Meal Substitution - Homemade Juice with Apples, Kale and Ginger

The amazingly nutritional juice I present to you today may sound disgusting but it's in fact one of the best ones I've ever made!

Ingredients for one person:

2 large sweet apples (like honey crisps)

4 stacks of celery

A handful of kale

1inch pealed ginger root

Cut everything up and put it through the juicer. The result should be a light green, sweet juice with an after taste of ginger. 

If this doesn't come out sweet enough you can add either 2 carrots or half a mango or 1 plum or some grapes, the color will change. 

Enjoy!

Valentina

RealItalianKitchen

Fall Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Syllabub topping

Yes, yes, I know cupcakes are not an italian dish, but my friend Robyn Muse makes the most amazing ones and I just had to learn how to make them! Here is the full list of ingredients.

For 24 cupcakes:
2 1/2 cup flour with 2 tsp baking powder
1 stick of butter (8 tbsp)
2 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 large Gala apples
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 cup butter milk





For the Syllabub
4 tbsp caster sugar (normal sugar will also work)
1tbsp Calvados (I did a variation with Gran Marnier and it turned out delicious)
1/2 cup apple cider or the juice of the apples used for the cupcakes
300 ml heavy cream
the juice of one lemon
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

For the step by step instructions you can watch the video recipe here

CUPCAKES
1. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger).
2. In a separate container cream the butter with a hand whip
3. Add the sugar, the eggs, the flour slowly and mindfully on at the time
4. Grate the apples with a cheese grater and with the help of a pinch of salt squeeze all the juice out of them. We don't want too much moister in the batter because that would make it soggy. Keep the juice, we'll use it for the topping. Add 4 cups of the squeezed grated apples.
5. Put the cupcakes cups in the cupcakes tin and 3 tbsp of batter in each one of them.
6. Place in medium/low rack in the oven set to 350 F/180 C for about 20 minutes.

SYLLABUB
1. Mix all the ingredients together except for the heavy cream and whisk till sugar is dissolved.
2. Add the heavy cream and start whipping it until the cream is dense and firm
3. Place in the fridge and let it cool for about 30 minutes.

LET'S PUT THEM TOGETHER! 
Once the cupcakes are cold you can top them with the Syllabub. If it seems like it's too liquid, put the cupcakes with the syllabub topping in the fridge for another 10 minutes. With a flat knife make some ripples in the syllabub (watch the video for a better sense on how to do this).

Decorate with cinnamon powder, cinnamon sticks and your choice of sugar sprinkles!

Enjoy!
Valentina
RealItalianKitchen

Pumpkin Pie made by an Italian -

Here it is! My first attempt to Pumpkin Pie! Not to shabby for an Italian, uh?

My american fiancee' says it's good, some corrections to be made in the future, but good starting point!

I made it 100% from scratch, I used a fresh pumpkin, not the canned one, I made my own pie crust.

I got the recipe from http://www.pickyourown.org and made some corrections

FOR THE PIE CRUST

1.5 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/6 cup cold margarin, or vegetable shortening, or vegetable oil, or coconut oil.
1/3 cup cold butter
some cold water to help holding all of the above together.

Very simple: mix all of the above with your hands or a food processor into a smooth pie dough ball. Let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before putting it in the oven.

FOR THE PIE FILLING

1large pumpkin or large butternut squash. To prepare it for the use slice it in half, get rid of the seeds inside it LEAVE THE SHELL ON and throw it in the oven for 30 minutes till cooked and mushy. Once done remove the shell (now it comes off almost by itself) and work it in the food processor until you have a smooth orange cream.

You'll need 3 cups of this wonderful orange cream
3/4 cup sugar
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I didn't have it, didn't use it)
1/2 tsp salt
4 large eggs (or 3 extra large ones)
12 oz of evaporated milk. I didn't find this so instead I used 1 cup of dried non fat milk and added 1 cup of water to it. Mix it well and you'll get the same results as with evaporated milk. If that's not 12 oz add a little more then 1 cup.

STEP BY STEP

1. Flatten the pie dough with a rolling pin and put it in a 10 inch pie pan. It's better to have a glass pie pan but if you're using an aluminum one like I did just be careful about step number 3.
Adjust the dough in the pan and make cute little ripple on the edges.

2. Mix all the ingredients for the pie filling and whisk till there are no lumps.
It's going to be very liquid, it's ok, it will solidify in the oven.

3. Pour the mix in the pie crust. If you're using an aluminum pie pan put the pan on the oven rack first, then pour the mix. I didn't do this and my filling SPILLED everywhere when I tried to move the flimsy pie pan filled with liquid to the oven, and made a mess, of course, I'm not surprised.

4. Bake for the first 15min at 425 F and for the remaining 45 at 350 F. If the crust gets to dark you can cover it with aluminum foil or a crust shield (I cut mine out from a piece of aluminum foil), you can buy a professional one, clic on the image at the end of the page to buy one.

5. Let the pie cool down for at least 1h before cutting into it. It's supposed to be served at room temperature or cold, with a little scoop of whipped cream on top!




Enjoy!

Valentina
RealItalianKitchen







P.S: Like every dish in the american tradition this is as heavy as a brick: don't eat too much or it WILL make you sick (I speak from personal experience...)!!!