Chocolate And Apple Purses

Posted October 22, 2013

Filed under dessert, Fleximolds, fruit, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

What do you do when you have lots of apples and don’t know what to do with them? You either eat them as snack, or you fix lots of desserts with them;-))

Well since i had some phillo dough left in my fridge, i thought to fix some chocolate and apples purses. The great part about fixing this recipe is that it is fast, really easy to make, unexpensive and can make a great dessert, or a yummy snack.

Ingredients for 20 small ones:

2 1/2 to 3 apples peeled and chopped thinly
1 pack of phillo dough cut in square of 2×2 inches
2 tbsp of brown sugar
1/2 cup of chocolate
1/4 cup of olive oil, or melted chocolate butter.

In a bowl, mix the chopped apples and sugar and mix well.
Cut the phillo dough into squares of 2×2 inches for the mini muffin tray, or 4×4 for the large muffin tray.
Peel 3 to 4 sheets of the stack of the phillo dough and push them inside each mini cupcake. Of course you can also make large ones using the straight muffin tray.
Fill the inside of those “cups” with apples.
Top the apples with a few chocolate chips (5-6).
Press the filo together to close up the “purse”.
With a brush, brush the top of each “purses” with olive oil or with melted butter. You may also use the spritzer to sprinkle olive oil.
Cook in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the top of the purses is a nice brown.
After removing the cupcakes from the oven, let them cool for a few minutes and drizzle more chocolate on top. You may eat them with some ice-cream, or as it ( I did, they make yummy afternoon snacks. They remind me of the Chaussons de Pomme I used to eat growing up, except that they cook much quicker and they are much better for you;-)YUMMMMMMMM

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Fun Children Snack for A Day Outdoors

Posted October 20, 2013

Filed under What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

As a cook, and as what people perceives as a “talented chef” I am often asked to do things and there. I had a small catering job this past Saturday and the lady of event was also hosting a birthday party for her child that same morning. She was so overwhelmed that she asked me to help her fix a fun snack for the kiddos that were coming to the birthday party. She wanted for those snacks to be in a decorated lunch box and she wanted the snacks to fit the theme of Apples and Farm.

After showing me a few picture of what she was thinking, we agreed to use the ides of a snack that Cute Food for Kids Web Blogger had posted on her blog.

I purchased the box at a near store and purchased a few stickers at Micheals to make the farm scene. Of course, you could decorate the box however you wanted.

The snack consisted of an apple shaped umbrella and a cloud cut sandwich.

The Apple Umbrella:

I purchased red delicious because they are a beautiful red color and the color is even unlike many other apples.

Once you have chosen your apples, you will need to wash them well under running water.
Then look for the most even side of the apple and cut the apple in half.
Then starting at the top of the apple, cut two lines down to make a triangle.
With your knife, trace two other triangles aside this main triangle.
With the tip of the knife, slide under the skin of the apple and remove the skin as shown below.

6. When the apples is carved, place it into a water bath with either a few drops of lemon, or a bit of salt.

7. Continue with the rest of the apples.

8. Right before you are ready to fix the boxes, place the handle of the “umbrella”. I could not use cute food picks, so I purchased cake pegs instead that I broke a bit to shorten them.

9. When you are done with the apples, proceed with the sandwiches.

The Cloud Sandwich:

I used honey wheat to make it a bit healthier. The filling of the sandwich was peanut butter and nutella, but of course you can use anything else.

Since I was not able to find a cloud shaped cookie cutter, I purchased a large daisy cookie cutter and bent it so that it would look like a cloud.

Place the sandwich and the umbrellas into each box and close. C’est tout!!! To cute!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Tarte aux Pommes: French Apple Pie

Posted October 3, 2011

Filed under dessert, Tarts and Pies, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Fall is definitely here. The air is crisp in the morning, and the sunlight is changing. The sun is not so bright, and the light that the sun emits looks dimmer to me. You can slowly see changes in the scenery, but not enough yet to show that fall is here. In the stores on the other hand, it is blatant! There are pumpkins, and mums everywhere. Even in the stands, the summer fruits have been replaced with the fall vegetables and fruits. Lots of apples and pears. And since I cook a lot of the things I see in the store, you will see a lot recipes inspired by this season crop. Today, I present you the French Apple Pie or la tarte aux pommes. Unlike the American Apple Pie, the crust is very thin, and flaky. The apples are so thin that they are almost transparent. I like both pies. They are very different. I guess, la tarte aux pommes is so light that it is the perfect ending to a heavy dinner. And it is such an easy dessert to fix!

Ingredients: 1 sheet of puff pastry dough, 5 apples cored, peeled and sliced very thin. 3 tbsp of butter, 1/3 cup of brown sugar.

Roll the dough out to fit the deep flexipan. Place the dough on the flexipan. Perforate the bottom of the dough so that air pockets will not form during baking. Lay the apples, in rows, starting from the top right corner to the top left corner. Layer the apples in a single layer making your way down to the bottom of the pie. Sprinkle the apples slices with brown sugar. Shave little pieces of butter, and drop them on the apple pie at 2- 3 inches intervals. Bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes. Watch carefully that the apples are not burning, but are becoming golden as they are cooking. I hope you will enjoy this recipe. This is one of my favorite. It reminds me so much of my childhood. Mom would prepare it on Sunday afternoon, and we would eat it for snacks after a day of horseback riding;-) Such good memories.