The White Ramekins

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Roasted Pumpkin & Apple Soup

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roasted pumpkin & apple soup

It is Roasted Pumpkin & Apple Soup, we started our soup season this time, officially. And this one is perfectly placed, as both pumpkin and apples mark the fall season so aptly. As we start nearing winters during the months of late October and early November, I start eating more of soups and some hearty grain warm salads in weekday dinners than my usual Indian fare of chapati and veggies.

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

Generally, it is mixed veggie soup, which I cook more often, with all the seasonal green vegetables we get during months of winters. To be true, this is a recipe which is out of sheer inspiration, I have been gathering from pinterest these days. I have been spending more time on pinterest than anywhere else, at least in the virtual world.

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

I have been seeing a lot of pumpkin recipes lately, with halloween just passing by last week. If you ask me, I don’t have any clue, what halloween is all about. Why do people get dressed up in the most creepy way possible. But whatever it is about, it brings a lot of saffron colour all over. It’s a color of courage and happiness, however creepy the festival is. At least, I look at it this way.

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

I picked up this recipe of roasted pumpkin & apple soup from Katie Quinn Davis and adjusted it to my taste and preferences. It came out beautifully flavored, with a mild sweetness from pumpkin and the little tartness from the granny smith apples. As opposed to topping my soup with crispy bacon, I chose to keep it vegetarian and had it with some fresh tomato and corn salsa.

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

My local grocer went out of stock for goat cheese, so I substituted it with feta instead. I think, it worked pretty well, considering both goat cheese and feta have got sharp tangy flavor, only difference being in the texture, which didn’t matter once blended into the soup.

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

It’s a recipe, which I probably keep for the weekends, when I have got enough time to roast the pumpkin and apples. And this one wins my heart truly, with it’s mild and fruity flavor. 

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

Roasted Pumpkin & Apple Soup
Roasted Pumpkin & Apple Soup
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Ingredients
  1. 1kg pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed, cut into 3cm pieces
  2. 1 tsp cumin seeds
  3. 3 tsp chopped mix herbs
  4. 4 tbsp olive oil
  5. 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into 3cm pieces
  6. 1 onion, chopped
  7. 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  8. 5 cups vegetable stock
  9. 120 gm feta cheese
  10. Lightly toasted pumpkin seeds and tomato corn salsa, to serve
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
  2. Place the pumpkin, cumin, herbs and 2 tbs oil in a large bowl and season, then toss to combine. Tip onto the tray, arrange in a single layer and roast for 15-20 minutes. Add apple and cook for a further 10 minutes or until tender.
  3. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 tbs oil in the frypan. Add the onion, garlic and a pinch of salt, then cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes until softened.
  4. Transfer to a blender with pumpkin mixture, 2 cups stock and half the cheese, then whiz until smooth. Return to pan with remaining 3 cups stock. Cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes until reduced slightly. Season with salt and freshly crushed black pepper.
  5. To serve, sprinkle fresh tomato and corn salsa, pumpkin seeds and remaining feta cheese over soup.
Adapted from What Katie Ate
Adapted from What Katie Ate
The White Ramekins http://thewhiteramekins.com/

Apple Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches

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Apple Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Apple Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches – these are perfect treat to say goodbye to summer and hot weather and to celebrate ongoing fall season. Talking of summers, this year we made loads of ice creams and other frozen treats to cool us off from the svelte-ring sun of summers. But we didn’t make any ice cream sandwich until now. And probably we’ll not be making anymore ice creams this year at least. Soon, we’ll be spending our evenings covered under the warmth of blankets, sipping into hot cups of soups and hot chocolates.

Apple Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches

That kind of days are still a couple of weeks ahead, may be. And we still have some more warmer days to enjoy the ice creams to fullest. And I couldn’t sum up the hot weather better than making these yummy fall sandwiches. A warm woody aroma of cinnamon and the juicy tart apples are always meant to be together. They are a perfect pairing, or for that matter, a perfect and classic pairing. Every year we make ice cream sandwiches during summers. They are a perfect grab-and-munch dessert snack. So, how could we not make them this year too?

Apple Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches

After all, we all love snacking, and the the fun gets doubled when you get to snack on desserts. And of all the pies, apple pie remains my favorite yet. I am sucker for apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. And whenever I go to my favorite coffee shop, I order for one along with my cup of cappuccino. Although, these ice cream sandwiches have thin snappy oatmeal cookies in place of a buttery pie crust, they are no less in flavor and aroma. And the best thing is you get the fun in a single package i.e. apples, cinnamon, crust (cookie crust here) and ice cream too. Isn’t that enough to make everyone happy. Indeed it is! We all loved them a lot.

