Apfelstrudel

A few days ago, I bought a package of puff pastry. Why? I have no idea. I just felt like baking 'something' and the puff pastry somehow ended up in my basket. Once I arrived home and had put away my groceries, I opened google and tried to figure out what I could make/bake with the puff pastry. In the end, I decided to go for Apfelstrudel. The recipe seemed easy enough and it's one of those things we usually buy instead of taking the time to make it. .

It's an easy recipe and the end result is quite tasty, even with a crappy oven like mine.

INGREDIENTS:    
[for 6 people]

- 1 package of puff pastry
- 5 apples (I only used 4 apples and this was more than enough)
- 90gr raisins (I don't particularly like raisins so I only used one little box (40gr))
- 1/2 lemon
- 1 tablespoon (20gr) flour
- 6 tablespoons (120gr) regular sugar
- 1 package (8gr) Vanilla Sugar
- 1 egg stirred with 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- powder sugar & ice cream

 What you need to do:

Preheat the oven: 220°C


1. Peel the apples (I used Granny Smith apples) and cut them into thin slices.
2. Put the apples in a bowl and 'sprinkle' them with the juice of 1/2 lemon. (less than 1/2 lemon if it's big one)
3. Stir the sugar, flour, vanilla sugar, raisins and cinnamon and mix all of this with the apples.
4. Unroll the puff pastry and put your apple-sugar-flour-raisin-cinnamon mixture in the middle (and spread over the length) of your puff pastry.
5. Fold one side of the puff pastry close (like you'd wrap a present) and use your egg-milk mixture as 'glue' by smearing it on the puff pastry. Fold the other side on top of it and then the sides as well. Make sure it's tight enough.
6. Turn your 'package' upside down so the nice side looks up. smear some more of your egg-milk mixture on the puff pastry and use a sharp knife to prick a few times (not too many) in the puff pastry. By doing this, the hot air will be able to escape (or so the recipe told me)
7. Put your Apfelstrudel in the oven (220°C) for 20 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 190°C for another 20 minutes.

Wait at least 20 minutes before you serve the Apfelstrudel! When serving the Apfelstrudel, you can sprinkle with powder sugar and add some vanilla ice cream.

 This is what the recipe 'promised':   

               

   

This is what mine looked like:

You can find the original recipe here (in Dutch)

The Nature Of Jade by Deb Caletti

The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Nature Of Jade by Deb Caletti is an interesting book to read. The characters aren’t shallow but deal with (some serious) problems. It was the first book I’ve read that dealt with Panic Disorder and I found it very interesting. The disorder isn’t new to me, but to actually read how Jade experiences it is definitely interesting. Then there’s Sebastian who has Bo and as Jade gets to know him (them) better, the reader finds out Sebastian has made some ‘bad’ choices but in the end, those choices also seem the best he could do. Sometimes people do stupid things but with the best of intentions and/or because they can’t see any different way to go about it. I think this is somewhat what The Nature Of Jade is all about.

The book holds a lot of info on animals (the quotes at the start of each chapter) and then especially on elephants. I don’t think I’ve ever read as much about elephants as I did while reading The Nature Of Jade, yet, all of it made sense and seemed to add to the story. I didn’t mind it at all.

Another bonus to this story is the writing style. I truly enjoyed reading this book, especially because of the words, the tone, the remarks. After Jade first talked to Sebastian, I found myself smiling so hard; Jade’s happiness felt so real and this is something to complement the author about. The emotions in the story were written in such a way that they felt absolutely real, something I definitely missed in some of the other books I’ve read lately.

Does The Nature Of Jade have things I don’t like? These are harder to find but I have yet to read a book that doesn’t contain anything I didn’t like. There’s always something, no matter how small. For this book, I’d have to say that I’m not entirely satisfied with the ending. The last part felt a little rushed and I wouldn’t have minded to read what happens after the plane lands. I don’t know, one more chapter would’ve made me really happy. But, this is only a very small part of the book – not an unimportant part, though.

Something else entirely, while reading, I came across many sentences I thought to be quote-worthy. I know for a fact that I’ll be reading this book again, if not only so I can find those quotes again and write them down.


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