GERMAN CHEESECAKE - KÄSEKUCHEN FOR EX-PATS

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts









 
Americans and Germans have a lot in common. One is their love for cheese cake. Though both pastries taste great, Käsekuchen is distinctly different from its US cousin.

Cheesecake crust is made with cookie crumbs, very practical, and a good recycling of even stale cookies. German Käsekuchen has a short crust, more fuss, but buttery decadence.

The real difference, though, is the filling. American filling, made of mild, more neutral cream cheese, can be varied with many different flavors (like Limoncello-Cheesecake). Käsekuchen is made with quark, a fresh cow milk cheese that is less creamy, more acidic, and contains more water.

Limoncello Cheesecake - one of the many variations

Quark (curd cheese), the base for many different types of European pastries and desserts is unfortunately hard to find in the US, or outrageously expensive - and it doesn't taste the same.

Though in desserts quark will be often paired with fruits, German cheese cake bakers tend to purism, the filling might have raisins, and sometimes other fruits, like sour cherries or apples.

Another important difference: German Käsekuchen is notably less heavy and dense than its somewhat massive American counterpart (in spite of the short crust!).

Though I do like American cheese cake with its seemingly endless variations, I love my German Käsekuchen.

But how to re-create it in this sadly quark-less country?

I looked at the traditional recipe in the Mother of German Baking Books (in English: "German Baking Today,) and started with the adaptation process.

By separating and beating egg whites stiff you can make baked goods airier and lighter, I needed more egg white. I didn't want to use heavy cream, because cream cheese is creamy and rich by nature, but one more egg yolk wouldn't hurt.

I also upped the lemon taste - cream cheese is less acidic and, in my opinion, only a lemony Käsekuchen deserves the name.

The result of several cakes worth of testing was finally a "real" German Käsekuchen - my husband's absolute favorite (with cherries).

My husband loves Käsekuchen with cherries

GERMAN KÄSEKUCHEN

Crust
125 g all-purpose flour
25 g whole wheat pastry flour
½ tsp. baking powder
50 g sugar
2 tsp. vanilla sugar, or 1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1 egg
75 g butter

Filling
750 g cream cheese (regular or low fat)
100 g sugar, (or more if using a big lemon)
1 lemon, juice and zest
4 eggs, separated
2 cups sour cherries, pitted (fresh, frozen, or glass) (optional)
powdered sugar, for dusting


CRUST:
Preheat oven at 400ºF/200ºC. Drain sour cherries, if using.

Mixer: Sift flour and baking powder in mixing bowl, then add other crust ingredients. Knead first at low speed, then increase gradually to medium speed as dough firms up. Knead until smooth.

Or simply process all ingredients in a Food Processor.

The Food Processor makes short work with the dough

Roll out 2/3 of dough over the bottom of a 28 cm/11" (not yet assembled) springform pan (greasing the bottom is not necessary). If the dough sticks to the rolling pin, cover it with plastic foil.

Grease and attach rim. Shape rest of dough into a long rope, adding 1 tbsp. flour if necessary. Press dough rope along the side of the pan to make a rim.

Or, simply, place all the dough in the pan, and press and pat it in place, pushing it up the sides to make a rim.

Prick dough several times with fork to prevent air bubbles from forming.

Bake crust for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Lower oven temperature to 350ºF/175ºC.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and lemon until smooth

FILLING
In mixer bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice and zest until smooth. Add egg yolks, one by one (don't overmix.)

In separate bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into cream cheese mixture.

Distribute cherries evenly on pre-baked crust. Pour cream cheese mixture over crust and smooth with spatula.

Pour filling over pre-baked crust and smooth with rubber spatula

Bake for 70 - 80 minutes, or until needle comes out clean. Leave cake in switched-off oven, door slightly ajar, to cool slowly, as long as possible.

Finish cooling on wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Käsekuchen tastes even better the next day, and keeps in a cool place for several days.

A quarter is gone already!

And if you visit Portland, ME you can even sample my delicious German Käsekuchen: the nice (and authentic) German Restaurant Schulte & Herr serves it, baked from my recipe!

