Ginger-Honeyed Apple and Apricot Phyllo Crunch Pie.

This was the dessert I made for Father's Day - a riff on apple crisp and pie, tucked into crisp and buttery phyllo dough.

The original idea for this came from somehow finding two boxes of phyllo dough in the freezer but not having enough time to make baklava.  My dad loves apple crisp and apple pie so I wanted to do a more summery version of it - there's very little sugar here, no cinnamon (a typically fall and winter spice, although my favorite) and I added the apricots to keep things fresh and different.

Phyllo dough isn't hard to work with at all, just make sure to keep it covered with a damp paper towel or even just a piece of wax paper when you have it out on the counter and you'll be fine.  If the edges start to crisp up a little, just brush with a little water or some of the butter mixture you're using in between the layers of the pastry.

I found the recipe for the crunch/crisp while searching for inspiration on a site that happened to have the measurements in grams and ounces and if you don't have a kitchen scale, GET ONE!  I find that using grams and ounces is actually easier (not to mention more accurate) than using cups, you don't have to wash every single little individual measuring cup, you just tare and weigh everything into one bowl!  Kitchen scales are inexpensive and absolutely necessary for baking.

Ginger-Honeyed Apple and Apricot Phyllo Crunch Pie

Crunch/Crisp:
Adapted from this site
54g light brown sugar
50g granulated sugar
105g all-purpose flour
21g quick-cooking oatmeal
35g toasted walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick/4 ounces unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and have a cookie sheet next to you.  Measure all the ingredients except for the butter into a medium-sized bowl and mix them together.  Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter, a fork, or your fingertips until the butter resembles small peas.  Dump this mixture onto the cookie sheet and pack everything together lightly.  Bake until golden brown around the edges and on top, about 10-15 minutes.  Let cool completely, then break into small pieces and set aside.

Ginger-Honeyed Apples and Apricots:
4 large baking apples (I used Empire), peeled, cored and cut into large chunks
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
3 tablespoons honey
Pinch of kosher salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 cup dried apricots, cut into slivers

Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes before adding the apples, brown sugar, honey, and salt.  Don't stir the apples right away, let them get a nice browned exterior on one side and then after about 2-3 minutes, turn them to get the other sides caramelized as well.  Once the apples are cooked down, add in the ginger and dried apricots, remove from the heat and let cool.

For assembly:
8-12 sheets of phyllo dough
About 8 tablespoons melted butter or olive oil, or a combination of the two

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Brush the bottom and sides of a 9" tart (or pie) pan and begin layering the phyllo dough into the pan.  Gently press the sheets of dough onto the bottom and brush each layer with some of the melted butter and oil on top of each before placing the next one on top.  Use about 4 or 5 layers going one way (the long or short way), then 4 or 5 layers going the other way.  Crumble some of the crunch into the bottom of the layers, then scrape the apple mixture over, then more of the crunch.  Gather the phyllo dough from around the edges of the pan and scrunch them on top.  Place the pie on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, until it's golden brown.  I used the rest of the crunch and crumbled it on top halfway through the baking time for a decorative touch.

Let the pie cool slightly, then dig in!

Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake.

I'm starting to notice fall recipes include many of the same ingredients: apples, pumpkin, spices, oatmeal, etc.  I don't really get sick of the repeat ingredients as long as the final products are different from one another.  This isn't a typical apple cake with tons of oil or butter or nuts - it's very light yet still extremely comforting. 

This is an extremely quick and tasty coffee cake - I think it literally took 5 minutes to put together.  As with most recipes including cinnamon, I increased the amounts of it from the original recipe.  I cut the sugar down to 3/4 cup , used skim milk in place of the 1% called for, and the cake was still incredibly moist and delicious.  I think you can use whatever apple you have lying around, I used a Gala and it was perfect.  If you're looking for a simple and easy cake to throw an apple or two into, I highly recommend this one.

Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake
Adapted from Cooking Light
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 large apple, peeled and coarsely chopped

Streusel:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and grease an 8x8 baking dish.

