Apple Oat And Walnut Crumble Slice

Apples are beautiful fruits that can be used in both dishes and bakes. For our family, I often use it to make Apple Tea or Double-boiled Apple With Gingko Nut and you could read more on my collection of apple recipes(here). In order to show my support for Bosch "Apple-tizing" Health Recipe Contest 2012, I decided to make this health Apple, Oat & Walnut Crumble Slice with added Chia seeds which is an amazing ingredient that loaded with lots of health benefits.

Following the successful debut of the Bosch cooking contest in 2011(read more here), this year they are having Bosch ‘Apple-tizing’ Cooking Contest 2012 which is open for entries till 31 October 2012.

To particular, you must own either a Bosch Kitchen Machines or Food Processors in order to submit a healthy recipe using APPLES (submit via Bosch Singapore website here). After which the six best entries will be shortlisted to compete in a cook-off contest on 22 December 2012 using their own Bosch appliance.

So if you have either one of the mentioned Bosch appliance(s) maybe you could consider to send in your "secret recipe" featuring Apples and your Bosch appliance. For your information, Grand prize winner gets "A pair of economy tickets to Germany (plus $1,000 allowance)".

APPLE, OAT AND WALNUT CRUMBLE SLICE

Here for my buttery pastry I have added some cinnamon powder instead of mixed spice and as for the filling I choose Granny Smith Apples and golden rinse to balance the sweet and sour taste. And to create a crunchy texture with healthier toppings, I choose Organic Rolled Oats, Walnuts and Chia Seeds to go with the buttery crumbs. 

(Make: 16 x 26cm pan | Preparation: 15 minutes | Baking: 20 minutes + 35 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups (340g) All Purpose Flour
1/3 Cup (60g) Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon Powder/Mixed Spice, optimal
180g Unsalted Butter, chopped
2 Tablespoons Ice Water

Apple Mixture:
4 - 5 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored, diced
1 Tablespoon Caster Sugar
Rind of 1 Lemon, optional
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1/3 Cup (60g) Golden Raisin
1/3 Cup (35g) Rolled Oats
1/3 Cup (45g) Walnut Nuts, chopped
2 Tablespoons Chia Seeds, optional

Method:-
1. Preheat oven to 180°C (degree Celsius). Grease a 3cm deep, 16cm x 26cm brownie pan and line it with baking paper, allowing 2cm overhang on all sides.

2. Process flour, brown sugar, butter and spice(if using) in Bosch MCM 4 food processor until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons chilled water and process until mixture just comes together to form a dough (adding more water if required).

4. Wrap 3/4 cup dough in cling wrap and refrigerate until firm. Press remaining dough using fingers tips or spatula evenly into the tin and bake it in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until pastry turns golden in colour. Remove and set aside to cool.

5. Next add apples, caster sugar, lemon rind and juice in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar has dissolved.

6. Increase heat to medium-low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes or until apple is soft. Allow mixture to cool completely before stirring in raisin.

7. Spoon apple mixture over pastry base. Coarsely grate chilled dough into a bowl with rolled oat, walnut and chai seeds mixture then gently stir to combine.

8. Sprinkle dough mixture over apple mixture. Bake in 180°C (degree Celsius) for 35 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool completely in pan before sliced.

Baking is like doing science where we tends to experiment with different recipes and ingredients in our pantry. So according to your preference, you may choose to replace walnut with almond or chia seeds with black sesame seeds or anything that is available in your pantry.

Actually Apple Crumble is not difficult to make, and you could even prepare the pastry dough or apple filling a head ahead. You could serve your Apple Crumble wither hot or cold with ice cream, cream or custard. Love mine with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream!

Below are some recipes that I have tried using BOSCH MCM 4100 food processor.

ABC Detox Juice	Lemon Berry Tarts	Baked Lemon Cheesecake

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Halloween Trick or Treat Broccoli And Spinach Soup Graveyard Fried Rice Plus Apple Banana And Dragon Fruit Smoothie

Halloween is just a week from now and we are so excited about this weekend Angry Bird Halloween Party at Sentosa. For the past two years I have shared some Halloween themed dishes and treats which you could read more here. Although what I did this year was rather simple as compared to last year, but after all we do enjoy the process on preparing the food and etc on a raining cozy evening.

This year, we are having Spooky Broccoli Soup which served together with Graveyard Fired Rice and Bloody Smoothie.