(Completely updated and rewritten, originally posted 7/2011)

LEBKUCHEN - GERMAN SPICE COOKIES

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts















Back home in Germany, I never cared too much for Lebkuchen. They are one of the Christmas goodies that show up earlier and earlier in stores, and I hate being reminded of the cold and darkness of winter, when we still have a gorgeous late summer (and snow shoveling is something that I don't even want to think about!)

If "Cooks Illustrated" had not published a recipe for German spice cookies, I would never have dreamed of making them myself. Sheer curiosity prompted me to try it ("Americans and German Lebkuchen, haha!")

Freshly baked and incredibly good!

Reducing the sugar a little, and substituting some of the white flour with whole wheat, the result was absolutely amazing!

Instead of the usual chewy, dry-ish, generic store-bought stuff, these Lebkuchen were delicate and moist.

You could actually taste the toasted hazelnuts; and the spices were spicy in a good way, harmonious, not crude or overpowering.

The first time I made them they vanished so fast, I had to make two more batches, to sustain us until Christmas!

This year I went into a  Lebkuchen and Mohnstollen production frenzy, having to fulfill several special orders for both German specialties. But the spice cookies are so easy to make that even baking a hundred of them didn't feel too daunting.

I like nut bits to chew on, so I don't process them to a really fine meal. Moreover, I find that cookies with coarser nut meal spread less.

If you want you can brush the bottom with chocolate - but to me this seems a bit overkill. The cookies can really hold their own, they don't need any further enhancement!

These cookies can hold their own, they don't need further enhancement

 LEBKUCHEN - GERMAN SPICE COOKIES (adapted from "Cook's Illustrated")
(48 - 50)

177 g/6.2 oz whole hazelnuts, toasted
142 g/5 oz whole almonds, toasted
150 g/5.3 sugar
3 g/0.1 oz cinnamon, ground (1 ½ tsp.)
½ tsp. cardamom, ground
½ tsp. nutmeg, ground
3 tbsp. orange zest (2 oranges)
2 tbsp. lemon zest (2 lemons)
175 g/6.2 oz all-purpose flour
38 g/1.3 oz whole wheat pastry flour
10 g/0.4 oz Dutch cocoa (2 tbsp.)
¼ tsp. salt
85 g/3 oz unsalted butter (6 tbsp.)
150 g/5.3 oz light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper (about 20 cookies per baking sheet.)

Process nuts, sugar and spices together in food processor to coarse meal. Add orange and lemon zest and pulse to combine.

Add eggs one at a time

Whisk flour, cocoa and salt together in a small bowl. In a stand mixer with paddle, beat butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, last adding vanilla until combined.

Add nut mixture until just incorporated

Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add flour mixture until combined (don't overmix!). Mix in ground nut mixture until just incorporated.

Working with a small truffle scoop, drop dough on baking sheets, 1.5 inches/4 cm apart.

A small truffle scoop works best for placing the cookies on the sheet

Bake cookies for 7 minutes, rotate sheets (if you bake on more than one tier) and continue baking for another 6 - 7 minutes, until edges are set, but centers are still soft, puffy, and elastic to the touch, with tiny holes and cracks. (Cookies will look raw between cracks, and seem underdone!)

Cookies will still look raw between cracks and seem underdone

Let cookies cool on the sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a rack and let them cool completely.

Lebkuchen should be stored in a tin can in a cool place, they keep for at least two weeks.

BEST MEXICAN CONCHAS

Версия для печати посетителей: это не то, что вы думаете!









Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts







When I first caught sight of these pretty rolls in a Mexican bakery, I was totally smitten. But my enthusiasm quickly deflated when I took the first bite - the cute little shells were overly sweet, but other than that: no taste whatsoever!

Sadly, this was the case with almost all the pastries we had at the Riviera Maya: they looked very appetizing, but tasted only bland and sugary.

Conchas in a bakery in Tulum: pretty, but bland and sugary!

But shouldn't it be possible to bake Conchas whose attractive exterior matched a delicious interior? The idea intrigued me and kept me thinking. Back from our trip, I immediately searched for a recipe.

A Little Cup of Mexican Hot Chocolate didn't only have a recipe for this Pan Dulce, it also had a very entertaining story about a nightly encounter with a mysterious woman and her ardent desire for revenge!

Before we flew to Mexico this year, I finally wanted to tackle the Conchas. Remembering the "Mujer Misteriosa" and her dark desires, I dug through several pages with recipes until I finally rediscovered Clementina's blog post.

