Making Apple Kolache and so much more.

September is here and what a glorious month. There is so much fruit to be picked and one of my favorite this month has to be the apples. Walking around Charlecote I saw many different types of apples which always takes me back to childhood, picking apples from my grandfathers tree and then my mother and grandmother making Kolache.

Kolache is great as apart from tasting delicious, it is another Czech dish that uses fruit which is in season, very much like Bublanina which I will share with you at a later date. Another of my favourite family puddings. Looking at all the apples on the trees and the weather not being it's best, it just had to be a baking day. Kolache is made in many Countries across Europe with all sorts of fillings, in all shapes and sizes, You can make it as a large flan or an individual portions, the choice is yours and the fillings are endless.

I thought I would share with you the basic recipe and leave the experimenting to you but I will give you a few ideas for other fillings at the end of this blog. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family have for generations.

You will need....

For the base..
400g of plain flour (fine or medium)
20g of fresh yeast (take out of fridge 20-30 minutes before using)
2 egg yolks
50g of caster sugar
250ml lukewarm milk
60g of melted butter cooled a little
A pinch of salt
A drop or two of Tuzemsky (Optional) For more about Tuzemsky see notes at the bottom of this page.

For the filling....
5 good sized cooking apples or about 8 eating apples. (Any apples can be used, cooking, eating or a mix of both )
40g of butter
4 tablespoons of caster sugar
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1/2 grated nutmeg
Juice from half a lemon

For the topping....
100g of fine or medium plain flour.
80g of caster sugar
60g of softened butter
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon.
1 egg yolk for brushing dough.

Now all you have to do is invite some family or friends around to help you eat it :)

Afternoon tea anyone?

Plum Kolache

Apple Kolache

My children love Apple and Plum Kolache served hot with custard or ice-cream. The English touch :)

The fillings for kolache are endless as you can see in the photo below.

Another popular filling is vanilla cream cheese and poppy seeds.

To make the vanilla cream cheese filling you will need: 

2 tablespoons of caster sugar, 1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk or cream. 40g of melted butter cooled, 1 egg yolk, 250g of philadelphia cheese (other soft cheeses work well too). 

Mix all ingredients together in a blender until smooth. Place in the fridge for an hour for the flavours to settle.

To make the poppy seed filling, you will need:

100g of ground poppy seeds, 2 tablespoons of butter, 100ml of milk, 2 tablespoons of caster sugar, 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, ground star of anise, small amount of ground cloves and a little Tuzemsky (Rum can be used instead in this recipe)

Into a small saucepan add the milk, butter, honey and spices, heat gently for a few minutes until the butter is melted and the milk is hot but do not boil. Pour the mix over the ground poppy seeds and mix well. Add the Tuzemsky and mix again then leave to cool. Decorate with almonds and sultanas.

Both these mixes can be made the day before and stored in the fridge, ready to use when you are ready. I often make them the day before I intend to make kolache. 

Again the size is up to you, you can make large ones to slice or individual ones.

In the Czech Republic, very small kolache are made for weddings. One of the favourite fillings for these is strawberry and cream. It is delicious and this filling can be used for the slightly larger individual kolache too. 

This is how to make the strawberry and cream filling:

You will need: A small pot of cream cheese, philadelphia cheese works well for this, around 230g (8oz) pot. I egg yolk, 450g of fresh strawberries, 55g of caster or vanilla sugar. If you don't have vanilla sugar use a little vanilla essence. Chop strawberries into small pieces and set aside . Place all other ingredients into a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon. Add the chopped strawberries then mix again. Leave to stand for 2-3 hours in a fridge, Can be made the night before.

FOR A GLUTEN FREE FRUIT KOLACHE 

You can use a sponge mix using  250g Gluten free SR flour, 200g of butter or margarine , 200g of caster sugar, 3 eggs, a few drops of vanilla essence. 

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Spread the mixture evenly over a greased baking dish or tin with sides. Place the fruit mix on top, leaving a cm or two around the edges which will make a nice crust and make it easier to hold.

To make the crumble topping you will need: 80g of GF plain flour, 80g of sugar, 60g of butter and 20g of  GF breadcrumbs. A sprinkle of cinnamon.

Add all the ingredients except for the breadcrumbs into a bowl, rub together into a crumble mix then add the breadcrumbs and mix and sprinkle on top.

NOTES:
FRESH YEAST can be bought from most supermarkets, just ask at the bread counter and they will give you what you need for a small amount. I normally pay around 20-30p depending on where I buy it.

