cm would be far too small to actually add any filling. 7cm was just big enough for 1 teaspoon of filling (as opposed to 2 tsp), but once we cooked the pasta we had the idea that the ravioli became larger and flatter, and that we could have added more filling. I guess one way to achieve this would be to make a 5cm base and a 6 or 7cm top, as the top needs to be slightly larger to cover everything.
We also had a small problem with the ravioli sticking to the baking parchment after the resting period. I'm not sure using a dish cloth as instructed would have entirely prevented this, I would recommend adding some extra flour and turning them halfway during the resting period (the top layer will dry out slightly, while the bottom layer will not, and will therefore stick...). This made two of our 16 ravioli tear (we made only half the recipe today, with the rest of the filling and the dough waiting in the fridge for Monday - my guess is that we'll have too much filling left over)
Regarding the flavours, I loved the butter with the poppy seed. I could definitely see me using this for cooked or roasted vegetables too, eg. cauliflower. Be careful with the nutmeg, it will be stronger in the ravioli than you'll expect it to be.
This is definitely something you would serve guests as an appetizer during a fancy meal. In this case, the resting period is actually in your favour as it gives you time for other dishes or entertaining. I wouldn't prepare it for the two of us again, it's just too much work.
useful (0)
Soooo delicious! Additionally, the black pasta dough looked really cool. We only needed 8g of ink (don't know how much that is in tbsps, but I guess less than the 1 tbsp required) to produce a beautiful black pasta dough.
Instead making the ravioli on several long pieces of dough and then cut them afterwards, we found out it was easier to cut circles first (a smaller one, and a larger one for on top), then add the filling on the smaller one and cover with the larger one - this way it was easier to prevent any bubbles of air to be caught in the ravioli.
The tomato sauce was very good, too, and went really well with the ravioli, there just wasn't enough, and I think a little garlic might have added some extra punch was well.
The recipe made about 28 ravioli, though we still have at least 1/3 of the dough (but no filling).
useful (1)
Appeltaart
By Janneke Philippi
Karakter Uitgevers - 2011
Similar to the crumble cake recipes I reviewed a while ago (I wrote this review, the rest were family recipes). What was different about this cake is that all the recipes back then used a one batter for the base and a another one for the crumble. This recipe tries to use a single batter for both... and fails. The base is very wet, and I can't tell if that is liquid from the blueberries or if the cake hasn't cooked through properly, while the crumble isn't crisp at all.
I had a look at the ratio of ingredients. Compared to other base batters (it's neither a pound nor a sponge nor a butter cake - in German you'd call all of these batters rather generically 'Rührteig', batter that is stirred), it contains very few eggs - other recipes contain up to 6 eggs for roughly the same amounts of flour, butter and sugar while this one uses only one. For the crumble, it just the other way around, none of my crumble recipes uses an egg, while this one does.
My guess is that the author tried to make this recipe easy, but sometimes, it's just worth it to walk the extra mile.
useful (0)
So-so, for 3 reasons:
1. Even after being in the fridge for more than 30 minutes, the dough was far too soft to roll it out properly. I had the idea that the consistency just wasn't right. I would guess that this dough is a crumble type of dough. Coincidentally, I just made Ottolenghi's one half an hour before to make Fennel, Cherry Tomato and Crumble Gratin (yes, I know, bad prep - if I had thought about it in time, I just have made a double portion of one of them), and it's nearly exactly the same recipe, only that this one uses an egg on top of all the other ingredients. That's probably the reason it was too soft.
2. It was just boring. Slightly too sour, but other than that, absolutely nothing happened. As this is a dish for 8 servings, I used only a quarter of the dough for the two of us tonight, and I will probably experiment with adding spices in the next few days.
3. Proportion (didn't we already have that? See point 1.). Theoretically, I should have used 250g apples for the two of us. That would have been just little more than half an apple per person - far too little, in my opinion! So I used two apples (400g) instead, with the consequence that it could have used a bit more dough. Positive aspect: because we had so much apple, we had both cooked, jellied apple and crisp, fresh apple, which we liked. I'll see if we think half an apple is enough next time.
