My first article is about Apples in New York City followed by the recipe: Caramelized Apple Tart (see below). Read the whole story here.

Caramelized Apple Tart
4-6 people

dough
1 ¼ cup (about 300 ml) regular flour
3.5 ounces (about 100 grams) butter
3 tablespoons sucanat*
1½ teaspoons finely crushed cardamom
splash of water

filling
4 apples (preferably apples that are sour + firm inside, ex. Granny Smith)
4-5 tablespoons sucanat* (depending on how sour the apples are)
juice from one lemon
2½ ounces (70 grams) butter
½ cup (100 ml ) almonds, toasted and chopped

heavy cream, whipped with a little sugar

Start by mixing together butter, flour, cardamom and sucanat. When the butter is well divided add a splash of water. Work the dough together and let it rest in the fridge for at least one hour. Line a greased 9 inch (about 23 cm) spring form. Pre-bake at 400°F (200°C) the pie shell for about 10-15 minutes until it has got some color. Let cool.

Wash and peel the apples. Cut in half, take out the seeds and slice the rest of the apple in thin slices. Sprinkle the slices with sucanat and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat in a frying pan until they start to get juicy. Add ½ of the butter. Keep cooking the apples until they starts to caramelize. If you think the apples need more sugar you may add some now and let cook for a little bit more. The color should be golden and have some brown spots. Remove from heat and add the rest of the butter and toasted almonds. Let cool a little before arranging the apples inside the baked pie shell. Bake at 450°F (230C) for about 15 minutes until the apples have gotten some nice color. Serve with whipped cream.

*Sucanat is a brown sugar extracted from sugar cane. It’s perfect to bake with and gives cakes and cookies a richer taste. In the U.S. you can often find Sucanat in organic shops. If you can’t find sucanat you may use muscovado sugar or even regular brown sugar instead. When I’m in Sweden I use Farin sugar which works really well too.

There is an old railroad path where the tracks have been gone for many years. Nasty weeds such as stinging nettles are about to take over as almost no one walks there anymore. Along the path a little further on grows some black cherry trees.  The cherries are tiny, sweet with a slight almond taste. They are absolutely fantastic and something I long for every summer.  Its a great treat (despite the burning weeds) to eat directly or to freeze for pies and hot sauces in the Autumn. As they are just too good to be left on the tree for the birds to eat, I will continue coming back each year.

Wild Cherry Pie
serves 4

almond dough
300 ml (1 ¼ cup) milled almonds
100 g (3 ½ ounces) butter
5 tablespoons sucanat

about 750 ml pitted black wild cherries (or similar)

With your hands mix together butter, milled almonds and sugar. Work the dough together. As this is not a crumble, the dough should feel a little sticky. Let it rest in the fridge for about an hour. Grease a 9 ½ inch pie form and arrange the cherries in the form. Flatten some of the dough out in your hand and place over the cherries. The crust should be about 1/4” thick. Repeat until all the cherries are covered. Bake the pie in the oven at 200°C (400F) until the crust has started to get color, about 15 minutes. The crust should be a little crisp and still buttery. Serve warm with some whipped cream.

This recipe was first published at Honest Cooking, 1 September 2011.

A Boy and His Pie
by Jules Clancy

Mention that classic dessert, Lemon Meringue Pie and my thoughts turn instantly to my gorgeous not-so-little brother. For as long as I can remember Dom has been fanatical about his pie, think Homer Simpson and his devotion to beer or doughnuts and you’re not even in the same ballpark as to how much Dom loves LMP.

From when he was little, whenever Mum would give Dom the option of what to have for dessert there was only one answer. I can’t remember him ever having a normal Birthday cake, it was always LMP.

One year, I think it was around his 21st, when Mum asked Dom what he would like as a birthday present he somehow convinced her to make him one pie a day for 21 days.

So she did and not even that sort of over exposure was enough to dampen his love for the pie.

It’s a bit of family legend that Dom was so good at asking for his favourite dessert that he was able to get it out in just one syllable ‘lemeringuepie’. No mean feat for a small boy, try it yourself.

Last year we had a bit of a belated Birthday dinner for my favourite (and only) brother and there was no question when it came to the dessert decision. It was my second attempt a recreating my Mum’s legendary LMP, using the recipe she had lovingly hand written into her little cook book. And while it came nowhere near close to looking like my Mum’s creation, I’m pretty sure for Dom it was better than no pie at all.

Think rich lemony goodness in the filling balanced by light-as-air-sweet sweet meringue and you’re there.

mum’s legendary lemon meringue pie
serves 1 if you’re my brother or approx 6 normal people

I was always impressed that my mum went to the effort of making her own pastry, and one of my strongest memories is of her is how clever I though she was balancing the pie on hone hand while trimming the pastry edges with a knife. The sound of the knife rubbing down the ceramic pie edges still reminds me of her.