FLOUR  In English shops you normally get two types of non self raising flours. Plain or bread flour  but in European shops you can get a medium flour which is somewhere in between both of them. I like to use the medium flour for sweet dough and pastry dishes as it is what I am used to but fine plain flour works just as well.

TUZEMSKY is known as a Czech/Slovak domestic rum but these days it is not allowed to be called rum as it is brewed very differently and to be honest, tastes different too. It smells like rum and raisin when you open it. It is something that I have in my kitchen all the time as it is the secret ingredient in so many of my sweet dishes. A few drops can make a lovely cake into a very special cake and you would never know what it was just by tasting the finished product. I normally buy my Tuzemsky on-line but you can find it in local European/Continental shops too. This is an extra ingredient, lovely to use but the dish will still be very nice without it.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe, I thought it would be nice to do something different and with all the apples on the trees and blackberries on the bushes it is a very good time to make kolache.

                                                Copyright Jana Eastwood

A special cake for a special girl

This week I have been busy baking and making all sorts of things out of sugar.
I wanted to do something special for my daughter on her 18th birthday as she has been home-bound for the last 3 years due to health issues. she has missed out on so much and I knew this would be yet another birthday spent at home.

 It's taken me all week to do the preparation work around caring for her and the rest of the family but I managed to finish it just in time. I am so pleased you can prepare for most cakes ahead of time. Here is some of my prep work. Lots of sugar but I know it won't all get eaten. This cake is all gluten free too as my daughter also has Coeliac disease.

The finished cake all came together for her birthday. It's nowhere near perfect but my daughter was happy so it did what it was supposed to do. It is designed to lean like this as it's inspired by Alice In Wonderland!

'Drink me' and you will be transported into a magical topsy turvy world!

My daughter has autism and ME/CFS amongst many other things but she is also quite eccentric in her ways. This cake sort of suits her personality and the world she lives in most of the time.

My favourite part of this cake has to be the cup and saucer which I made from flower paste so that I could make it thin enough to look like china. I used a small china coffee cup and saucer as a mould and then rolled some of the same type of icing between my hand and twisted it a little to make the handle. 

There is no front view to this cake. With all the  topsy turvy layers I had to take photos from all sides. My daughter asked me to take some photos of her cake so that she had something to keep forever. I thought that was rather sweet but to be honest, I would have taken some photographs anyway but just with my mobile phone as I had the prep work.

I wasn't going to make the caterpillar with his hookah pipe but I was told by my son that I had to!

Alice in the daisy field.

I made four layers, all at different angles to make it different, a little like my family :) In a good way of course :)

The soldiers.

My children came up with many of the ideas you see on this cake. I just had to try to make them happen. It was decided that it would be nice to make both white and red roses as the Queen in the story wanted red roses and ordered them to be painted. On the left side of the picture below is a paint pot and brushes. Another idea thanks to my children. Mind you, son No. 2 was no help at all as he kept telling me everything was the wrong colour! Autism......nothing is ever perfect!

I will remember this day not for the cake but the look on my daughters face when she saw it complete. That is priceless and made it all worthwhile. 

Copyright Jana Eastwood 

Medovnik. A Czech Honey Cake made with Charlecote Honey

Earlier this year I had a wonderful experience with the volunteer Bee Keepers at Charlecote Park and I was able to see inside the hives and how the honey was made.

It seemed only right that once the honey had been collected from the hives that I made something very special with it. I decided on a very old recipe and it all went so well together.

I had had a few requests for this layered honey cake recipe since posting a photo on both twitter and Facebook so I thought I better write it down. The cake is made from a very old Czech recipe and is called 'Medovnik'.

Medovnik translates as 'Honey Cake' and is one of the oldest cakes in Europe. It is very popular through Central, Northern and Eastern Europe and I have found that each area has it's own twist on the recipe. This cake is not a quick cake to make as it takes tree days from start to end but don't let this put you off making it. It is well worth the effort. Plus, the second to the third day is the hardest as all you have to do is wait to eat it :) This recipe can be cut down to two days if, instead of making your own caramel, you buy some ready made but I will explain this as I go along.

Medovnik is a really lovely cake with many layers and with the beautiful fresh yummy honey from Charlecote Park, how could I go wrong? :)

This recipe can be halved to make a smaller cake.

For the 9 inch cake,6-8 layers, ingredients below. To make a smaller 7 inch cake with 6-7 layers, half the recipe.                                 

