I didn’t make the very intriguing rosemary whipped cream Adam suggests, which I will probably try another time, but opted for ice cream instead.

Since both Costas and I love the caramel base of the Apple and Quince Crumble I make often, I decided to repeat something similar here.

Needless to say, that I substituted again light olive oil for the butter in the original recipe, as I do all the time, and the result was absolutely great! Note that this cornbread/cake, unlike most other cakes, is best slightly warm, the day it is baked.

Serves 8: a 10-inch (26cm) skillet.

THE APPLE BASE:

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/3 cup light olive oil, canola or sunflower oil

2 Apples halved, cored, and thinly sliced; I used Fuji.

FOR THE CORNBREAD/CAKE

1 cup All-Purpose flour

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar, plus 2-3 tablespoons Turbinado or any light brown sugar for sprinkling

2/3 cup light olive oil, canola or sunflower oil

2/3 cup full-fat yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 ½ cup coarsely chopped fresh strawberries

Vanilla Ice Cream for serving (optional)

Place the skillet over medium-high heat and add the sugar and water. Swirl the skillet as it bubbles and gradually starts to color. When it is light amber add the olive oil, swirl the pan and spread the apple slices carefully, as they may splatter. Press with a wooden spoon and lower the heat. Simmer and don’t mind if some hard sugary pieces form; they will dissolve later as the cake bakes in the oven. When the apple slices have soften, after about 4-5 minutes, remove the skillet from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).

Make the cornbread/cake: Whisk together flour, cornmeal, salt and baking powder in a small bowl until combined and set aside. 

In the bowl of a standing mixer, add the sugar and the eggs and work in slow to start with and increase the speed after 2 minutes; keep beating until light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can use a hand-held mixer.

In a small bowl whisk the oil with the yogurt and add it to the egg mixture working on medium. Add the vanilla and gradually add the flours, continuing to beat in low, until completely incorporated. You will probably need to stop and scrape the sides of the bowl with a flexible spatula to make sure all flour is mixed in.

Pour the batter over the apples and carefully spread it with the spatula. Scatter the strawberries on the batter and sprinkle with the light brown sugar.

Bake for about 40 minutes or more, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 20 minutes before cutting to serve, accompanying with ice cream, if you like.

This cornbread/cake, unlike most other cakes, is best slightly warm, the day it is baked, but you can wrap the leftover in kitchen film and enjoy it the next day as well.

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Served with or without ice cream, this is a seriously addictive dessert.

SERVES 8 – 10 

The CARAMEL

4 tablespoons/58 grams light olive oil

¾ cups/175 grams granulated sugar

4 ounces (120 grams) soft cream cheese (see NOTE)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½  teaspoon salt (see NOTE)

THE FRUIT

1 small quince, halved, seeded and cut into 1 -inch chunks

5 medium apples, about 1 kilo, 2 green, the rest red—somewhat sweet—each seeded and cut into 1 ½ -inch pieces

½ cup crystalized ginger, minced

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon cinnamon

The TOPPING

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup whole-wheat breadcrumbs

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¾ cup blond or brown sugar

Zest from 1 lemon

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (120 grams) walnuts, coarsely chopped

½ cup light olive oil

½ cup orange juice

Vanilla Ice Cream, optional for serving

Heat the oven to 375F (180C)

Prepare the caramel: Add 2 tablespoons water and the oil to a 12-inch oven-safe skillet with high sides. Sprinkle the sugar in an even layer over the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat to medium-high. Cook the sugar without stirring until bubbles start to appear. Now swirl the pan very carefully to help the sugar brown evenly. Once the caramel is dark amber, after about 6 minutes or a bit more, remove from the heat.

Let the mixture cool for 1 minute and then add the cream cheese, stirring until fully combined (the mixture will bubble rapidly). Add the vanilla and the salt.

Prepare the fruit: In a large bowl, toss together the quince, apples and ginger, lemon juice, cornstarch, and cinnamon.

Make the topping: In a medium bowl, combine the oats, breadcrumbs, walnuts, brown sugar, lemon zest, and salt. Add the olive oil and orange juice and toss together until all the dry ingredients are evenly moistened.

Add the fruit to the caramel in the skillet and toss to combine. Sprinkle evenly with the topping.  

Bake until the caramel is bubbling in the center, the fruit is tender, and the topping is browned, 35 to 40 minutes.

