Saturday, December 04, 2010

Aine McAteer's chocolate chip cookies

After a week of snow and ice (and no end in sight to slippery roads and footpaths), I felt  I needed a treat. So I baked Aine McAteer's chocolate chip cookies, and I felt better immediately! They are the perfect comfort cookie. And while they are not exactly slimline, they are much better for you than store-bought biscuits.

I wonder does Aine have a good, easy, recipe for apple tart? One of our customers kindly gave us a bagful of apples from her orchard. I've made an apple & pear crumble, but I've got tons more apples to use. I've never made pastry, so I need a very simple recipe!

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:28 pm

    Ha, every once in a while I google myself to see what's going on in my world and I found your post! I just made the yummiest apple and mincemeat tart - I had made my mincemeat up for my Xmas mince pies and my sister gave me apples she had stored from her tree - it was so delish...
    here's the recipe:

    The yummiest Apple Mincemeat Pie:

    CRUST:
    2 cups white spelt flour
    1 cup ground almonds
    ½ cup tapioca flour
    ½ cup gram (chickpea) flour
    1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
    Big pinch sea salt
    Zest of 1 orange
    2/3 cup coconut oil or vegan margarine
    2 Tbs. orange juice
    Enough cold apple juice to bind
    FILLING:
    4 sweet apples
    1/3 cup apple juice
    1 cup Christmas mincemeat
    To make the crust, combine all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the coconut oil or margarine and rub in with your fingertips until it’s a mealy consistency. Drizzle in the orange juice and enough cold apple juice to bind and form a soft dough – don’t knead too much. Set aside while you prepare your filling.
    To make the filling, peel and chop the apples and put into a saucepan with the apple juice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover pot and simmer for about 5 minutes. Take the lid off and turn up the heat a little to boil off any excess liquid.
    To assemble, First, preheat your oven to 180 deg. C. and brush some oil on a big plate or pie dish.
    Divide your pastry in half and roll out one half between sheets of parchment paper or cling film. I sometimes sprinkle a little ground almonds on my paper before rolling to avoid it sticking. Using the parchment paper, transfer the pastry to the plate.
    Spread the mincemeat all over and top with the appples. Roll out the rest of the pastry and carefully place it on top of the pie. Trim and decoratively crimp the edges and prick it all over with a fork.
    Bake for about 25 minutes, until nice and golden on top. Serve warm or cold. I served mine with homemade hemp milk custard.
    Variations:
    O You can just use spelt flour and ground almonds if you don’t have the other flours.

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  2. Thank You! I'll let you know how I get on with that!

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