German Apple Strudel Recipe

We invited our friends and family to our house for dinner almost every other month the first half of 2011.  And each time, we tried to make the dinner to a themed dinner.  Asian, Italian, Mexican, Germany, BBQ...Unfortunately, we have been so busy lately, and stopped gathering at our house for this themed dinner thingy. 

On our German themed dinner, I made this German apple strudel.  As always, I used few different recipes I found online and made some adjustments to turn to my own (kind of). 

Ingredients

5 Fuji apples (or Granny Smith apples), peeled, cored, halved, and diced

1/2 cup raisins

rums

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed, plus more for sprinkling

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon of nutmeg

1 box phyllo dough, thawed (I didn't use the whole box though)

2 to 4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces or PAM, melted, plus more for brushing

powder sugar (optional)

Instruction

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Dice your apple evenly. 

3.     And soak your rasins in rum in a microwave safe container.  And heat it for 40 seconds and let it sit for about a minute before draining out the alcohol.

4.     Now mix the apples and the raisins together in a big bowl, add brown sugar, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon together. 

5.     Set the dough out on the counter, with box still closed, for 1-2 hours to get the dough to room temperature.Open your ready to bake phyllo dough very carefully.  Prepare a clean wet towel because you need to wrap the remaining ones with the towel while you are working on the sheet.  They dry up very quickly, so work fast!



6.     On a large cutting board or counter top, open the box of the dough, and slowly and carefully unroll the package.  Carefully and GENTLY brush the sheet with melted butter or SPAM (I highly recommend PAM for first timer, it's much easier to work with on the sheets). Please try not to tear the dough.  Repeat the same process, until you get 5-6 layers.  When you get to the last layer, fill in with the mixture of the apples and rasins.  

PS: In between each layer, sprinkle some brown sugar.  The brown sugar would make the dough more flavorful and the texture will be crispier. 

 

7.     Bake in the preheat oven for approximately 45mins or until golden brown outside.

Done and sprinkle with powder sugar while you serve!



Cupcake Soap Recipe

Couple weeks ago, I made some unbaked realistic fake cupcakes with plaster of Paris.  Few nights ago, I made some cupcake soaps.  It's actually harder than I had expected.  I am not a regular soap maker; therefore, I only bought very limited materials to make my cupcake soaps.  If you are interested to make some at home, here are the materials you need:

• A package/box of ready to microwave soap (I bought a 16 oz one from Michael's.  Original price was 9.99, but I got a 40% coupon from them.  It saved me few bucks.)
• Soap colors (I bought a package of red, yellow and blue).  You will need two different colors, one is for the "cake" and one is for the "frosting".  (from any craft store)
• Fragrance oil (I bought vanilla one because I want my soap to look and smell like a real cupcake.) (from any craft store)
• Silicon cupcake cups (from any craft store, Target, Walmart or baking supply store)

These are all the materials you need for making a cupcake soap.

First step, melting about 6 oz soap in the microwave for about 2 mins.

The soap will turn to be liquid, now add the fragrance and put color in and mix them well.

After mixing, pour the soap mix into a cup.  Let it cool down for about 25 mins in room temperature.
Or you could put it in the fridge to speed up the process (about 10-15 mins).

After 20-25 mins, you could pull the soap out from the mold.

Now it's time to make the "frosting".  Same process of first step, just add different color. 

It's the most complicated part - you need to put 4-5 pumps of gel soap and maybe half tablespoon of water.  Then whisk it with your hand mixer or stand mixer for about 3 mins.  

Using your mixer to whisk for 3 mins. 

After 3 mins, you start seeing a peak on your whisk attachment.  It means that it's ready to frost.

You could either use a Ziplock bag to frost
or using a frosting bag with tip to make your "cupcake" fancier.

I have some flowers and beads handy, I added some for decoration.

Done!  They make good decoration on my cake stand.
Also, they make great Christmas gift and party favors.

Tips:

1. Making the frosting is the hardest part.  When you whisk it, the temperature of the soap goes down very quickly.  You need to be fast to frost your cupcake once you see the peak on your whisk attachment.
2. One good thing about making the soap is if you messed up the frosting on your cake, you could just peel the frosting off from the cake, and re-do it again.
3. If the frosting dried up before you finish frosting, put it in the microwave to reheat it and whisk it again.
4. This is my first time, I am sure next time I will make it a little faster and better and less messy.  It's very hard to do the frosting.  I really need to get the technique and skill down.