Apple tart.

I think this is my favourite and the easiest bake ever. I've made apple tart few times before and the pastry dough wasn't perfect, but now I made more pastry dough so it was thickier and... I used white strong flour which is originally for making pizza dough or bread. I didn't have a plain flour so I gave it a go and it was just perfect! Well, that's what my fiance said.

Apple tart is great for summer days in the garden or at a picnic, but it would be also good in fall. I think it's actually an autumn bake. The best is served hot (straight from the oven) with a bit of ice cream. So delicious!!!

Ingredients for a pastry dough:

• 170 g plain flour
• 55 g caster sugar
• 110 g sliced, cold butter
• 1 egg yolk

Place every ingredient into a bowl and mix together until you get a pastry dough. Make a ball from a dough, put cling film on and flatter a bit. Leave in the fridge for at least an hour.

Apple filling:

• 5 big apples without a skin and a centre, cut in bigger parts
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• pinch of cloves in powder
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• more - 1 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 1 beaten egg with 1 tbsp of milk to spread on top of the tart before baking

Put pieces of apples into a pan, add cinnamon, cloves, sugar and lemon juice. Simmer for a while and stir on a medium gas to not overcook the apples. they should be soft but not falling appart. Take off the hob.

Take a 20 cm diameter tart pan, spread a bit of butter and then sprinkle flour on it.

Take pastry dough out off the fridge and devide it in two parts.

Roll one part with a rolling pin and put on the bottom and sides of the tart pan. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top of the pastry dough, then put apples and even the surface. Roll the second part of the pastry dough, place it on of of the apples and put it together with the pastry dough on the sides. Dab it few times with fork and then cover it with beaten egg and 1 tbsp of milk.

Bake in 180 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes till it's golden. Take it out off the oven and leave to cool.

Although I prefer it to be hot and served with ice cream.

Sprinkle some icing sugar on top before serving.

Enjoy!

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Thumbprint cookies.

I've skipped one episode of Great British Bake Off as my blog post, because I am so busy at the moment and those cookies are just simple to make so I've decided to share the recipe with you. I made them few times already and everyone seemed to love them. They're good with a morning coffee and also as an evening snack while watching a movie. You can of course choose different flavours to the dough or put nutella instead of jam (but then do it after baking). This recipe would give you about 35 cookies, but you could double the ingredients if you want. They're gone so quickly!

Ingredients:

• 125 g sliced, cold butter
• 1/3 glass of caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 110 g plain flour
• 110 g walnuts or almonds in powder
• 1 tsp of vanilla or almond extract
• half tsp of baking powder
• pinch of salt

Also:

• jam to fill the cookies in, the best is the thickiest, but every jam will do

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix it well until you get the pastry dough (you can also mix ingredients by hand). Make a ball from the dough, then make it flat, put cling film all over and put it into the fridge for 60 minutes.

After that time tear off little pieces of dough and make little balls from them (a size of walnut). Put everything on a baking tray with a baking parchment on it with small spaces between the balls (they will rise during baking). Use your finger or the end of your wooden utensil and make a well in the center of each cookie. Using a teaspoon, fill each well with jam, being careful not to overfill the wells.

Bake in 170 degrees for 13-15 minutes or when cookies are a bit golden. Take them out of the oven, cool them for a while on a baking tray and then place onto a wire rack.

Enjoy!!!

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Little boy's room ideas.

Ollie is moving to his own room soon! I can't believe that my little boy will be a toddler now! He is a very smart boy and so so cute and sweet that I want to kiss him all the time. I know that I'm lucky, because I have one healthy boy and this boy is growing up so fast that I really don't know when did that happen. During the first year he was sleeping in our bedroom, sometimes even in our bed. I think I will miss that and I don't really know how to move him to his own room - it would be weird in the beginning - but I think we all are going to be fine. We definitely would benefit from that, because we are going to have more space in our bedroom and also in our bed... And Ollie is going to be more independent and some of his toys could go to his room as well, because now we've got everything in our living room.

Decorating baby's room is a tough task, but I have a lot of ideas in my head of some modern decors and I wanted to share it with you. I love light and neutral colours in the house, but I also like some colourful accessories such as pillows, frames or blankets. I fell in love with paper storage bags and I think we're going to buy one. I am also thinking about Miffy bunny, I think it will suit Ollie's cheeky character. I would also like to make some activity corner or sensory boards in his room. What I don't like is baby blue colour, I don't know why but it's to bland for me and I didn't want Ollie's room to be all blue! First thought that I had was grey walls. Yes! But then I thought that white would be perfect and his room would look even bigger.

I don't know when my son is going to sleep in his own room, but I am starting to collect more and more pictures and inspirations and it's very exciting. I have picked a few so you could see what those ideas are.

source: all pinterest

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Strawberry cheesecake.

Cheesecake is not a cake or a pie, it's a dessert. It's a dessert from my childhood and I don't eat it very often, only when I visit my home country, which is once-twice a year. My grandmother used to bake a lot such as my mum and I think that's why I am interested in baking. I had a lot of hobbies such as English language, than sewing, knitting and now baking, which I love the most.

This was my second attempt at making cheesecake and it was really stressful for me. I was checking the temperature every 10 minutes and couldn't focus on anything else at that time. I bought cream cheese in a bucket and it should be that thick that you can cut it with a knife. When I was making a cheesecake for the first time I didn't know about it and I thought that cream cheese that I bought will be ok, but it had consistency of a yogurt, so my cheesecake went straight to the bin... It collapsed in and was almost liquidy. 

I am sure that I'm going to try and make it again and maybe some day I will make my perfect cheesecake, but for now I am very pleased with this one.

Ingredients:

• 170 g digestive biscuits
• 60 g melted butter

Crush biscuits into a powder using a blender or a rolling pin (then you have to put all biscuits into a plastic bag). Mix with melted butter until you have a consistency of a wet sand.

Put parchment into a baking pot. Put mixed biscuits on top of it, even it. Put it into the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Ingredients for a cream cheese mixture:

• 500 g cream (curd) cheese
• 1/2 glass of double cream
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp of lemon juice
• 2/3 glass of caster sugar
• 2 tbsp of potato flour
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 300 g strawberries (it can be frozen and you don't have to refrozen it)

All ingredients should be kept in home temperature.

Place all ingredients in a bowl (leave strawberries for later) and mix just a little. Don't mix too long, because there will be too much air in the mixture and it will rise a lot in the oven and then collapse.

Pour the cream cheese mixture onto a biscuit base, which you've prepared earlier. Cut strawberries in half and place them on top of the mixture.

Bake in 150 degrees for 60 - 75 minutes. After that time cheesecake should be elastic and bouncy. Cool it in a slightly open oven (do not take it straight out of the oven!) and than put it into a fridge for 12 hours.

Before serving you can sprinkle icing on top.

Source: http://www.mojewypieki.com/post/sernik-truskawkowy

What desserts do you like? Do you bake or buy your favourite cakes/desserts in a supermarket? Leave a comment below. I would be happy to read all of them.

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