Mexico's Mayan ruins are worth a trip - here the recently discovered Ek Balam

Mexicans seem to have a real sweet tooth. All Concha recipes I had googled, contained lots of sugar. Being a gringo, I cut it down drastically, and, also, exchanged some of the flour with white whole wheat.

And how to force taste into even the lamest bread dough? Three words: slow overnight fermentation! I reduced the yeast, stretched and folded the dough, and put it to sleep in the fridge.

Rolling and cutting out the chocolate and cinnamon toppings evoked an early Christmas spirit, but with a little patience (and the help of a large cookie cutter) this was achieved, too (though some misshaped cookies had to be crushed, cooled and re-rolled.)

Baking brings out the pretty two-colored pattern

After their rise the Conchas looked already quite attractive, the cuts in the toppings had opened, and after baking the two-colored pattern had fully emerged.

Of course I was extremely eager to see whether my Conchas had escaped their compañeros' fate of bland and boring sweetness. We tried them, and - here they were, delicate rolls with a hint of cinnamon, topped by a crisp sugar cookie: a real treat!

Delicate rolls with a hint of cinnamon, topped by a crisp sugar cookie

BEST MEXICAN CONCHAS  (adapted from A Little Cup of Mexican Hot Chocolate)
(16 - 24 Rolls)

DOUGH
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
75 g/2.6 oz butter, melted (1/3 cup)
1 large egg, at room temperature
5 g/0.2 oz instant yeast
420 g/14.8 oz bread flour (3 cups)
122 g/4.3 oz white whole wheat (1 cup)
1/2 - 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
60 g/2.1 oz sugar
5 g/1 tsp. salt

CHOCOLATE + CINNAMON TOPPINGS
75 g/2.6 oz sugar (1/3 cup)
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
113 g/4 oz butter, softened (1 stick)
136 g/4.8 oz all-purpose flour (1 cup)
5 g/1 tbsp. cocoa

DAY 1
In medium bowl, stir together yeast and warm water. Add milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg, and mix well.

Mixing the wet ingredients

Add flour and cinnamon in mixer bowl. Gradually add wet ingredients, and mix at low speed until dough starts coming together (1-2 minutes.)

Let dough rest for 5 minutes.

Resume kneading at medium-low speed for 6 more minutes, adjusting with a little more water, if necessary. (Dough should still stick to bottom of bowl, but pull back from the sides.)

On a lightly oiled (or wet) work surface, with oiled (or wet) hands, stretch dough into a square. Then fold it from top and bottom in thirds, like a business letter. Do the same from left and right.

Gather dough into a ball, place (seam side down) in oiled bowl, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Repeat stretches and folds three times more, at 10 minute intervals.

After the last fold, place dough, covered, overnight in the fridge. (It doesn't have to warm up before shaping the next day.)

Overnight the dough has nicely risen

DAY 2
For the toppings: beat sugar, cinnamon and butter in a medium bowl until fluffy.

Stir in flour and mix until it resembles a thick paste. Cut half of it off, and set aside.

Chocolate and cinnamon toppings

Mix second half of the paste with the cocoa.  Shape both toppings into disks, wrap in plastic foil and refrigerate to firm up (remove from fridge 15 minutes before using, so that they are not too hard to roll out!)

First shape dough pieces into rolls

On a lightly floured work surface, divide (cold) Concha dough into 16 - 24 equal pieces, then shape them into rolls. Place balls 2.5"/6 cm apart on 2 parchment lined cookie sheets. Using your hands, gently flatten each ball.

Gently flatten each ball

Roll chocolate and vanilla toppings (under plastic wrap) to about 0.1 inch/3 mm thickness. Using a bowl or glass (wider than your rolls) cut 8 - 12 circles from each topping. (I used a 3-inch/8-cm round cookie cutter to make 16 Concha toppings.) If dough gets too soft, put it briefly in the freezer.

Use a glass or a large round cookie cutter to cut out toppings

Gently lift each disk and place it over a roll. Using a small sharp knife or razor blade, score toppings in a clam shell (or other) pattern.

Decorate toppings with clam shell or other patterns

Cover Conchas and let them rise for about 60 minutes, or until an indentation, gently poked with your finger, doesn't fill up again.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

After proofing the cuts in the toppings have opened

Bake rolls for 20 minutes, until golden brown (rotate and swap baking sheets after half the baking time.)