Start by making the streusel: in a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon.  Add in the pieces of butter and create coarse crumbs. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  In a smaller bowl, combine the milk, butter, vanilla extract and the beaten egg until well combined.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until there are a few lumps left.  Add the chopped apple and stir until just mixed to combine.  Pour the batter into the greased pan and then sprinkle the streusel on top.

Bake the coffee cake for 30 minutes, checking for doneness after about 20 minutes.  A toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean when the cake is done.

Serve warm or let cool completely, cover, and store for up to 3 days.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies.

 It's a bit harder than I thought to get back into posting recipes after (my perfect) last week. HOWEVER, the recipes must go on. Everyone who eats these cookies (including my lovely houseguest from last week) falls in love with them and I suppose that should be enough inspiration for me anyway :)

These apple oatmeal cookies are the perfect taste of fall.  I used a combination of raisins and dried cranberries as my dried fruit, but feel free to use anything you'd like as well as any nut you'd like, although I do think the toasted walnuts were perefect.  Use any type apple you have lying around the kitchen, I didn't bother to peel mine and it didn't make a difference.  If anything, it added to the rustic texture.  I think this dough benefits from a bit of refrigeration but they'll still taste great if you bake them straight after making the dough as well.  I added multiple spices here but you can just keep things simple with cinnamon if you'd like.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from a Good Housekeeping recipe
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 medium apples, cored and diced
3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.  Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy and then add the vanilla extract and eggs, beating until well combined.  Add in the dry ingredients and mix until the flour is just absorbed.  Stir in the apples, oatmeal, dried fruit and nuts.

(Optional) Refrigerate the dough for a few hours before dropping by tablespoonful scoops onto the baking sheets and baking in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies and if you refrigerated the dough or not.  Keep an eye on them, they should be golden brown on the outside and just slightly wet in the middle.  These cookies will stay very soft because of the apples so a bit of goldenness is preferred.

Serve with coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon and milk before bed and be happy :)

Apple Spice Bread.

 Last week I definitely started baking in fall mode: apples, spices, golden toasty nuts.  Ironically I baked this on one of the warmest days of September (it went up to almost 80 degrees) but it still made my house smell like autumn.  This is a really fast and easy quick bread and it keeps well so if you don't eat it all within a couple of days, it's not a big deal.  My sister's boyfriend had two slices toasted in some butter three days after I made it and I heard no complaints :)

I used toasted walnuts instead of the pecans that the recipe calls for and I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top before baking.  This is a bread you can have some flexibility with as far as the spices go if you'd like - I stuck with the spices listed but I almost always increase the amount of cinnamon because I can't get enough of the stuff.  (If you're looking for more traditional "fall" spices, think cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, etc.)

Apple Spice Bread
Adapted from Baking Bites
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 apples, shredded on the large holes on a grater
3/4 cup toasted, chopped walnuts (or pecans)

Preheat the oven to 350 degress F. and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Sift or whisk together the dry ingredients.  Combine the butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla until well mixed.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until almost combined.  Add the apples and chopped nuts and stir until just mixed together.

Pour into the greased loaf pan and bake for an hour to an hour and 15 minutes.  The bread will be done when a long skewer or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool for a few minutes in the pan and then invert onto a rack to finish cooling completely.  

More apples, apples, apples.

Sometimes after a week of many hours at work, you just feel like doing some cozy things in the kitchen. Obviously one of my favourite things to do is read cookbooks so as I was going through one of the best - Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax. I first came across a picture for Polish Apple Tart, which was lovely and gorgeous. So I flipped to the recipe to find that it seemed rather feasible for 9 PM on a Saturday night. So here it is. This pastry is not flaky, but it's delicious and supports the chunky apple puree very nicely.



Szarlotka (Polish Apple Tart), recipe adapted from Richard Sax's Classic Home Desserts

Dough:
1 2/3 cup AP flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
2 tablespoons butter melted or oil
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, and then make a well in the middle of them. Combine the egg, butter or oil, milk and vanilla into a small bowl and then pour this into the dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until a soft dough comes together. Refrigerate this for at least an hour.