BROCCOLI AND SPINACH SOUP
(Using Cuisinart Hot And Cold Blender)

We do love western cream soup especially Cream of Pumpkin and Cream of Mushroom but I always put it off the menu lists because of the steps plus blending of the soup which I find it too troublesome as compared to our Asian boiled soup.  Till recently when I received an amazing gift from friend which is the new Cuisinart Hot and Cold Blender (read more here) it actually inspired me to cook western soup again.

This innovative blender actually cook and blend soup within a few steps. It is so easy to use and all you required is to add in the necessary ingredients, set the timer, press a few buttons and after which you would enjoy a bowl of delicious soup, porridge or dessert in a breeze.

(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 10 minutes |  Cooking: 25 - 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
300g Broccoli, cut into small florets
2 Potatoes (200g), peeled and cubes
50g Spinach Leaves, roughly chopped
1 Small Brown Onion, roughly chopped
2 Garlic Cloves, crushed
1 Knob (15g) Of Butter
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
750ml 7500ml Hot Chicken/Vegetable Stock
1/3 (90g) Cup Greek Yogurt / Light Sour Cream
Some Crusty Bread to Serve

Method:-
1. Place butter and olive oil (butter should be on the heating plate rather than on the blades) in Cuisinart Hot And Cold Blender. Set timer to 25 minutes and melt butter on LOW heat.

2. Add onion, garlic and cook until softened, press the STIR button (on the right side) to stir the mixture regularly to avoid burning.

3. Through the hole on the press-on lid,  add potato, broccoli and hot stock into the glass jug and bring it to boil using HIGH heat. (it takes about 2 - 3 minutes)

4. Change to SIMMER and cook the mixture until the last 2 minutes, add in spinach and continue to cook until end of the cycle.

5. Once everything is cooked, blend on LEVEL 1 until smooth.

6. Pour soup between serving bowls and serve with a dollar of Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream together with crusty bread.

This year our Halloween Spooky Soup is no longer using "pumpkin" but instead we go for something "green" which are Broccoli and Spinach.  Although I love broccoli soup but I have never tried adding spinach in it till this recipe as I wanted to obtain a darker green colour for the soup.

Surprisingly it taste good without that "leafy" taste from the spinach and together with my little boy we also decorated the soup with some Greek yogurt to resemble  spooky ghosts.

GRAVEYARD FRIED RICE
(Using Seahs Singapore Fried Rice Spices)

Since it was a rainy day that evening we decided to have some fried rice to go with the soup instead of the usually spaghetti. And the Seahs Singapore Fried Rice spices that I have comes in handy for this dish as it makes a good seasoning and flavour for the plain rice. And in order to create the Halloween spooky theme, we also decorate the fried rice with sausages, egg , cucumber, jelly worms and etc.

(Serves: 4  | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 5 minutes)

Ingredients:
1 Packet of Seahs Singapore Fried Rice Spices
800g Cooked Rice, around 2.5 rice cooker cup uncooked rice
1/2 Cup Frozen Mixed Vegetables
2 Garlic Cloves, crashed
2 Tablespoons Cooking Oil
Some Cooking Wine
Some chopped Spring Onion
12 Japanese Chicken Sausages
4 Eggs

Method:
1. Boiled or Grilled the sausages, set aside. Fry sunny side-up eggs individually and set aside too.

2. Add oil in preheat wok, saute garlic till fragrant before stirring in the mixed frozen vegetables and cook for 1 minute.

3. Add cooked rice and continue to stir-fry for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

4. Gradually add in Seahs spices into the fried rice according to your taste (you might not need the whole packet), stir well, drizzle some cooking wine and continue to stir-fry for another 1/2 minutes.

5. Remove, garnish with prepared sausages, egg and etc shown above. Serve hot.

APPLE AND BANANA SMOOTHIE
(Using Cuisinart Hot and Cold Blender)

As for the beverage of the day, we decided to go for two colour tones smoothie whereby I blend the Apple, Banana and Milk for the white tone and Red Dragon Fruit puree for the purplish red tone. And we love the refreshing fruity combination.

(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 30 minutes freezing | Blending: 2 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 - 3 Frozen Banana, skin remove and cut into chunks
2 Green Apples, skin removed and cut into cubes
1 Cup (250ml) Fresh Milk
1/4 Cup Ice Cubes, optional
1/2 Red Colour Dragon Fruit(pitaya), skin removed cut into chunks

Method:-
1. Put frozen banana, apple, fresh milk and ice cubes (if using) into the blender jug.

2. Fix the lid on and blend on LEVEL 4 for about 1 minute or until smooth.

3. Fill 4 tall serving glass half full, add some dragon fruit puree (shown below) and continue to fill up the glasses with remaining smoothie.