Let cool slightly before serving.

NOTE:

Instead of the usual, imported, generic cream cheese, I like to make this crumble with our local cream cheese or fresh myzithra, which is much more flavorful, and somewhat salty, so I omit adding extra salt.   

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The fruit don’t look like much, but they taste wonderful. I wish we had more…

You can use plums instead of the damsons, but choose small, not large an juicy because they would collapse in the sugar.

This cake is basically another riff on the Apple or Quince Charlotka, the light and easy fruit cake both Costas and I love!  As I posted this recipe I received the Newsletter from Dorie Greenspan with the recipe for a Parisian  upside-down plum cake. Maybe you would like to try that one too…

For a 10-inch round cake –or equivalent square

1 ¼ cup sugar

About 1 ½ pounds fruit: 8-10 damson or plums, halved, stones removed, and 4-5 small pears washed, halved to remove the pips, and thinly sliced (do not peel)

1 cup coarsely ground walnuts

2/3 cup ground cookies –I used my Grape Must Cookies, but any kind of cookies or Graham Crackers will do

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or kosher salt)

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

1 cup all-purpose flour

Caramelize the damsons: Heat on medium-high a deep, 10-11-inch non-stick skillet that can go into the oven adding 5 tablespoons sugar. Gently move the skillet as the sugar melts or stir with a spatula until the sugar caramelizes. Be careful not to let it get dark. Remove from the heat and wearing gloves and working fast lay the damsons, cut-side-down on the caramelized sugar –they don’t need to be perfectly arranged. Place again the skillet over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, or until they start to sizzle. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Place the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350F degrees (180 C).

Make the batter: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, beat the eggs, the rest of the sugar and salt on medium-high speed until thick and pale yellow, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Gradually add the flour into the egg mixture, and gently fold with a spatula until just combined and no flour streaks remain. The batter will be quite thick. Fold in the sliced pears.

Spread the walnuts and the ground cookies over the caramelized damsons, then pour the batter over the fruit in the skillet and use an offset spatula to spread it evenly.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out almost clean and the top of the cake is golden brown.

Let cool in the pan for about 10-15 minutes, then gently run a knife around the perimeter to loosen and very carefully, wearing gloves,  invert the pan on a platter and let cool completely before cutting to serve.

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My mother used to bake a cake similar to this during Lent. We were not so religious as to follow the rules of the Church, which prohibited eating any food derived from animals during the forty days before Christmas and before Easter (and on many other occasions). We were simply continuing a family tradition which dictated that various foods or sweets should be made at a particular time of year.

The caramelized ginger, my recent addition to the recipe, enhances the rich flavor of this cake that has a dense texture, somewhat like an English fruitcake. 

Makes one 12 X 5 inch (30 X 12cm) cake

3 1/2     cups all-purpose flour

4   Tablespoons corn starch       

1    tablespoon baking powder

Pinch of salt             

1 1/2            teaspoons ground cinnamon     

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1     tablespoon grated orange zest

1/2 – 2/3  cup sugar –depending on how sweet you like your cakes

1     cup light olive oil, or a mixture of olive and safflower oil

1  teaspoon baking soda

1/2  cup brandy       

1  2/3    cups freshly squeezed orange juice         

1/2 cup golden raisins

10-12  dried apricots, chopped, about 2/3 cup         

1/2 cup  chopped crystalized ginger 

2/3 cup   coarsely chopped unsalted pistachios                         

Confectioners’ sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180 C).

Line the deep loaf pan with parchment paper and lightly oil it. This will make removing the fragile cake from the pan easier.

Toss together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves in a large bowl.

Stir the sugar with the orange zest, rubbing with your fingers to mix and release the orge flavor. In a medium bowl, whisk the oil and sugar until well combined.

In a cup stir the baking soda with the brandy and add it to the oil-sugar mixture. 

Make a well in the flour mixture and stir in the oil and sugar, as well as the orange juice, stirring  just until smooth. Add the dried fruits and nuts and stir just until evenly distributed.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for ONE hour or more, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out almost clean.

Transfer to a rack and let cool 10 minutes before carfully removing from the pan, lifting the parchment paper. Let the cake cool completely before cutting, and better show restrain and only cut after a few hours, or the next day…

If you like, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Slice and serve.

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This year, though, we managed to harvest quite a few bunches to fill two large baskets. But our grapes are what the locals call ‘krasostafyla’ (wine-grapes), sweet but filled with seeds and quite difficult to swallow.

