[J.] While travelling around New Zealand, we were staying with a very lovely family in Wanaka, South Island. They hosted us for two nights and we had a blast preparing dinner with them: they were fun to be around, had interesting stories to share and were seriously digging into food. They shared their whole kitchen with us and well, husband made a lot of use of it. Preparing dinner or a meal together is something that I found to be one of the most rewarding activities when staying with local people and something over which it is easy to connect with people. Okay, I must admit that generally my cooking part reduces to chatting with everyone, sipping on one or more glasses of wine and maybe cutting some ingredients while everyone else actually is preparing the food. I am so not into cooking, but well... I love eating and especially, the social atmosphere when everyone is assembled in the kitchen, chatting about the world and its little stories. That also the reason why I love having a couch in the kitchen!
The second evening, our host prepared the dessert for dinner and they introduced us to what appears to be the most traditional cooking book in New Zealand: Edmonds' Cookery Book. We were told that this cooking book is THE cooking book one will find in every household of New Zealand:
A few days later, we were walking past a book store and I thought, well... let's check if our hosts were right when they said one will actually find this cooking book everywhere. And indeed! Saw the book, and tataah! - Bought it.
Now, there were two questions coming with this purchase:
A) What on earth do I want with a cooking book when I do not cook?
B) Why would I want to carry a book around for the next six months when quite likely I am not going to use it?
These were exactly the questions husband asked. I looked at him and said 'Well, you are right, but a) I simply wanna have it, and b) it will remind us of our trip around New Zealand forever!' So, the deal was that we take the book with us and I am going to bake sweet dishes on a regular basis. Sold!
Now, baking without any basic tools can be a bit of a challenge. But, there are still more then enough basic recipes in this book that do not require any electric tool (besides an oven and some basic oven-proof materials). This evening, I started off with baked apple dumplings (recipe as per Edmonds Cookery Book):
Ingredients for Baked Apple Dumplings (serving 4):
2.5 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
50g butter
1 cup milk
4 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Cut in butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add milk, mixing to a soft dough.
Divide dough into four portions. On a lightly floured board roll out each portion of dough to a 20cm square.
Place an apple onto each dough square. Dampen edges with water. Sprinkle each apple with 1 teaspoon of the measured sugar. Carefully wrap the dough around each apple. Place apples in a greased ovenproof dish.
Put water and remaining sugar into a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring constantly until sugar has dissolved. Pour this over apples.
Bake at 190 C for 45 minutes or until pastry is golden and apples are cooked.
And that's how the dumplings looked liked:
What I really liked about this recipe is that without having used any precise measurements the dumplings turned out to be totally yummy. They are like sweet bread with a sweet but fresh filling, something that I would call the perfect dessert for a cold day. Combine it with vanilla ice cream and you are in heaven.
Few notes:
1) It does not matter how the dough is wrapped around the apples, just wrap it.
2) Put the dumplings into a rather smaller but deeper dish.
3) I would say that one dumpling is easily filling one person for a meal, but then I might have used more flour and butter compared to what the recipe was indicating...
The second evening, our host prepared the dessert for dinner and they introduced us to what appears to be the most traditional cooking book in New Zealand: Edmonds' Cookery Book. We were told that this cooking book is THE cooking book one will find in every household of New Zealand:
A few days later, we were walking past a book store and I thought, well... let's check if our hosts were right when they said one will actually find this cooking book everywhere. And indeed! Saw the book, and tataah! - Bought it. Now, there were two questions coming with this purchase:
A) What on earth do I want with a cooking book when I do not cook?
B) Why would I want to carry a book around for the next six months when quite likely I am not going to use it?
These were exactly the questions husband asked. I looked at him and said 'Well, you are right, but a) I simply wanna have it, and b) it will remind us of our trip around New Zealand forever!' So, the deal was that we take the book with us and I am going to bake sweet dishes on a regular basis. Sold!
Now, baking without any basic tools can be a bit of a challenge. But, there are still more then enough basic recipes in this book that do not require any electric tool (besides an oven and some basic oven-proof materials). This evening, I started off with baked apple dumplings (recipe as per Edmonds Cookery Book):
Ingredients for Baked Apple Dumplings (serving 4):
2.5 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
50g butter
1 cup milk
4 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Cut in butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add milk, mixing to a soft dough.
Divide dough into four portions. On a lightly floured board roll out each portion of dough to a 20cm square.
Place an apple onto each dough square. Dampen edges with water. Sprinkle each apple with 1 teaspoon of the measured sugar. Carefully wrap the dough around each apple. Place apples in a greased ovenproof dish.
Put water and remaining sugar into a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring constantly until sugar has dissolved. Pour this over apples.
Bake at 190 C for 45 minutes or until pastry is golden and apples are cooked.
And that's how the dumplings looked liked:
 |
| Two apple dumplings fresh out of the oven :) |
Few notes:
1) It does not matter how the dough is wrapped around the apples, just wrap it.
2) Put the dumplings into a rather smaller but deeper dish.
3) I would say that one dumpling is easily filling one person for a meal, but then I might have used more flour and butter compared to what the recipe was indicating...
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