4. Swirl the mixture and decorate with some Halloween treats and serve immediately.

5. To prepare the Dragon Fruit Puree: Blend half of the Dragon Fruit on LEVEL 4 for 30 seconds or until smooth. Pour into bowl and set aside while preparing the smoothie. 

Till then have a great Halloween Party and do share with us if you have any good ideas on preparing Halloween dishes and bakes too!

"SAVOUR THE GOOD LIFE"
Soup Making Competition

Photo credits to ToTT.

Lastly just to share a quick finding, while searching for more information and cooking tips on this new Cuisinart blender, I happened to read about this Soup Making Competition (here) which is organised by ToTT and  Cuisinart where you could stand a chance to travel to Hong Kong to compete for the grand prize . Sounds good right?

To participate:-
~  First form teams of TWOS;

~ Submit a RECIPE as well as a PHOTO of the soup dish together with both full names, mobile numbers, NRIC numbers, and addresses, via email to pr@tottstore.com by 31 October 2012.

~ Recipes should serve up to 5 portions and must incorporate the use of Cuisinart’s Hot And Cold Blender.

~ It should also take no longer than 45 minutes to prepare.

To find out more about this competition you could visit ToTT Facebook Page for details. Good Luck everyone!

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Minty Cranberry with Apple Drink蔓越莓加苹果清�

It was extremely hot last month and I kept making drinks for my family and this was one of them.



This is something I learned from a magazine many years ago. Unlike most fruit juices, which are usually thick  and rich in flavours, this is very light but refreshing. Not too heavy. I love its pretty colour too, which came from the cranberry. No artificial colour used here.



But the plants in the background is artificial though. ;P

Ingredients:

• 5 tablespoon Dried Cranberries


• 1 Red Apple, cored, peeled and sliced thinly


• 1 sprig Mint, use leaves only (use more if you like it more minty)


• 1 tablespoon Extra Fine Sugar or to taste


• 400ml Freshly Boiled Water

How to do it:

1. Put all ingredients except sugar in a preferably in coffee press. A jug works fine too.


2. Make sure you crush the mint leave a little.


3. Let it stand for a hour.


4. Press to let the flavours from the ingredients release. If you are using a jug, use a large spoon to do the pressing.


5. Stir in sugar to taste.


6. Make sure sugar is totally melted.


7. Filter and chill till ready to serve.

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Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars



        Hmm.. where do I begin? How do I even start to describe how WONDERFUL and SINFULLY DELICIOUS these little guys are?!! When I tasted one last night after waiting for them to chill in the fridge, I devoured it in two seconds.. They are sooo good, and so different! I am a huge cheesecake fan and I love apple pie.. so the combination together I thought was such a genious idea!! When I saw this recipe I knew I had to make them as soon as possible!

        This recipe is from Paula Dean! She is on Food Network, as Im sure most of you know. She is just the cutest, funniest southern gal who makes awesome comfort food! I have made a bunch of her recipes. I totally fell inlove with this one! You have got to try it.. Trust me :)

CARAMEL APPLE CHEESECAKE BARS

CRUST:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

CHEESECAKE FILLING:

3 (8 OZ) packages of cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

APPLES:

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

STREUSEL TOPPING:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup butter, softened

              Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x13 inch glass baking dish with heavy duty tinfoil.

In a medium bowl combine your CRUST ingredients together with a pastry cutter or 2 forks ( Im no proffesional baker so I used 2 forks :)  until mixture turns crumbly. Press evenly into the baking dish. Bake crust for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

             In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with the 3/4 cup sugar in an electric mixter at medium speed until smooth. Then add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour over the warm crust.

             In a small bowl, stir together the chopped apples, remaining 2 TBS sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spoon evenly over the cream cheese filling.  Then combine all your STREUSEL TOPPING ingredients into a small bowl mixing well, and then pour all of the streusel topping over the apples.

             Bake for 45 minutes in 350 degree oven, or until filling is set. Let cool for 1 hour on countertop, then chill for a few hours or overnight in the fridge! ENJOY :)

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Apple compote

200 g dried apples (slices)
1 1/2 liter water
75-100 g sugar

2-3 tbs potato flour or cornstarch
100 ml cold water

Wash the apples and soak in the water with half the sugar for about 12 hours. Cook until soft. Make a paste with the starch and cold water and stir into the compote to thicken. Add remaining sugar, or to taste. Pour into a bowl and sprinkle sugar on top. Serve warm or cold, with cream if preferred.

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