Early this August, as we finished harvesting the almonds, we noticed quite a few nice bunches of grapes hanging from the old, robust vines that engulf the southern fence of our property, behind the lemon trees.  From these vines we mainly gather the tender grape leaves early in May, to stuff and make our trademark dolmades.

Usually the grapes our vines produce hardly manage to ripen; wasps and all kinds of insects attack them as soon as they start to blush. Come harvest time, we just find a few bunches of rotten, half-eaten grapes which are sweet but filled with seeds and difficult to swallow.

These vines are probably a remnant of the old vineyards our little valley was famous for; the dark grapes used to produce quite good wine in the old days, as I discovered researching the paper I wrote for the 2017 Oxford Symposium:

“…Kea was once famous for its red wine.” British traveler and writer James T. Bent in his 1885 book ‘Cyclades, or Life among the insular Greeks,’ mentions that the island had extensive vineyards, many on terraced corridors in its northern slopes. Considerable amounts of wine were being produced throughout the island’s history. There was enough wine for local consumption, and until the early twentieth century some was also exported. Bent writes that Michael Psellos –the eleventh century monk, scholar, and politician– describes Kea’s wine as “sweet to the scent, and black in color,” and “much sought after in Constantinople. […] The wine of Keos is still of great repute,” […]

Photographs taken at the end of the nineteenth c. and beginning of the twentieth c. bear witness to serious wine-producing activity, especially in the northern part, where we live. The old abandoned, overgrown winepress I see from my office window, half-way up the terraced hill, is proof that vines must have been cultivated on the grounds around our house. There are many old wine presses all over the island, indicating extensive vineyards. These precious old presses –some in covered stone shacks, others very simple open-air cisterns carved in rock, or built with stones and plastered– are the sole remnants of the once thriving viticulture. Santorini, and other Cycladic islands never gave up on their vineyards, and managed to revive their unique grape varietals, putting their local, exquisite wine production on the international map. Kea doesen’t even manage to produce enough decent wine for local consumption these days; and the same is true for the island’s once plentiful cheese production. Bent playfully remarks that, unlike other islanders, Keans, complacent with their beautiful and relatively fertile island, are “not an ambitious race…”

When we bought our piece of land, the previous owner had planted lots of olive trees –too close together, unfortunately—uprooting the old vines. Only the ones on the fence survived, plus one more, frail but persistent, at the edge of the olive grove next to our eastern veranda.

A few years ago I decided to use the green, unripe grapes to make a Sour Grape Condiment as people still do in the Middle East, and in some Balkan countries.

The two baskets of ripe grapes we gathered now were too few for wine and too seedy to eat; so Costas and I decided to press them and take the juice to drink, freeze some to make granita, and certainly make moustalevria, the traditional grape must jelly our mothers used to make each year. It was a lengthy, painstaking process with our grapes. But if you use the usual seedless grapes one gets this time of year, moustalevria is the easiest and most delicious summer treat, we feel.

The old Greek recipes ask for a complicated process of simmering the grape must with wood ash to to clarify it, a step I always skip. I much prefer a fruity-tasting moustalevria, so I briefly boil the juice with cornstarch just until it thickens, much like I do when I make my Orange ‘Cream’ in the winter.

RECIPE: Moustalevria: Grape Must Jelly

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Make the mousse a day ahead, or even a couple of days before. When you are about to serve the dessert, assemble the pre-baked puff pastry and serve the mousse on the side.  

Serves 6-8  

About 15 -20 apricots, halved, pitted and roasted in the oven until soft. If they are unripe and sour, sprinkle with some sugar, if you like.

Pre-baked Puff pastry

1 1/2-2 cups  apricot jam, preferably homemade or good quality store-bought

The Mousse

1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup sugar

6-10 rose geranium leaves or more, to taste, or use a few teaspoons store-bought rose geranium syrup, to taste

1 1/2 cups full-fat Greek yogurt

3/4 cup chilled heavy cream

Apricot Jam for serving

Coarsely chopped pistachios for serving

Make the Mousse: Sprinkle the gelatin over 1/4 cup milk in a small bowl and let stand for 2-3 minutes to soften.