Filling:
6 large apples - I used all McIntosh and it turned out just lovely. I think you could use any nice cooking apple here or as the author suggests, 3 McIntosh and 3 Granny Smiths. So balance tart and sweet apples.
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (not called for originally but I figured what could it hurt? ;)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spices - I used 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ginger

Place the apples and butter in a large saute pan over medium heat, and cover until the apples start to sizzle. Then increase the heat slightly and stirring frequently, cook the apples until they are very tender, about 20 minutes. Add the sugar and spices and then smoosh the apples with the back of the spoon. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch tart pan and pat about 2/3 of the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Spread the filling over the dough.

Using either parchment or wax paper, place the dough on a floured surface and pat it out until about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Cut 3/4 inch wide strips and carefully lift the strips of dough with a spatula and arrange them in a lattice pattern on top of the filling.

If you want, you can sprinkle the tart with some granulated sugar and then pop it into the oven to bake for about 45 to 50 minutes, until the dough is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar before serving.

Fantastic with coffeeeee.

Apples and fall-ish things.

I really don't like fall. I can get into all the other seasons. Winter I have Christmas, the holidays, my birthday to look forward to. Spring is great because the snow will eventually melt and it gets warmer and everything becomes green again. Summer. Glorious summer. It is my favourite. So obviously when fall rolls around it feels like the death of the best season, you know? There are too many changes in September and I've always hated it.

Apple picking, hay rides, pumpkins, Halloween, apple cider. None of these things are very nostalgic for me or bring me much joy I have to say. But sometimes I do feel like the people I live with deserve to have these things that they themselves might enjoy. And also we have a crap load of McIntosh apples sitting on the counter and no one is eating them because it's still kind of warm out at the moment. Plus this is one of the few apple recipes I found not using Granny Smiths. I mean, yes I'm a baker but who actually keeps Granny Smiths around for eating? They don't because they're not meant to be eaten. I only buy them when I'm making apple pie.

Anyway, I promise this will be the last recipe from Carole Walter's Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More. Well I can't promise anything because sometimes on Saturday nights I have a desire for something with a buttery crumb topping and this is the book I immediately go to. But hopefully I'll be doing more of a variety of baked goods now that the heat won't prevent me from baking. Maybe.

Just a note this recipe originally called for a different crumb topping, something called "country crumb topping" which included whole wheat flour, oatmeal and things that sounded good and fine but much too much for my sleepy brain to think about when all I wanted were buttery crumbs. Therefore I went for the rustic maple pecan streusel on the page next to it. Much more my thing anyway :D

Apple Muffins with Maple Pecan Streusel
Recipes from Carole Walter's Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More
(Both these recipes originally call for dark brown sugar. I would have used it if I had it but light brown worked just fine in both cases.)

Streusel (make this first):
7 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
1 1/4 cups AP flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
(I added 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped a bit

Place the butter in a small saucepan and heat until almost melted and add the extract. Set it aside and let the rest of it melt and cool down a bit. Add the other ingredients and stir with a fork until crumbs form. Set aside until you need it for the muffins.



Muffin batter:
3 medium McIntosh apples (about a pound) peeled, cored, and chopped into small pieces
1 3/4 cup AP flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped

Originally the recipe says you can peel and core the apples and then chop them in the food processor. If you're that lazy, go for it. But I am never opposed to a little chopping with a chef's knife and in this case it makes no difference whatsoever.

So anyway, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, paper some muffin cups (this made 18 for me, the recipe says 16 though) and sift the dry ingredients together and set them aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs until they're lighter in colour on medium high speed, about 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar and whisk again for another minute. Add the honey and the vanilla and then combine the butter and oil. Now you want to add this to the eggs and basically emulsify the situation, so drizzle them in very slowly, making it take about a minute. Add the apples, raisins and pecans, stir and then add the dry ingredients all at once and stir until combined.

Portion the batter out into the cups. It can really go almost to the top and it won't overflow, promise. Then crumble the streusel on top. Each muffin can get a generous amount. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the pans for even browning halfway through.

Let cool or don't and enjoy. These are good enough that I forget it's fall anyway.

The magic of streusel AKA crumb toppings.