Served with Fennel, Cherry Tomato and Crumble Gratin, but of course you already knew that.
Edited 2 days later:
We had an apple pie party today, as we figured we'd have to throw away the dough if we didn't. I made 3 versions: one with sugar, lemon juice and ground cardamom, one with preserved ginger and syrup, and one with sugar, tarragon and Marsala. Thyme or rosemary also would have worked well.
Generally speaking, the flavours all went well, but weren't as strong in the baked pie as I had expected, with the possible exception of the ginger one. Also, I used one apple each, which meant I had more or less the propotions aimed for in the recipe - as expected, it was too much dough. I was more or less forced to make a crumble topping, as the dough was either far too hard or far too sticky to roll out. And definitely use enough sugar with the apples, they will be sour otherwise.
useful (0)
Why is caramel always so difficult?
Let me start with saying that this tarte tatin was really, really delicious. Not as brilliant as the this tarte tatin the first time around, not as bad as the second time, and quite a bit better than this one. It could have used a bit more caramel (= more sugar!), but that was about it.
That said, I'm not entirely happy with the recipe instructions, but maybe that's just because it's just so hard.
The biggest problem was the caramel. At first I melted the butter and then only added the sugar, fearing the sugar would burn otherwise. Well, no, the butter browned before the sugar even made a move. I continued until the mass had caramelised, but I thought it was too dark, and decided to start again, starting out with butter and sugar at the same time. The same thing threatened to happen. It really reminded me of this Caramelised Chicory and Onion Tarte Tatin. In the end, I decided thar caramel would have enough chance to caramelise in the oven, and decided to proceed with the mixture of molten butter and not yet melted sugar. This was probably a good idea, as it made it fairly easy to spread the caramel evenly.
Also, in the beginning, I was wary of the dough, it reminded me a lot of the failed Individual Apple Pies, but after I checked and compared with my favourite tarte tatin recipe (see above), I was less worried.
It was fairly sticky, though, but then I had a brilliant idea: when I wasn't able to get it off the baking parchment, I stuck it in the freezer for five minutes - so much better! The only problem was that I then tried to slide it on top of the baking tin that I had placed on low heat to keep the caramel soft, and the butter in the dough instantly melted... Aaah!
Last, small stuff: remember to keep more than three apples at hand, just in case. I needed five, and I'm glad I used them. And the tarte needed 20 extra minutes in the oven, while we only gave it minutes to cool.
We served this with Fior di Latte Vanilla Ice Cream - while the ice cream was very nice, I had expected something heavier, creamier to go with the tarte tatin.
useful (0)
Amazing! The crust (made with 30g ground almonds and 30g ground hazelnuts because our almond supply was up) and the almond crust were extremely delicious, though the apples were pretty much uncooked. For really perfect results, perhaps you'd have to pre-cook them for 10 min or so?
As usual, I had my difficulties with the dough, this time because it was quite crumbly due to the addition of the ground nuts, but that was solved with the use of a springform pan.
It all looked very pretty, though shortly after cutting the pie, it all fell into pieces. We served it with David Lebovitz' Vanilla Ice Cream, and the combination was great.
Edited 29 September 2013:
I had a different problem this time: the dough was too wet! I made it in the food processor this time, and didn't do that last year, so that might be one difference; I also thought that perhaps I didn't use the 2 tbsp milk last time, though now that I read that I complained that the dough was crumbly, I cannot imagine that I didn't add them. In any case, the dough was difficult to handle because it was too wet and kept tearing and sticking, so I added more flour and ground hazelnuts and almonds, and made sure it was really cold.
Unfortunately the almond crust (on top) wouldn't turn gold, so I had to bake it about 10-15 min. longer. That didn't really result in a very crunchy cake though. I served it the next morning (within 12 hours of baking), and it completely fell apart or stuck to the pan. DH liked that it was moist, but actually both the almond topping and the dough/crust should have been crunchy. I guess I'll have something to practice...