Stored in a brown paper bag, the Conchas keep fresh for 3 days (thanks to the whole wheat part.)

They were even good for a swap: Steffi, owner of the nice German restaurant Schulte & Herr in Portland (Maine), treated us to a fabulous Gingerbread Cake, after I had given her a Concha to sample!

Cute baker's child in Tulum/Quintana Roo

Submitted at Yeast Spotting

Submitted at Panissimo:  Bread & Companatico                                       
                                        Indovina chi viene a cena                                             
 






 

MOHNSTOLLEN - GERMAN POPPY SEED STOLLEN

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts






















The kids no longer living with us, I get late into Christmas mode. No Adventskranz (traditional wreath with 4 candles lit for each Sunday before Christmas) on the table, no calendar window to open.

Toasted hazelnuts: one of my favorite things

Having to limit my output I'll do two of the best: Mohnstollen (Poppy Seed Stollen) and Lebkuchen (German spice cookies).

Before I came to Maine I never made either of them. Stollen I always got from my mother, and I never cared too much for Lebkuchen (something that should change dramatically.)

To find a perfect recipe for Mohnstollen wasn't easy - there are so many of them. Finally I settled on one whose list of ingredients I liked best - it had hazelnuts!

I would add an overnight fermentation, reduce the sugar, and exchange some of the white flour with whole wheat, and half of the raisins with cranberries for a little bit of tartness.

So far so good! But what about the most important part of the Stollen: the poppy seed filling?

Ground poppy seeds

Germans use "Mohnback", a ready-made poppy seed mix you can buy everywhere. Luckily I found a recipe for a DIY Mohnback, with almond paste, semolina flour, milk and eggs.

Our Cuisinart coffee mill that we were about ready to trash - it did a miserable job with coffee beans - now got a second chance.

And, lo and behold, it ground the poppy seeds as if it were made for just that purpose.

The Mohnstollen turned out so good that now I sell some, too - and I won't tell my mother that mine is better than hers!

 
MOHNSTOLLEN - GERMAN POPPY SEED STOLLEN  (1-2 loaves)
(adapted from "Essen & Trinken")

SPONGE
125 ml milk, lukewarm
125 g all-purpose flour
17 g instant yeast

POPPY SEED FILLING
148 g milk
10 g semolina flour
143 g poppy seed, ground
26 g honey
1 pinch salt
1 egg yolk
57 g raisins, coarsely chopped
11 g almond slices
100 g almond paste, grated

FRUIT SOAKER
50 g raisins
50 g dried sweetened cranberries
50 g orange peel
50 g citron
50 g rum (or orange juice)

DOUGH
all sponge
50 g whole wheat pastry flour
275 g all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
20 g honey
10 g milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
200 g butter, softened
100 g almond paste, coarsely grated (box grater)
50 g hazelnuts, toasted, chopped
50 g butter, melted, for topping
50 g powdered sugar, for topping

Fruit soaker

DAY 1
For the rum fruits, chop all fruits in a food processor (or with a chef's knife) to desired size. Transfer to a small bowl, add rum (or juice) and mix well.

For the sponge, stir together flour, yeast and lukewarm milk until all flour is hydrated. Let rise at room temperature, until foamy and just ready to collapse.

The sponge is bubbly and about ready to collapse - just right!

For the filling, bring milk to a boil in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat and stir in semolina flour.Add poppy seeds, honey, salt, egg yolk, raisins and almond slices. Mix well. Add almond paste and combine. Cover and keep cool until using.
  
Place sponge, flours, honey, salt, milk, vanilla extract, butter and almond paste in bowl of stand mixer (paddle attachment), and mix at low speed (or mix by hand). Add hazelnuts and rum fruits, and continue mixing until everything comes together. Switch to medium-low speed (or continue kneading by hand) and knead for 4 minutes.

Fruity, nutty dough

Let dough rest for 5 minute, then resume kneading for another 1 minute. Place dough ball in oiled container with lid, and refrigerate overnight.

DAY 2
Remove dough from refrigerator at least 2 hours before using, to come to room temperature.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough into an 18 x 12 inch/45 x 30 cm square. (For smaller individual loaves, cut dough into 2 equal pieces, and roll them out separately, the short side should be about the depth of the baking sheet.)