I don't really plan to make things that have similar attributes at the same time, it just happens. For instance this past week I received the book Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More by Carole Walter from Amazon so that I would never run out of ideas for brunch on Sundays. I decided early Saturday to make one of the first recipes in the book, Butter Crumb Coffee Cake. Looked easy, sounded delicious, and the streusel recipe was intense. I mean, there was a TON of it. And I LOVE streusel, any crumb topping.

Then I remembered about these apples that have been sitting on my counter for a week and a half. I promised myself I'd use them for Easter and never got around to it, so I knew they were almost past their prime, and I'd better use them sooner rather than later. Looked in the fridge, saw a couple packages of cream cheese and then thought "apple cheesecake!" A bit of Googling and I found myself a nice recipe for apple cheesecake bars - that just happened to include a nice recipe for streusel on top. I followed the recipe to a T, except I substituted Tom Sawyer's Gluten-Free Flour for the all-purpose flour called for in the recipe and omitted the oats in the topping (my brother's fiance is a Celiac, her mother wanted me to try this flour. IT IS GREAT! For anyone with wheat intolerance. Try it out for sure.)

Anyhoo, blah blah. Here are the recipes!

Butter Crumb Coffee Cake adapted from Carole Walter's Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More



Streusel:
2/3 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups AP flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Put the butter in a heavy saucepan and heat until almost melted. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a small bowl, and add this to the butter and stir until the mixture forms large crumbs. At this point I put the whole pot in the fridge until the batter was ready.

Batter:
2 cups AP flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes and softened
1 large egg
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and spray a 10-inch springform pan with baking spray or line the bottom with parchment paper and generously butter the sides and bottom.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and cut it in until the mixture has a very fine crumb texture. In a small bowl combine the egg, milk and vanilla and then add this to the butter/flour mixture, and stir until it is thick and well combined, about 1 minute.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top out. Then take your streusel out of the fridge and make big clumps of it in your hand, then crumble it on top of the batter, scattering it evenly over the entire thing.

Bake in the preheated oven until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool completely, then take the ring off the springform pan and serve! I like to keep this under a cake dome, seems to stay fresher that way.



Apple Cheesecake Bars found on this blog and modified slightly.

Crust:
2 cups AP (or gluten-free) flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar (I used dark brown mm)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.

Combine the flour and sugar until there are no more lumps of sugar left. Add the butter and mix until the butter is nicely distributed throughout. Press this into the bottom of the pan. Bake until it is golden, about 15 minutes.

Streusel:
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (again I used dark brown)
1 cup AP (or gluten-free) flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

Combine the sugar and flour, and then cut in the butter until coarse crumbs form. Set aside.

Apples:
4 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger (I added this)

Stir the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger together, then pour over the apples and stir well to combine.

Cheesecake Batter:
2 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons Amaretto (or 1 teaspoon vanilla)

Beat the cream cheese and sugar until lump-free. Add the eggs one at a time, and then the Amaretto or extract and beat on low speed until everything is incorporated.

When the crust is out of the oven, pour the cheesecake batter on top, smoothing to the edges. Then top with the apples, and then finally, the streusel. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cheesecake batter looks set. Chill thoroughly, cut into bars, and enjoy!

Dutch Apple Tarts or Using What's In The Freezer.

This past Thanksgiving, for some reason I wish I could remember, I made extra pie/tart dough and so I rolled it out and put it into mini tart pans and froze them.



They've been taking up a lot of room in there for 2, 3 months whatever now and it can be a pain to look for that bacon or pound of butter you KNOW is in there but you can't find it because of all the other crap involved. My mom found this recipe for Dutch apple crisp on a box of Wegmans pie dough (store-bought pie dough - gross) and it sounded delicious and a great way to get those tart shells out of the freezer. Plus anything with a crumble topping gets extra points from me.

This original recipe is for 1 9-inch pie. Obviously I used 7 small ones. I don't think it really matters too much in the case of apple pie, since the apples tend to get soft and smoosh down a bit while they bake. I packed the apples pretty heavily into these, and it was perfect. If I made these again I might double the crumble recipe and really pack that on top, but these were great with the amount of crumble it calls for. Here I'll give the recipe for the regular 9-inch pie, since I'm assuming most normal people don't randomly have some tart shells stocked in the back of the deep-freeze.