I’ve copied this across from my mum’s recipe book and this is exactly as she had it written down. Apologies if it seems a little confusing but it felt wrong trying to re-organise it.

Sift together 1 cup plain flour, pinch salt.
Rub in 2oz (60g) butter until like fine breadcrumbs.
Add 2 tablespoons water and mix well.
Roll dough to fit an 8in pie plate.
Prick base lightly with a fork.
Bake in a moderate oven for 15mins only, cool.

Combine:
1 400g (14oz) can Nestles condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juicegrated rind of 1 lemon
3 egg yolks
Place in shell
Beat egg whites until stiff. Gradually add in 1/4 cup castor sugar. Beat until dissolved.
Place meringue on top of filling.
Bake in moderate oven 15 minutes, or until golden.

It seems a little sacrilegious to admit it, but I have always thought of the pastry as the weak link in her pie. If you’re looking for the crunch of a more of a classic short crust try my favourite sweet pastry recipe here. And bake blind for about half an hour before filling.

I can’t remember if it was the possibility of fast internet or the fact that there was rhubarb growing in the garden that made us buy this house. Anyway both me and M love rhubarb in every possible way… crumble pie, cordial, jam or chutney. For maximum treats, I cut the plants down completely when harvesting them so new shoots can develop. If I’m lucky I can have 3 harvests every summer!

Here is my latest… a quick and simple Rhubarb Chutney:

1 liter rhubarb
half an onion
small piece of ginger
one teaspoon fennel, roasted and crushed in a mortar and pestle
¼ liter sugar
½-1 teaspoon chili flakes
one slice of lemon

Rinse and peel the rhubarb by stripping off the outer layer. Cut them into smaller pieces. Chop the onion and sauté on low heat with some butter until soft and sweet. In the meantime chop the ginger into small pieces.
Place all the ingredients in a pot and cook on medium heat until mushy. Take out the lemon slice and run the rhubarb mixture in a food processor for a smoother texture. Pour it in a clean jar, close and turn upside down and let cool.

Store in the refrigerator. Serve the chutney with meat or on toast with cheese.

Whats the point of using sucanat in a lemon tart filling? Isn’t it supposed to look gorgeously yellow against the golden brown crust? I guess it should… but I kind of like the sour surprise, when my guests take their first bite in something that looks like a pumpkin or a caramel pie! (and the taste is fantastic).

almond dough

100 ml (about ½ cup) regular flour
225 ml (about 1 cup) milled almonds
60 g (2 ounces) butter
5 tablespoons sucanat
a splash of water

lemon filling

3 eggs
150 ml (2/3 cup) regular sugar (probably recommended even if I use sucanat)
75 g (2.65 ounces)  butter, melted
fine peel of one lemon
juice from 2-3  lemons (depends a little how large the eggs are that you use)

Start to mix together butter, flour, almonds and sugar. When the butter is well divided add a splash of water. Work the dough together and let it rest in the fridge for at least one hour. Line a 9 ½ inch pie form. Pre-bake @ 175°C (350F) with pie weightsto avoid the dough slipping down or bubbling up (I use dried chickpeas on top of aluminum foil). Remove the pie weights after 10 minutes and keep baking the pie shell for about 5 minutes. The crust should have got some color. Let cool.

Mix egg and sugar in a blender. Melt the butter and add it to the filling before adding lemon to your taste. Blend to a smooth filling. Pour it over the pre-baked pie shell and bake in the oven at 175°C (350°F) until the filling is firm, about 15-20 min.

Let cool. I think this cake is served best plain at room temperature (but it would’t hurt to shave some bitter sweet chocolate on top).

A few weeks ago I went to a street party in Borum Hill, Brooklyn, with a whole roasted pig, delicious cheeses and desserts. At the cake table I found a fantastic apple tart, made by David Becker @ Friend of the Farmer. David’s cake had almost no flour and was very moist and fruity. It also seemed to be really easy to make. His cake reminded me of a fantastic fruit cake I made this summer, except that my cake was too complicated and I used milled almonds instead of flour. At home I decided to turn my summer cake into something as easy as this…

for the cake
3-4 ripe pears (or any other seasonal fruit such as apple, cherry or plums)
2 large eggs
1 cups (240 ml) sucanat
1 1/3 cup (300 ml) fresh milled almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup (60ml) whole milk
3.5 oz (100g) butter, melted
2 teaspoons of crushed cardamoms

Preheat the oven to 375° F (190°C). Peel the pears and slice into thin slices. Whisk the eggs with the sucanat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the milled almonds and baking powder. When the almonds are well blended with the eggs add milk, melted butter and cardamoms. Carefully add the pears to the mixture. Grease a baking tin, about 11 inch diameter. Fill the form with the cake mixture and bake it in the center of the oven for about 40-50 minutes. The cake should be golden brown and if you stick a small knife into it, it should come out clean. Cool the cake a little before serving. This cake can be made in advance as it taste fabulous the next day too.

