winter | milkandbun

Baked apples with walnuts and cowberries

Hi there! It’s been windy, dark and gloomy all day here in Dubai today. The weather intends to spend a day in the kitchen and bake something warm, aromatic and tasty. And I found a deliciously satisfying dish to cheer this day up! Sweet-smelling baked apples with super tasty filling: walnuts and cowberries! Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? The cozy smell of cinnamon and brown sugar was filling my kitchen while apples were baked.. It’s so easy to turn regular apples into a fabulous warm dessert! Enjoy!

Cowberry (also known as lingonberry) is a very tasty, slightly bitter and sour berry; it contains lots of vitamin C, A and B. It’s a popular type of berry in my home-country (Russia), and as far as I know in Sweden and Norway. Their taste remind small sour cranberries, so you can easily substitute it with cranberries (fresh or frozen).

Baked apples with walnuts and cowberries

Servings: 2
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: moderate
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*You can add more sugar to suit your taste.

**I dry-roast walnuts, then chop it or pulse in a food processor.

Ingredients

2 large apples (sort ‘pink lady’ or ‘granny smith’ are good)

20g/2 tsp butter

3 tsp brown sugar*

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 quail egg, optional

5-6 tsp finely chopped walnuts**

3-4 tsp cowberries (if using frozen-no need to defreeze)

1/2 tsp of cinnamon, for garnish

2-3 tsp pure runny honey, for serving

some extra walnuts and cowberries, for serving

Cut the lid from apples, carefully cut out the core and make a hole in each apple leaving the bottom.
In a bowl, stir sugar and cinnamon with butter. Mix in the egg. Fold in chopped walnuts and berries.
Put apples in baking dish/tray and stuff each apple with filling mixture. Cover with apple lids. Pour some warm water into the bottom of the baking dish (1 cm). Loosely cover with foil.
Bake in preheated 200C oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes more, or until apples are tender but not mushy.
Carefully transfer to a serving plate, sprinkle with cinnamon, drizzle with honey and garnish with some walnuts and cowberries, if desired.
Enjoy!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, guys! It’s the very first day of the year, and it’s -13C/9F and snowing in Russia currently. What does your family do every New Year eve? Do you have any memorable tradition? Every family celebrates holidays in their own way. The New Year Eve is a very important holiday in Russia, it’s time when all family members gather together, bring salads and sweets, cook pork or roast goose, socialise and discussing passing year, watch music tv-shows and exchange presents.

From the Soviet time Christmas wasn’t widely celebrated and most of the religious traditions, which are common for the Western people took their place on the New Year Eve. And so it is every since.

Traditionally all the best foods and treats were set on the festive table, the most popular salads still shuba and oliver (will post soon). Cold cuts, salted mushrooms and pickled cucumbers are also served. The dessert can be any cake or chocolates, and every home is full of mandarine aroma.

By one tradition, we open a bottle of champagne sharp at twelve midnight and make a wish. 🙂

By another tradition, Grandpa Frost (Santa Claus) and his granddaughter Snow-maiden come to children and they should tell festival poems and songs, and children receive gifts in return.