Dutch Apple Crisp adapted from a Wegmans recipe on a box of pie dough.

1 pie crust (homemade, store-bought, whatever I don't care. Whatever is easier for you, really. But I'm a huge stickler for homemade. It's just so much better. Alright moving on.)

Apple mixture:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (originally called for 1/4 teaspoon, I bumped it up)
Pinch of salt

6 medium-sized Granny Smith apples



Crumble topping:
1 cup AP flour
1 stick slightly cold butter, cut into small chunks
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Prepare the pie crust, and line a 9-inch pan with it, then place this on a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Blend the sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl.

Peel, core, and slice the apples thinly. I actually cut my apples into quarters like this so they'd fit more into the tart shells:



Then pour the dry sugar-spice mixture on top of the apples in a large bowl and toss them well to combine everything. Let this sit while you make the crumble topping.

Cut the butter into the flour and brown sugar in a medium-sized bowl until the mixture looks something like this:



Then pour the apples into the pie crust, and top with the crumbles, packing lightly to make them not fall off while baking.



Bake for about an hour, or until it gets golden brown on top and the apple mixture is nice and bubbly.

Wait for it to cool off for a while and then dig in. I bet it'd be out of this world with some homemade vanilla ice cream - you know - the kind with real vanilla seeds in it? Yum.

Comfort in Sundays.

A quick introduction: I wanted a place to record what I bake or cook, the events and things that inspire them, and the photography I take as the end result or process of doing it. So this is it. Hope you enjoy.
Every Sunday I don't work, I like to make my family brunch. I've done this for about 4 or 5 years now and I it's a nice tradition, and I hope to continue it until I move out. I grew up being dragged to Sunday morning mass (raised Catholic. not a Catholic now.) and sometimes the only thing that got me through was looking forward to my dad's omelettes, bacon, waffles, freshly brewed coffee, egg's Benedict. I've long since decided to stop going to church, but I have not stopped enjoying these things.

So to start this blog off the right way, a recipe I made for brunch this week from one of my all-time favourite cookbooks: apple kuchen. I like to think of this as a sweet focaccia almost. I had many apples to use up so I doubled this recipe and I changed the method a bit from what's in the cookbook itself, but it all ends up being about the same result anyway. If you're a fan of yeast breads, give this one a try.

Apple Kuchen
Recipe adapted/changed from Nigella Lawson's "How To Be A Domestic Goddess"

Dough:
2 1/4 to 3 cups bread flour (I used AP, it's fine)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 package rapid-rise yeast
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon (original calls for nutmeg and lemon zest. didn't have any lemons, I like cinnamon better)
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
1/4 cup softened unsalted butter

Topping:
2 apples
1 large egg
1 tablespoon cream
Nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, whatever spice you like with apples
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon demerara or turbinado sugar
2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Icing:
1/2 cup icing sugar (confectioner's)
1 tablespoon hot water

To make the dough, put 2 1/2 cups of flour in a mixing bowl with salt, sugar and yeast. Beat the eggs and add the vanilla, (zest, nutmeg) cinnamon to the lukewarm milk and then add these to the flour mixture. Mix until a soft dough forms, probably adding about 3/4 to 1 cup more of flour, and then add in the butter and knead until it feels smoother and glutenous. Cover with a clean towel or greased plastic wrap and let rise until it's doubled in size, or in the refrigerator overnight.

Punch down the dough and place it in a greased 9x13-inch baking pan. It won't stretch all the way to the edges at first, so let it rest and then try again in a few minutes until it's almost stretched to the whole pan. Then let it rise for about 15 to 20 minutes, until it has occupied all the edges.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Peel, core and chop the apples. Stir together the egg and cream, and brush this over the dough. Then combine the sugars, spice(s) and almonds and toss with the chopped apples and then place these on top of the dough in the pan.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 and bake until it's nice and golden brown on top, about another 15 minutes or so. Then combine the icing sugar and water, and drizzle over.

Enjoy with a nice cup of coffee or tea and read the Sunday paper until 1 o' clock in the afternoon.