Apple Muffins with Caramelized Hazelnuts

Apples are easily found all year round, but if you want Swedish apples, the season is considerably shorter. Some are ripe in early summer, but most sorts aren’t ready until late summer or fall. Some are even later. For these muffins, it won’t really matter much what kind you use – just use one that you like to eat!

It’s a very versatile recipe, as you don’t add the fruit until the end – you can just as easily swap the apples for, say, blueberry or raspberry, or maybe try a combination of blackberries and apples? I love this combination though – apples, cinnamon and caramelized hazelnuts… Delicious!

Don’t be scared of the extra step of caramelizing the nuts. You can certainly skip it, but it does add an extra layer of flavor, and it’s not difficult at all. Make sure there are no kids around though – caramel is HOT. And you want some kind of silicone or teflon baking mat – or oil a regular baking sheet.

This recipe yielded me 12 normal-sized muffins, and 15 mini-sized. It would probably have been enough for 18 normal-sized, but I wanted to make some minis without the nuts, since so many people are allergic these days. I also like making smaller ones for the sheer cuteness.

Apple Muffins with Caramelized Hazelnuts

For the nuts:
100 ml hazelnuts, toasted (If you can’t find them at the store, toast them yourself for about 10 minutes in a 200°C oven)
50 ml sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Heat the sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan, and watch closely as it’ll turn deep golden brown. Add the nuts, stir, and immediately turn out onto a teflon or silicone baking mat, or an oiled baking sheet. Let cool completely, then chop coarsely.

For the muffins:
200 g butter, at room temperature
70 g brown sugar
80 g sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
3 eggs
280 g flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2-3 apples, peeled, cored and cut into small dice
cinnamon

Cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla sugar as well, or the extract.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and make sure to mix well in between each addition. Stir in the flour and baking powder.

Half-fill muffin cups placed in a muffin tin for extra sturdiness. As this batter is on the thick side, you can lightly wet your fingers to press down the batter. Add about a tablespoon of diced apples, and lightly dust with cinnamon. Sprinkle with the chopped caramelized nuts.

Bake at about 190°C. The normal-sized muffins will take about 15 minutes, and minis 10 minutes. Use a cake-tester or a toothpick to check that they’re done – it should come out clean.

Previously published at sweden.se

Crock-Pot Apple Butter

Apple butter is like a very reduced apple sauce and brown and thick. It's nice on oatmeal, but also with ice cream, pancakes or as a filling for various baked goods. I made mine in the crock-pot which was very convenient! You can do it on the stove, but you'll have to watch it to make sure it doesn't burn.

I know it's a huge portion in the photo, but I was scraping out the remains after filling a few jars, and it's so delicious I couldn't stand to throw any of it away.

Start this in the afternoon, and then you can add the sugar and spices overnight.

Crock-Pot Apple Butter

1500 g peeled and cored apples, cut into smaller pieces

Put the apples in your crock-pot. Cover with a lid and place on low heat for four hours. Stir, and mash up the apples.

Then add:
200 ml white sugar
200 ml brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1-2 vanilla beans (mine were dry so I added two - if they'd been softer, I'd have scraped one out and stirred in the seeds.)

Cover with the lid, and cook on low heat for eight hours.

And that's it! Pour into jars and keep cool - or freeze, which is what I do.

Recipe in Swedish:
Långkokat äppelmos i Crock-Pot

Apple Hazelnut Sourdough

Remember how I told you I won a sourdough bread baking contest? Well, it wasn't with this bread, but this was one of the breads I tried out during that time. I didn't submit it because I was pretty sure they'd never want to produce anything with nuts due to so many people having allergies, but the bread came out great, and I love it. I hope you'll try it! It DOES take a long time, but if you plan ahead, it's pretty effortless.

The dough is pretty sticky, which is why I opted to make loaves using a tin - but feel free to shape it into rolls, just be prepared to use a bit of flour.