 Apple Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Apple Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches
Apple Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches
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For the cookies
  1. 1 tbsp whole wheat flour
  2. 1 tsp baking powder
  3. 1/4 tsp salt
  4. 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  5. 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
  6. 1 egg, room temperature
  7. 2/3 cup light brown sugar
For the caramelized apples
  1. 120 gm caster sugar
  2. 45 ml dessert wine
  3. 60 ml single cream
  4. 20 gm butter
  5. 3 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm dice
For the ice cream
  1. 600 ml single cream
  2. 300 ml milk
  3. 3 cinnamon quills
  4. 5 egg yolks
  5. 75 gm caster sugar
  6. 45 gm brown sugar
For the cookies
  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (see notes).
  2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt. Set aside.
  3. Gently melt the butter in a medium saucepan. When just melted, remove from heat and stir in the oats. Stir until well coated.
  4. In a large bowl, whisk the sugar with the egg until it is the consistency of a creamy icing.
  5. Whisk the flour mixture in, and then add the oats. Stir until combined, then drop, a level tablespoon at a time, onto the prepared baking sheets, at least 2 inches apart.
  6. Bake until very deeply golden, about 10-12 minutes. Remove, and let sit for a few minutes, then transfer to a rack to continue cooling.
For the caramelized apples
  1. Combine sugar, 30ml dessert wine and ¼ cup water in a frying pan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves.
  2. Bring to the boil and cook for 4-5 minutes or until dark golden, add cream and butter and cook for another minute or until combined.
  3. Add apple, stir to coat then cook for 5 minutes or until apple is tender.
  4. Add the remaining dessert wine, stir to combine, then remove from heat and cool completely.
For the ice cream
  1. Combine cream, milk and cinnamon quills in a saucepan and bring just to the boil over a medium heat. Remove from heat and stand for 10 minutes to infuse.
  2. Whisk egg yolks and sugars in a bowl until thick and pale, pour over cream mixture and whisk to combine.
  3. Return to saucepan and cook over a medium heat until mixture coats the back of a spoon, strain into a bowl placed over ice and cool completely.
  4. Freeze mixture in an ice-cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Spoon into a rectangular container, drizzle with caramelized apple mixture, swirling to combine.
  5. Freeze the container in freezer until ice cream is completely set.
  6. When about to server, scoop out the ice cream either using an ice cream scoop or using a cookie cutter and sandwich between two cookies. Repeat until all the cookies are sandwiched with ice cream. Return to freezer, if not serving immediately.
Notes
  1. Silpat isn't as good for baking cookies.
Adapted from Gourmet Traveller
Adapted from Gourmet Traveller
The White Ramekins http://thewhiteramekins.com/

Apple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple Icing

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Apple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple Icing

I have been away from this space for almost two weeks now. Frequent visits to back home, a recent visit to mountains and the ever so increasing workload at office has been keeping me away from you all. That doesn’t mean that I have not being baking. Rather I baked four different kinds of cakes in past couple of weeks. Just that I have been able to capture the pictures only for this one.

Apple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple Icing

Apple & olive oil cake with maple icing is the recent one which I baked for my family this weekend. And this time around I got lucky to take some pics before the family got to gobble it down quickly. The other two cakes which I baked were a pine nut and olive oil cake and a banana wholemeal breakfast cake. My olive oil-in-cakes fascination doesn’t seem to end very soon. Rather I use olive oil in my recipes quite often.

Apple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple Icing

Especially in cakes, it lends a tender and moist crumb which probably only a good quality butter could yield. The moist and lighter flavors from my lemon rosemary and ricotta olive oil cake will always remain alive in my memories. Such lovely and ethereal flavors will always give you the comfort of your life. It’s like some soft melody playing in your ears while you are day dreaming sitting in your armchair on a relaxed and sunny day.

Apple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple Icing

Such were the lovely flavors we experienced again when we took the first bite of this lovely moist olive oil and apple cake. The maple cream cheese icing on top took the perfection to the next level. Warm earthy flavors of cinnamon, vanilla and maple syrup paired along with juicy red apples and tanginess of cream cheese were just perfect for us to spend our weekend at leisure while we chit chatted for hours throughout the weekend.

Apple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple Icing

A cup of hot simmering coffee to go along with these lovely flavors and endless talks was all what we needed. And why shouldn’t it create such magic, the recipe is from one of my favorite cook book authors, Yottam Ottolenghi. Ottolenghi has never been disappointing. He knows how to create magic with flavors.  The olive oil in this cake gives it that extra depth and intensity of flavors. The maple icing is the cherry on the cake which makes it all the more festive looking, isn’t it? 

Apple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple IcingApple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple IcingApple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple IcingApple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple Icing 

Apple & Olive Oil Cake With Maple Icing
light and festive apple and olive oil cake with maple icing
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For the cake
  1. 80 gm golden raisins
  2. 280 gm all purpose flour
  3. 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  4. 1/4 tsp salt
  5. 1/2 tsp baking powder
  6. 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
  7. 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
  8. 120 ml olive oil
  9. 160 gm superfine sugar
  10. 2 eggs and 2 egg whites
  11. 3 large apples, cored, peeled and diced
  12. grated zest of 1 lemon
For the icing
  1. 100 gm unsalted butter, at room temperature
  2. 100 gm light muscovado sugar
  3. 85 ml maple syrup, extra for topping
  4. 200 gm cream cheese
  5. handful of roughly chopped walnuts
Instructions
  1. Grease 8 inch springform cake pan and line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 170 degree Celsius.
  2. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon powder and vanilla powder and keep it aside.
  3. Put the oil and super fine sugar in a bowl and whisk them together. Add 2 whole eggs one by one, beating the mixture to make it smooth and thick.
  4. Mix in diced apples, raisins, lemon zest and then gently fold in the dry ingredients.
  5. In a separate clean bowl, beat the egg whites to make a stiff meringue. Fold them in to the batter in 2 additions, trying to maintain as much air as possible.
  6. Pour the batter into the lined pan and bake for around 55 - 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
  7. Remove from oven and leave to cool in the pan. Once it it completely cooled, remove from the pan.
  8. To prepare the icing, beat the butter, cream cheese, maple syrup, muscovado sugar in a bowl to make a smooth and fluffy frosting.
  9. To assemble, cut the cake horizontally into two halves. Using a spatula, spread a layer of icing over the bottom half of the cake. Carefully place the second half of the cake on it. Spoon the rest of the icing on the cake and spread to cover the top and the sides of the entire cake.
  10. Top with chopped walnuts and drizzle the extra maple syrup, as you like.
Notes
  1. Original recipe suggests the cake to bake for 1 1/2 hours, while mine baked perfectly in 60 minutes.
Adapted from Ottolenghi, The Cookbook
Adapted from Ottolenghi, The Cookbook
The White Ramekins http://thewhiteramekins.com/