Edited 17 September 2015:
Yes, it's nearly that time of the year again. No, not autumn - hubby's birthday!
This year I decided to test the cake before making it for another birthday party; I wanted to know why the pastry had gone so wrong last time - was it because I used a kitchen machine? Or did I maybe omit the milk the first time, but not the second? I decided to make two smaller cakes to find out.
I didn't have any ground almonds (or at least I couldn't find them), so I used ground hazelnuts exclusively, and I made both pastries with a handheld kitchen machine, adding the flour at the very end and using my hands to mix it. The recipe, by the way, makes no mention of the fact that you should add the flour at the very end and handle it gently, without kneading too much.
I made one pastry without milk, the other with 1 tbsp milk; I let both of them rest in the fridge and made the milk-less one the next morning, the other one only three days later (yikes) - but that actually turned out well, because while felt was too wet the first day, but it was less so on day three.
With these pastries, I was able to bake two beautiful pie crusts. It were the following few steps were everything went wrong. You're instructed to blind-bake the pastry for 15 min, then bake another 10 min without the weights - this means that the edges, if they are not covered by the weights, will get much darker than the bottom of the crust - I'm mentioning this because I would probably need at least 1 kg of beans to achieve this for only half a recipe of pastry!. Also, it means that the bottom will be considerably less crunchy than the edges.
Unfortunately, though, my biggest problem was linked to this, as the apples (Granny Smith in both cases - not sure what I used in previous years, quite likely Granny Smith) emitted lots of juices and drenched the bottom of the pie - there was a very narrow time window, if at all, where the pie was cooled down and the bottom of the crust was still crunchy.
Also, I baked both pies for an additional 10 min to let the almond crust turn golden - it hardly did, though, and it never really got very crunchy. I probably should have placed it under the grill, or maybe a slightly higher temperature would have helped.
In a way, I was lucky that this cake turned out so well the first time, or else I never would have made it again. It does need a lot of tweaking, though. For this year's party I might resort to this cake, and continue my experiments at another time.
useful (1)
Website: Annie's Eats
Fine enough. Not quite as roaring with flavour as I had hoped they would be, but they were nice, and are relatively healthy to boot. I used Greek yoghurt instead of apple sauce, half a cup of whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose, chunky instead of creamy peanut butter - I wouldn't expect any of these changes to make a major difference.
useful (1)
Amsterdam kookt
By Rob Beernink
Fun4Publishing - 2009
It smelled incredibly delicious, but tasted a bit bland - until we fetched pepper and salt, which made all the difference. Just mentioning this because I'm used to reading recipes that include the instruction to season that I was completely caught off guard when this one didn't, though it definitely needed seasoning.
We didn't make the pasta, just used normal dried tagliatelle. And it's not really clear from the list of ingredients, but you're supposed to use dried herbs for baking the tomatoes.
It's very delicious, it's very pretty, and it's really quick, at least the second part. I guess you could prepare the tomatoes a day in advance and then just re-heat them (and the lemon oil!).
useful (0)
A lot of work for something that tasted much like frozen cream, with bits of caramel in it. We didn't make the sauce and the cookies that were supposed to go with it as we had planned to have this together with the Spice Cake with Gianduja and Nuts, so it's hard to judge if the overall dish would have received a different rating; but the parfait in itself wasn't convincing.
useful (0)
Website: Allrecipes.de
Very simple, very delicious. Makes a soft chocolate glazing. Also usable as cake filling.
useful (0)
Website: Allrecipes.co.uk
Very nice! Next time I would skip the step cooking the apples in advance - they probably cook enough during the 45 minutes in the oven.