Thanks David!

Nathalie is possibly one of the best home chefs I know. Luckily for us she spoils us with her treats every time we are in London. One of the best moments were when her husband allowed us to dine in his new built writing-shed in their beautiful garden. Well we could barely fit and to get in and out we had to crawl under the table…

one vanilla pod
3 large eggs
150 gram (1/3 lb) sugar
55 gram (1/8 lb) flour
18cl (3/4 cup) creme fraiche
18cl (3/4 cup) milk
pinch of salt
3 cloves of star anise- ground to a powder
3 to 4 William Pears

Preheat the oven at 200° C  (390°F). Scrape the inside of the vanilla pod. Beat 3 eggs until they are “mousy”, add the vanilla, sugar, flour, milk, creme fraiche, star aniseed, salt. Mix thoroughly until homogeneous. Put mixture over prepared pears (clean and pealed, cut into halves) arranged in a dish. Cook in oven for 40 minutes.

I don’t know what this has to do with marmalade… but I have a friend who once poisoned a whole scout camp, just because he didn’t wash his hands!

for the marmalade you need

some pears
less than a ¼ part of brown sugar
small piece of fresh ginger, minced
a splash of water

Peal the pears and chop them into small pieces. Pour the sugar over the pieces and stir. Add the ginger and a little water. Bring mixture to boil, then lower to a gentle heat and cook for about an hour until pears are soft. If you want a smoother texture, process the jam in a blender. Pour the warm jam into a clean jar, screw the lid on and turn the jar upside down on the counter. Leave to cool. Serve with ripe goat cheese or / and aged cheese that has been taken out of the fridge for at least a half hour.

Note: as this jam is not conserved I suggest you eat it while its fresh!

When I was a child, I often helped my mother picking lingonberries. Unfortunately we didn’t live in the north where there are lots of them so it was kind of tedious. I also didn’t like the taste so I couldn’t really get the point of wasting my time. It was different with blueberries.

Well it is even harder to find fresh lingonberries in NYC. But luckily there are plenty of cranberries. You may even find organic berries. Uncooked Cranberries Preserved Jam or what you may call, Raw Stirred Lingonberries (rårörda lingon) is a very common side dish to plenty of Swedish dishes. I have also heard that it is very similar to a cranberry and orange relish that is common on a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. In my jam or relish I used lime instead of orange and (of course) sucanat instead of white sugar.

½ kg (1 lb) cranberries or lingonberries
150 ml (0.6 cup) sucanat
peals of one lime

Rinse the berries carefully. Crush the berries with a potatoes masher to make the berries softer. Add the sugar and start stirring with a big spoon. Keep stirring and stirring and stir until the sugar is completely melted and you have a nice consistency. For quicker results, run the berries very briefly in the food processor before adding the sugar. It will make it easier to stir. But please don’t use the food processor too long as it will mash them and its nice to see some whole soft lovely berries in the jam. Finally add the lime peals and let the jam rest overnight.

Serve the jam with duck, chicken, turkey, meatloaf, body cakes (kroppkakor), potaoe panncakes, patties or meatballs. M likes it on his breakfast oatmeal (if there is any left…)

I didn’t have much candy or chocolate this Easter. Besides eating plenty of herring, eggs and lamb I had some lovely cakes… this one was crunchy and juicy at the same time.

crust
300 ml (1 ¼ cup) flour
100 g (3.5 oz) butter
2 tablespoon sucanat
3 table spoon cold water

filling
2 pears
4-5 tablespoons rum or juice from one lemon
100 g (3.5 oz) butter
4-6 table spoon sucanat
120 ml (½ cup) almonds

Mix the crust ingredients together and let them rest in the fridge for one hour. Place the crust in a greased 9” baking tin and trim to fit. Stick this shell a few times with a fork and pre-bake for 10 minutes at 200º (400F).

Peal and slice the pears thinly. Soak the pear pieces with rum or juice from a lemon. Roast the almonds at 200º (400 F) for about 8-10 minutes. When they have cooled down chop them into smaller pieces. Melt the butter and then add sucanat and the roasted almonds. Divide the soaked pears in the pre-baked shell and pour the filling on top. Bake in the oven at 200º (400F) for about 15-20 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.