In a saucepan, over moderate heat, bring the remaining milk, the rose geranium leaves and all the sugar to a boil. Simmer and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the gelatin mixture and turn off the heat. Stir vigorously on the stove until the gelatin dissolves completely. Pour the mixture into a metal bowl, add place it over an ice-water bath to cool rapidly.

Let cool for 15-20 minutes, stirring often until cold. Remove the leaves, if you have used them, add the yogurt and whisk to incorporate. Taste, and if you had not geranium leaves, add a couple of teaspoons rose geranium syrup, to taste.

Whip the heavy cream with a hand-held mixer until it gets a good amount of body. Fold the cream into the cooled milk-yogurt mixture. It must be completely incorporated. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate for about 30 minutes, or until it starts to set.

You can let the cream set overnight in the bowl. Take out of the refrigerator and stir the cream a few times before assembling the mousse.

The Tart: On a square or rectangular plate place a piece of the pre-baked puff pastry. Spread generously with apricot jam and place one more piece of baked puff pastry on top. 

Spread generously with more apricot jam and arrange the roasted apricots on top. 

Sprinkle generously with pistachios and serve with the mousse.  

Assembling the mousse:
Add 1-2 tablespoons of apricot jam at the bottom of each serving glass and then divide the chilled mousse evenly among them. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours, preferably overnight.

Serve sprinkled with pistachios, if you like.

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Two pieces 13.5-inch X 11.5-inch (34X30 cm)

1 package (500 grams) good quality frozen puff pastry

About 1/2 cup or more coarsely ground almonds (optional) 

Take the frozen pastry out of the freezer and let on the counter for about 20 minutes, just to soften somewhat, but not completely.

Preheat the oven to 200 C (375 F). 

Line a baking dish with parchment paper, and if you like, sprinkle with half the almonds.  Carefully unroll the pastry but still hold it with the plastic it is rolled with, as you lay it carefully on the parchment-lined baking sheet, then unpeel and discard the plastic. 

Place a sheet of parchment paper over the pastry and gently press with your palms to even it and help the almonds stick to the bottom of the pastry. If you like, sprinkle more almonds on top of the pastry, before covering with the paper.  

Cover with a baking sheet that fit right on top of the parchment-topped pastry and place the two baking sheets in the middle of the heated oven.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes of more, until the puff pastry is golden brown and fully baked. 

Uncover and let cool, then cut in half and use as base and/or a layer to make seasonal fruit or pastry cream sweets in minutes.

STORAGE: When completely cold, wrap the baked pastry in parchment paper, and keep in a cupboard, sealed in a plastic bag. Keeps for a month or more.

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Fuji are grown in Greece the last few years and they are by far the best –and more expensive.  For this simple, plant-based (vegan) dessert I loosely follow my mothers recipe.

Unlike northern Europeans and Americans we don’t add butter to baked apples. I would serve these as dessert, but I know that some people would like to compliment game, poultry or hearty winter meats with baked apples.  

6-7 Servings

6-7 Fuji, or other firm-fleshed apples

4-5 dried figs

1 cup fig jam, or quince preserves

1/2 cup walnuts peeled

1 cup mixed sultanas and currants

2 pieces cinnamon stick, cut in half

½ -1 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 – 1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 cup or more Commandaria, Mavrodafni, Masala or other sweet wine, as needed

A good sprinkle of Mishmish spice mix (optional)

Honey or Maple syrup for drizzling

Plain Halva for serving, optional

Heat the oven to 392F (200 C).

With an apple corer, remove the pits from the apples.  With a peeler remove most of the skin in a spiral all around the fruit. Place in a pan that holds them snugly.

Cut the stem from the dried figs and quarter them. Place a piece of fig in the hole of each pitted apple, along with some of the jam, and squeeze in some currents and/of sultanas.

Spread the rest of the dried fruit, the jam, and the walnuts around the apples in the pan, and scatter the pieces of cinnamon. Sprinkle with the spices and douse the apples and all around them with the wine that should come to about half up the fruits. 

Bake for about 1 hour, dousing every now and then the apples with the juices from the pan.

 When they soften, turn off the heat and leave them in the oven for 15 minutes, keeping the oven door ajar.

Take out of the oven and pour again juices from the pan over the apples, then sprinkle generously with Mishmish, if using. Drizzlingthe fruit with some honey or maple syrup, if you like the apples sweeter. Cover with foil and let cool completely before serving. They taste better the next day and their flavor improves the next 2-3 days. They keep at least ten days, covered in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Accompany with halva, or if you are not vegan, with Greek manouri cheese or mastic ice cream.