For the Cake:                                                                                       

60g of unsalted butter

5 tbs of honey

200g of icing sugar

500g of plain flour

2 eggs

2 tsp baking soda

For the filling and covering

475g of unsalted softened butter

2 cans of sweetened condensed milk (or you can buy the condensed milk which has already been made into caramel to save a day.)

300ml of double cream

A bag of whole walnuts.

You will also need:
A small cup of strong coffee.
Tuzemsky (optional)
 If you are using Tuzemsky, it works out equal to a 3rd of the amount of coffee you use.

Day 1-Making the Caramel

If you are making the caramel yourself, my advice is to do it the day before you make this cake. To make the caramel you will need a large saucepan of water brought to the boil but then left on a low simmer in which you carefully pop a couple of cans of sweetened condensed milk into. You will need to cook the cans for around two and a half hours, making sure the water does not dry out. I like the water to be at the same high as the cans. If you wish for the caramel to be richer and darker, simmer for three hours. A little tip here. You can do a few cans at once and store them in your cupboard for whenever you need them. Alternately you can buy the caramel ready made and just jump straight to day 2.

Day 2 -The Cake

Pre-heat the oven at gas mark 5 or 170 degrees C

Firstly make a small cup of strong coffee and put aside to cool.

This cake is actually really easy to make, it just sounds complicated which is why I have shared the step by step photos. The hardest part is waiting for it to set before you can cut it and try a piece. It doesn't take long to make even thought it says 3 days. It is more the waiting between stages that takes the time. On day 3 when you do slice the cake and you see all the lovely layers and you taste the cake, that makes the effort and waiting all worth while.

As promised , a little more about Tuzemsky.

Tuzemsky is known as a Czech/Slovak domestic rum but these days it is not allowed to be called rum as it  is brewed very differently and to be honest tastes different too. It is something that I have in my kitchen all the time as it is that secret ingredient in so many sweet dishes. A few drops can make a lovely cake into a very special cake and you would never know what it was just by tasting the finished product. I use it it many things including sweet pastries.

 Tuzemsky added to this honey cake brings out the taste of the honey so much. The two go so well together. There are many brands to pick from but my favourite has to be Boskov Tuzemsky.The others do come very close and are perfectly fine to use. It is so smooth and smells amazing, just like rum and raisin together and is fantastic in my truffles.

I normally buy my Tuzemsky on-line but I have also been able to find it  locally in the European/Continental shops. If you go on holiday to Prague like so many people do these days, bring some back with you and try it. 

My lovely jar of Charlecote Park honey is going down. I must get some more.

Honey buns next time I think :)

Thanks for reading this blog. hope you liked it even though it was very different from my normal blogs.

My Peppa Pig Cake

Today I have something a little different for you, This week I have been stuck in with not just poorly children but a very poorly cat too so no adventures out.

When my daughter is really bad, she sleeps on the spare bed in the office as it's one less floor to climb. This restricts access to my main computer and all my photos as I don't like to disturb her so today, all my photos are from my phone. 

I would like to share some photos of a cake I made over the Christmas holidays for my lovely Great Nephews 2nd birthday. When my niece first mentioned that my Great Nephew loved Peppa Pig, I have to admit I had to google it. Good old google, you can find everything on there. What would we do without it :) 

There was a time when I would have known all the young children's programmes but as mine are all teenagers now, I have lost touch with all that that these days. After a little research I got started on my first character.

I wasn't sure at this point what the cake was going to be like. I really was making it up as I went along. The problem with me is that I never know when to stop and to be honest, I enjoy creating cakes, I find it relaxing. Before I knew it, I had the whole family :)

But then I didn't stop and made a few more characters and the house.

The next day I baked the cake and started to put it all together...Still making it up as I went along. I couldn't think what to put on the top of the cake and now with having too many characters and a house , I thought it best to put them around the cake rather than on top of it. After a little more research, I noticed a big Sun in most of the pictures of Peppa pig along with colourful trees and bright blue skies so I worked with that.

This is how it ended up, My Peppa Pig Cake and yes I did make it on a chopping board as I didn't have a cake board big enough ...well I am a firm believer in using what you have :)

I had also thought to make the cake a little different and with Peppa Pig being so colourful, had a little extra surprise for my Great Nephew on the inside.

For my other creations which again I made up as I went along, as you do :) here is a link. if you would like to see them.

http://janaruzena.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/me-food-art-and-photography.html