It was by far our favourite dessert during our end-of-spring detox.

What do you need for the ...?

DOUGH

3 tbsp of water

1 tbsp of flax seeds

125g gluten-free oatmeal

25g tapioca flour

60g (melted and cooled) butter

a dash of vanilla bean

1 tbsp of apple vinegar

a pinch of salt

FILLING

3 big apples (chopped or grated)

some nutmeg

some (grounded) cinnamon

4 teaspoons of date sugar

15g butter

How to bake it?

First, let the flax seeds sit in water for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, clean the apples, cut them, and chop them in a blender or grate them.

Add the apples to a pan and let them simmer with the nutmeg, cinnamon, date sugar, and butter. Mix when the butter melts and remove from heat. You’ll know when they’re ready because they’ll smell divinely.

In a medium bowl, mix the gluten-free oatmeal, the tapioca flour, the melted and cooled butter, the dash of vanilla bean, the apple vinegar, and the salt. Mix in the flax seeds and the water, too. Knead until the dough is no longer sticky.

Shape the crust in a buttered and floured tart mould. Add the filling.

Bake for 25 minutes at 160°C in the preheated oven.

I served it alongside a cooling sour cherry sorbetto made by Marcel on a torrid day.

As I wrote in the previous recipe, our detox allowed us to eat a single non-vegan ingredient – butter, as long as it was high-quality butter. We had very few desserts to bring joy into those difficult days; this was one of them.

For a 20x20 cm baking pan, you’ll need—

2 tbsp of butter +40g melted butter

2 apples

125g gluten-free oats

a dash of cinnamon

a dash of nutmeg

a pinch of sea salt

4 tbsp of date sugar

How to prepare?

Melt 2 tbsp of butter. Slice 2 apples.

Pour over them a mix of gluten-free oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, sea salt, date sugar, and the 40g of melted butter.

Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes.

Munch from a bowl while still warm.

250g flour

a pinch of salt

25g butter (room temperature)

130ml water

1 tbsp of vinegar

+16 tbsp of butter (room temperature)

Filling:

4 apples

ground cinnamon

ground nutmeg

3 teaspoons of sugar

One evening over this past week, out of a sudden, Marcel said—

’Let’s bake an apple strudel!’

’Let’s!’ I replied. [I had never baked one, but I told myself that I’ll combine the Dobrujan pie sheets and the apple pie filling. It can’t go wrong!]

How to make the dough for the sheets? Mix the flour, salt, butter at room temperature, water, and vinegar. Knead and split the dough into 6 equal parts. Roll them as thinly as you can (20x10cm). Brush 1 tbsp of butter onto each sheet before placing another sheet on top (I used 3 sheets for each strudel).

Wash and cut the apples into 4 (I didn’t remove their peel) and then crush them in a blender or cut them into small pieces. Mix in the cinnamon and the nutmeg (as much as you like) and add the sugar.  

Spread the apple filling at the base of the last sheet and then roll. Close the ends (I twist them like candy paper) and stick the sheets where they overlap. Brush 2 tbsp of butter and slit the top every 3 cm. Repeat for the second strudel. Place the two strudels in a wide baking pan, on baking parchment.  

Bake at 200°C, in the preheated oven, for 25 minutes. Take the baking pan out of the oven and brush 3 extra tbsp of butter onto each strudel. Then, leave the strudels in the oven for 5 more minutes.  

You know the saying that involves an apple and a doctor, right? J

4 baking pans

75g sugar

125ml water

125g brown sugar

1 egg

100g butter (at room temperature)

400g flour (+50g extra flour for kneading)

½ sachet baking powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

+flour for rolling out the dough

(options:

1 tbsp nutmeg powder

1 tbsp ginger powder/1 tbsp grated fresh ginger)

I have repeatedly said that I’d search for my Mom’s gingerbread recipe and my dear friend Corina came up with the idea to test it before St. Nicholas. Which we did, with the help of 3 cute boys and some 36-year-old handwritten instructions.

Leave the sugar caramelise on medium heat and pour water over it [you may reheat the mixture until the sugar melts if you get lumps].

Mix the brown sugar and the egg; add the butter, the syrup mentioned above, the flour, the baking powder, and the cinnamon. [By dividing the dough into 4 pieces, we added cinnamon to only 2 pieces and sprinkled cinnamon on top of the gingerbread baked out of one of the two pieces.] You may add nutmeg and ginger if you wish.

Wrap the dough into a plastic film and let it sit in the fridge for half an hour.

When the time is up, divide the dough into the 4 pieces mentioned above, add only a little bit of flour and roll one piece out (you should get a thickness of approx. 1-1.5 cm) and then cut out the gingerbread cookies and place them into a baking pan lined with baking parchment.

Bake the gingerbread in the preheated oven, at 160°C, for 10-12 minutes.

We didn’t want to decorate our gingerbread cookies, but they turned out great – much like our baking collaboration! ♥

They were even tastier the next day!

Makes 10

Crust

150g flour

80g (ground) walnut

50g sugar

1 sachet vanilla sugar

a dash of cinnamon

a dash of nutmeg

a dash of orange zest

70g (room temperature) butter

1 (small) egg

Filling

1 (medium ~ 150g) parsnip

100g sour cream, 25% fat content

1 egg

vanilla extract

60g sugar

1 tbsp flour

+flour & butter -> moulds

+cinnamon to decorate

About two years ago, when I really started baking, I was telling myself ‘if I nail this parsnip tart, I’ll open a sweet shop’. I nailed it then (I love parsnip – both in sweet dishes and savoury ones and I believe it’s underrated), I nailed the parsnip tartlets earlier today (although I did change the recipe a bit). Do you want to try them out?  

Start with the parsnip; clean it and cut it into 4 and start boiling it (it will take 30-40’). [You may meanwhile go through all the other steps. J]

Mix the flour, walnut, sugar, vanilla sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and the orange zest. Rub in the butter; knead well. Add the egg and knead some more. Shape into a ball, wrap it in plastic film and let it sit in the fridge for 15 minutes. 

When the parsnip is tender, blend it and let it cool. Mix the sour cream with the egg; add the vanilla extract, the sugar, the flour, and the blended parsnip.

 

Butter and flour the moulds and then split the dough and shape it onto the moulds (I used 6 x 8 cm moulds and 4 x 10 cm moulds). Add the filling.

Bake the tartlets in the preheated oven, at 150°C, for 20 minutes. When they have cooled, remove them from the moulds.

I sprinkle cinnamon on top of the tartlets and I savour them. The taste reminds me of how I usually eat pastéis de Belém.