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We were very grateful not only for the much-needed water, but for the comforting, cool  temperatures after a very hot summer.  We still have some vegetables, and hope for a few nice oranges, soon.

We started to get ripe, yet small fruit from the arbutus bush, and soon we will be harvesting the first oranges. 

The few, aromatic quinces we got are ripening in a basket, and are soon going to be used in meat and vegetarian dishes, also, of course in our cakes as well as in jams, and spoon sweets (fruit preserves).  

A low layer of green grass now covers the property, and our rose bushes are filled with tiny oblong red berries, and the big carob tree is filled with foul-smelling flowers buzzing with bees –an unexpected end-of-season treat for them. In Crete, where carob trees are ubiquitous in the rocky mountains, I heard that the densely-flavored carob honey is considered the best for melomakarona, the Christmas cookies.    

The disappointment and frustration with our pomegranate trees continues for one more year. The fruit rot and fall before they even ripen properly. Fortunately our two, potted dwarf, ornamental pomegranates are thriving!

Costas will prune the mulberry tree that provided its deep shade on our summer veranda, where we cook with our guests. He will then start pruning the olive trees, a major project we have to repeat every two years –not a single olive this fall..  

We planted a few micro greens in large shallow pots, and soon, we will probably harvest the very last eggplants, along with the a couple of tiny tomatoes we left on the plant just in case they ripen.

But we will still have plenty of peppers, both green and red, to make grill for meze and fry to make spreads. They often keep growing all through December…

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I liked the idea of adding warm spices, but increased the number of other fruits –oranges, apples, and particularly lemons—which beautifully complement the carrots’ one-dimensional sweetness. Also, I didn’t over-process the fruit to get a very smooth jam, as the recipe suggests.

My carrot jam is somewhat tart, much closer to my most favorite citrus-fruit marmalades. But you can add more honey or sugar to make it sweeter, as most people probably would prefer it…

Serve with creamy, thick yogurt, with fresh cheese –like myzithra or ricotta– or with the very creamy manouri cheese. I also like to spread it on slices of my Orange, Lemon or Tangerine Olive-oil Cake. 

At Molly’s Rise and Shine in New Orleans their very smooth carrot jam is served with granola and yogurt, topped with orange segments and blackberries.

PHOTO from the restaurant’s FaceBook page.

Makes about 2.2 quarts (liters)

2 pounds carrots (1 kilo) cut into 2.5-inch pieces, then each piece halved lengthwise; depending on the carrot’s thickness, each carrot half cut lengthwise into 2-3 sticks

2 medium-size Granny Smith apples (about 2/3 pound, 350 grams), cored, and cut into long chunks

3 oranges halved, pitted, and cut into thin slices

4 lemons halved, pitted, and  cut into thin slices

2 cups orange juice

1 cup water or more, as needed

1 cup granulated sugar, or more as needed (to taste) 

Pinch of salt

SPICES –tied in a piece of cheesecloth

5 cardamom pods, lightly smashed

4 whole star anise

2 cinnamon sticks

½ cup honey or more, as needed

1/4 cup lemon juice

Full fat, thick yogurt, myzithra (ricotta-like cheese), or creamy manouri for serving (optional)

In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan place the carrots, apples, oranges, lemons and add the sugar, the orange juice, and the water, as well as the spices in the cheesecloth, and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high, stirring occasionally.

Cover with a piece of parchment paper and a lid, lower the heat to medium-low and cook; cook, stirring occasionally, until carrots are crisp-tender, about 40 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are very tender, and the liquid has reduced to a thin, syrupy consistency, 10-15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and transfer the carrot mixture to a food processor or blender. Mash to get a somewhat coarse mixture. Alternatively, you can mash the carrot and fruit in the pot with a stick blender.

 Transfer the mashed carrots etc. back to the pot, add the honey and lemon, and cook another 10 minutes, stirring often. Taste and add more honey or sugar if you want –I prefer this jam on the sour side, as all my marmalades.  

Discard the spices and transfer the jam to clean, warm jars. Fill almost to the top, close the lids, and let the jars cool and seal. Keep in a cool place or in the refrigerator. As this jam has little sugar it may spoil sooner than most other fruit preserves and jams.  

If you like, spoon yogurt into bowls, and top with dollops of spicy carrot jam.

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