French Apple Tart

French Apple Tart

This is really fast and easy.

½ cup softened butter for crust
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup Flour
1t vanilla
Preheat oven 400°.
Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla and mix. Add in the flour to the mixture. Press in to pan.
Bake at 400° for 15 min.

Filling
8oz cream cheese, I used 500g….I didn’t know if that is exactly right but it worked. I used the stuff in the tub instead of the block, it tastes better and easier to mix.
1/4 cup sugar for filling and ¼ cup sugar for the apples on top
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
Almonds or walnuts for the top of the pie
Preheat oven 400°.

When you remove the shell from the oven, leave the oven on because once the mixture is made it goes right back in.
Beat one egg, then add cream cheese, vanilla extract, then the sugar. Beat until smooth and pour into pie pan. Slice apples for the topping. In a bowl sprinkle the apples with cinnamon and ¼ cup sugar, arrange in a round circle on the top of the pie. Sprinkle the almonds on the top.
Bake 400° for 30-40 minutes

I got this recipe from the food network, here is the link you can watch the video.
http://www.foodnetwork.ca/guides/Thanksgiving/video.html?releasePID=riTfn3O7XgnDh6K32VXOhOcK5b0Zmy5Q

Pizza

Finally a pizza that really tastes like pizza. The crust turned out pretty good. I used the bread in the bucket to make it. As you can see I could have stretched out the crust a bit more.

For the tomato sauce get out the frying pan. Brown one onion, garlic, chop up two tomatoes and throw them in. Juice a lemon ........or limes guess what throw it in. Now you need some honey or sugar to sweeten it up a little. Make sure you taste it. Add your favourite spices. I used rosemary, basil, parsley, salt and pepper, just sprinkle them. Let the sauce reduce.........simply cook until the juice evaporates ......but leave a little bit in the bottom.

Now for the cheese. I used mozzarella. I cut it in little squares (they say that if you cut the cheese in squares it's not so oily) or you can use shredded. You can use better cheese or a mixture of cheese but I wouldn't use cheddar.

First sprinkle corn flour on the greased pizza pan. Of course if you don't have corn meal........don't worry it still turns out. If you used the bread in the bucket for the crust, you have to remember to let the dough rest after you take it out of the fridge. Leave it for about 40 minutes it needs to warm up a little. You might need a bit of flour on it............it's really sticky. The flour will make it so that you can work with it.

Spread out the dough......Add the sauce, not too much you don't want a soggy pizza.
cut up your vegtables and add them, I used mushrooms, red peppers add whatever you like. Add the cheese........you can put it on first....no big deal.

Bake 400F.........about 20 minutes.

Bread in a Bucket

This is so easy.

Get a bucket with a lid.

1 1/2 T salt
1 1/2 T salt yeast (I used two packages)
6 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used 3 cups whole wheat, 3 1/2 all purpose)
3 cups warm water.........out of the tap

Nothing fancy about making this bread. First dump the salt and yeast into the bucket. Pour in the 3 cups of warm water. I put the lid on and let it sit a few minutes for the yeast to start growing. But you can go crazy and throw in the flour. Stir it up with a wooden spoon. You need to get all the flour mixed in. Put the lid on the bucket and lift the corner so that it's not completely air tight some of the gases need to escape. Let the whole mixture sit for two hours. It will grow, you will see the air bubbles. It looks like a big sticky mess.

Lift the lid, sprinkle you hands with flour, pull off some of the dough & shape into a ball. Should be the size of a grapefruit. Put enough flour on it so it doesn't stick in your hands. You don't have to knead the bread. Only shape into a ball. Put on a pan, I used a pie plate cover with towel. Let it rest for about 45 minutes. It will grow again because of the yeast.

After resting the dough slash the top. I had trouble with this, all the air came out of my loaf..........making it look like a blob......my slashes didn't look so good.
I used spray oil on my pan, and a sprinkle of corn meal. (you don't have to do that)
Before I put the dough in the pie plate I poured warm water on it. This warmed the plate up. Yeast grows better in warm areas.

Set the oven 375F. Put the bread on middle shelf of oven with a pan of hot water underneath. This makes a crunchy crust. Oh don't use a glass dish for the warm water underneath the dough........they break.

Bake for 25-35 minutes.

Put the rest of dough in fridge. You will get at least 3 more loaves. You should use it within two weeks. When you take dough out of the fridge let it rest with a towel over top for about 45 minutes before you bake it.

It took me longer to type this then make it.

If you can watch this video it explains it all better than I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFJZPm-_2-M&feature=related

Let me know how you do on this. It's really good and so easy.