Bless Emilie's heart! After all these years of salivating and feeling green with envy for all those of you who have a Kitchen Aid -- we finally have one for our baking projects. Emilie's mum was downsizing and sold it to us at a very reasonable cost. For those of you who don't know the value of this incredible machine it is every baker's dream tool. It mixes, whisks, beats, folds, blends ...etc, etc. It is also solid metal and is a seriously industrial strength engine.
I have been cooking for years and have to say that baking is my favourite kitchen past time. I think it all stems back to my childhood years when Ouma Nellie would bake up the most delicious Dutch treats on the planet. She did it without the aid of recipes, and the house would be filled with the smell of perfect baking aromas. I am sure you can all remember the Boterkoek!
The crucial part of this whole baking experience is of course my deep and profound love for butter. As we always say in our household: "Butter makes the world better!" I am determined that in years to come when Kai and Pippin reflect back on their childhood, they will be able to conjure up the scrumptious smell of baking that permeated our home on a regular basis.
So in keeping with the good baking times over here, I decided I should occasionally blog about those lovely foods making it to our table. Lets just say, that way you can do some vicarious travel of the culinary sort.
On the menu today was a delicious apple crumble made with a healthy dose of freshly ground almonds. The pictures speak for themselves. I will include the recipe as the pictures flow.
The dish begins with good wholesome apples. Hopefully organic and a little tart and crisp. These apples were grown by John and Bay in the Kootenays last summer. Cored, peeled and sliced - the apples are mixed with a healthy dose of fresh lemon juice (about 2 squeezed lemons), some cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar (1/3 of a cup).
The crumble involves 1 and 1/2 cups of flour, 1 cup of freshly ground almonds, 1/2 cup+ of sugar, 1/4 tsp of salt and 3/4 of a cup of butter. The mixture is blended by hand and then using fingers it eventually resembles a coarse crumbly mix.
Take a little more than half the crumble mixture and press it into a nine inch glass pie plate so that one has a lovely pie crust. Cool the pie crust in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Add the apple mixture and some dabs of butter. Then top with the remainder of the crumble mixture.
Bake for about 1 hour at 350F and turn the crumble once or twice. You know it is ready when the crust turns golden and the juices begin to bubble.
Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream. It is enough to say you have died and gone to heaven!
Don't worry about the calories. They are good calories and life is for living!
Love and hugs to you all
Until next time
Skye, Kai, Pippin and the butter guy!
A student of mine today introduced me to this most amazing instrument. It is called a Hang Drum. The “hang” (pronounced “hung”) is a relatively new musical instrument that sounds like a hybrid steel drum and gamelan (a Thai xylophone). It is played with the hands or mallets (or whatever) on the lap or a stand and is tuned to make a variety of sounds depending on where it is hit. Hang means “hand” in the Bernese language. 