I had too little bread (I used slices of leftover sourdough, very delicious), so I made only one layer of apple instead of two, using bread on the bottom and on top; additionally, I stuffed the holes in the top layer with a few ladyfingers I had leftover from the Hot Coffee Creams we had in the weekend. I also used a few crumbs of the cantuccini I used in the same dessert - almond flakes would also work very nicely. Mixing the raisins with the sugar and cinnamon turned out to be very unpractical when I had to scatter it on the layer of bread - nearly all the raisins ended up on the bottom layer, and almost all the sugar on top. DH thought it was slightly too eggy - I'm not sure what to do about that. More bread would probably help, but maybe also more cinnamon.
All in all, I think this was the nicest leftover dish we ever had.
Edited 22 February:
Made this again, this time using 4-5 slices of toast and 4 small apples. This yielded 3 layers of bread and 2 of apple, and I needed a very deep dish to accommodate everything.
I didn't cook the apples, just added them raw, and they turned out fine. I was worried that this time I'd have too much bread/apples in relation to the egg/milk mixture as well as the sugar/cinnamon, but that wasn't a problem at all. I also mixed up the order of the layers: I only remembered adding the first half of the cinnamon/sugar after I had added the first layer of apple, and I forgot buttering the bread, so I just added a few small lumps of butter on the top apple layer (and buttered the top layer of bread, of course, which is vital to get them crunchy). None of this turned out to be a problem.
What I would do differently next time is that no matter how much bread and apples there are, I would try to make flat with just 2 layers of bread and one of apple, as the crust is really really great, and you'll have too little crust in relation to too much pudding otherwise.
useful (1)
AllerHande
(December, 2010)
A brilliant idea for its simplicity (it took just 5 minutes preparation time!), but the taste might be improved.
After 40 min at 180ºC, the onions were done but still crunchy - nothing wrong with that, just that I had hoped that they would be soft and caramelised. I would guess that you need to bake them for anything in between 1-3 hours to achieve this (possibly at a lower temperature, but not necessarily), and perhaps cheat by adding a little (brown) sugar.
Then, I had hoped that they tasted stronger. You might try normal onions instead of red ones, but I would definitley also chop a few of the added garlic cloves and scatter them over the onions. Maybe thyme is also just too weak; I could imagine that spices work better - what about allspice, or cardamom and cinnamon?
Last, 100g butter looked like far too much for just a few onions - trust me, it's not.
useful (1)
AllerHande
(December, 2011)
It was very delicious, but to be honest, it was so sweet it could just as well have been a dessert. Next time I probably would have used a little less butter and sugar and definitely some salt.
Small issues regarding the instructions: perhaps it might be better to (partly) melt the sugar before adding the butter as I had the idea that the butter turned brown before the sugar caramelised. Also, first add the caramel, then the thyme, it won't work otherwise anyway.
Otherwise: super easy to prepare and very quick. You can also prepare it well in advance; just follow to first two steps, and only cover with puff pastry once you're ready to put it in the oven.
Served with Roast Loin of Pork with a Cider Sauce with potatoes, salad and Baked Apples with Prunes and Walnuts as a main, and Gingerbread Soufflé with Cranberry Sauce as dessert.
useful (2)
AllerHande
(October, 2011)
It was quick, easy, delicious, BUT... the cheese was burnt. And actually, it's not that it was delicious, but that it would have been so if the latter hadn't happened. Of course I could have known, any grated old Gouda will burn if placed in the oven for 25 minutes. So next time, add the cheese (or perhaps the whole mixture) appr 10 minutes before the pumpkin is done. Or, at DB's suggestion, place everything in an ovenproof bowl and add some butter, treating it like a gratin.
We served this with Pan-fried Mackerel with Red Wine Vinegar, Horseradish and Crème Fraîche - a bit of a mismatch, but less so than I had expected.
useful (1)
AllerHande
(January, 2012)
I thought this was such an usual combination of ingredients I was actually worried it might not work - I mean, beetroot, couscous and feta, anyone? To my surprise, DB thought it was quite dull. Like the Gnocchi Istanbulognese, it missed something, perhaps bell pepper, tomatoes or avocado, as well as some extra oil and vinegar (though not lemon juice).
useful (1)