You can leave out the yeast if you have a REALLY active sourdough, but I personally prefer to use a bit of yeast to make sure the bread rises well.

Apple Hazelnut Sourdough

Step 1:
150 g bubbly, active sourdough starter
500 ml water
200 g rye flour
200 - 250 g bread flour
350 g "rågsikt", a Swedish mixture with about 60% wheat, 40% rye
10 g fresh yeast

Lightly mix all the ingredients into a dough, and leave to rest for two hours.

Step 2:
The dough from step 1
15 g salt
150 g grated apple
150 g toasted hazelnuts

Mix into the dough, and knead really well - at least ten minutes using a stand mixer, and longer by hand. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl or box, cover wth a lid or plastic, and leave to rise overnight in the fridge, for 12-16 hours.

Step 3:
Take the dough out of the fridge, and shape it. You can make one large free-form loaf, rolls, or simply bake it in a lightly oiled tin.

Leave to rise at room temperature for two hours.

Step 4:
Heat the oven to 250°C. Put your bread in, and lower the heat to 200°C. The time will vary depending on how large you made your bread, but check the inside with a thermometer. The bread should have a core temperature of 98°C. Let the bread cool completely before slicing.

Recipe in Swedish:
Surdeg med äpple och hasselnötter

Baked Apples with Agave Nectar

This simple, and fairly healthy apple dessert features two unusual products. Agave Nectar is a sweet syrup, derived from the agave plant (close relative to the one that yields tequila!) and while very sweet it doesn't raise your blood sugar. It also doesn't taste of much - just sweet.

Virgin plum oil, that I got sent to me from France, is intriguing. It tastes strongly of almonds, the same was as apricot kernels. Great alternative for those allergic to nuts, but craving the flavor. In this dessert - not essential. Swap it for a little butter, and perhaps a few drops of almond extract, if you have it.

Baked Apples with Agave

3 apples, cored and cut into wedges
2 tsp agave nectar
2 tsp virgin plum oil
1 tsk cinnamon
2 tbsp almonds, chopped

Mix all ingredients. Place in an oven-proof dish and bake at 200°C for 15 minutes or until the apples are soft. Serve with ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.

Recipes in Swedish:
Ugnsbakade äpplen med agave

Chicken, Bacon & Apple Wraps

Summer is the time for picnics. Or if not picnics, at least for eating outside. There are so many occasions when it's suitable to bring your own food, rather than resorting to often very meagre offerings - say, at the zoo, or the playground.

For those times, I want something portable, and something that doesn't require plates or cutlery. Sure, you can bring a salad, but that means you'll have to use disposable plates, or have to bring home dirty dishes. I rather not. So, this summer, I'm making wraps. These ones in particular - they are so delicious.

The combination of chicken, bacon and apple - with the addition of pine nuts - is just incredible. And you can definitely play with it - I'm thinking pears would be good rather than apples, and maybe exchange those pine nuts for walnuts... and maybe add some blue cheese instead of dijon mustard? Wouldn't that be good?

Wrap them in plastic or sandwich paper, and they'll keep for at least a day in the fridge. It's a good lunch to bring to work, too.

Chicken, Bacon & Apple Wraps
makes 8

8 wheat tortillas
200 g chicken, cooked
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp thick yogurt (Greek or Turkish style)
1 tsp sriracha sauce (or another spicy chilisauce)
1 tsp dijon mustard
30 g pine nuts
150 g bacon, diced
200 g apples, peeled and diced
70 g fresh spinach or arugula, well cleaned

Shred the chicken and mix with mayo, yogurt, sriraha and dijon mustard.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan, set aside.

Fry the bacon until crispy. Add the apples, and let them fry along for a few minutes, to soften a bit.

Divide the chicken salad in the middle of each tortilla. Top with bacon, apple, pine nuts and spinach, and roll into a tight wrap.

Recipe in Swedish:
Wraps med kyckling, bacon och äpple