Spread poppy seed filling over dough square, leaving the edges free

Using a spatula, spread poppy seed filling evenly over dough square(s), leaving the edges free (1/2 inch). Fold short sides in, then loosely roll up from long side. Place stollen, seam side down, on parchment lined baking sheet.

First fold the short sides in, then roll up from the long side

Cover stollen with plastic wrap,  and let rise at room temperature for 60 - 120 minutes, or until it has grown about 1 1/2 times its original size, and a dimple, made with your finger, stays visible. (If the stollen doesn't rise long enough, it might split open in the oven.)

Stollen: speckled from nuts and fruits (here a small one)

Preheat oven to 350ºF/175ºC.

Bake large stollen for about 60 - 70 minutes (smaller ones: 45 - 50 minutes), rotating them 180 degrees after half the baking time, for even browning. They should be golden brown and register at least 195ºF/90ºC on an instant read thermometer.

Stollen fresh from the oven

Brush with melted butter while still hot. Dust generously with powdered sugar. Repeat this procedure once again. This sugar coating doesn't only protect the stollen from drying out - it also covers a lot of sins, like cracks or blemishes in the crust!

Let the stollen cool completely on a rack. (I then usually cut larger stollen in halves.)

Brush with butter followed by a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar

Keep stollen cool, wrapped in aluminum foil. It takes a day or two to develop its full flavor. Mohnstollen keeps for at least 2 weeks.

Two who are happy about the snow - and don't have to shovel!

December 2016: Following suggestions by my family, I modified the ingredients for the final dough slightly, reducing the amount of whole wheat flour and adding a bit of milk and honey (therefore I removed the BreadStorm formula from the post.)

Submitted to Yeast Spotting

Submitted to Panissimo:  Bread & Companatico                                       
                                        Indovina chi viene a cena                                             
 






 

"FEELING YOUR OATS" - TRIPLE OAT BREAD

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts






















I like oats, and enjoy every morning my muesli with fruit and yogurt, or citrus-y oatmeal with raisins and apricots (thanks to Maria Speck and her wonderful book "Ancient Grains for Modern Meals".)

Whereas you can find rolled, steel cut oats or oat bran in many recipes, you will hardly see anything made with actual oat flour. I knew from experience that, in principle, I can treat oat flour like rye in mixed breads, since it doesn't have gluten. My German Feinbrot tastes great with oat instead of rye, too.

So I came up with a formula for a very "oaty" sandwich loaf, combining oat flour, rolled oats and oat bran in a nice fluffy, but hearty, bread that is also great for toasting.

The best of all husbands commented: "After eating this you will definitely feel your oats!"

Oat flour, rolled oats and oat bran

"FEELING YOUR OATS" - TRIPLE OAT BREAD

SOAKER
100 g oat flour
  27 g oat bran
100 g rolled oats (not quick cooking)
    4 g salt
198 g buttermilk

BIGA (*see note)
227 g bread flour
    1 g instant yeast
142 g water

FINAL DOUGH
all soaker and biga
 28 g whole wheat flour
   5 g salt
   4 g instant yeast
 19 g honey
 14 g melted butter (or canola oil)
egg, lightly beaten, for egg wash
rolled oats, for topping

*) If you prefer preparing the dough with stretch & fold (without a biga, described here), it's fine, since the dough rises overnight in the refrigerator. But do soak the oat flour, rolled oats and oat bran, otherwise you might get in trouble with the hydration of the final dough.

DAY 1:
Morning:
In a small bowl, stir together all ingredients for soaker, until well hydrated. Cover, and let sit at room temperature.

Mix all ingredients for biga until they come together, knead for 2 minutes at medium-low speed  (or by hand), let rest for 5 minutes, and knead for another 1 minute. Place in oiled container, turn around to coat, cover and refrigerate (remove from fridge 2 hours before using).

Evening:
Mix final dough at low speed (or with hand) until rough ball forms. Knead for 4 minutes at medium-low speed. Let rest for 5 minutes, then knead for another 1 minute. (Dough should be tacky, but not sticky.) Place dough ball in oiled container, turning it around to coat, cover, and refrigerate overnight*)

*) I like overnight bulk fermentation, because I can do most of the work in the evening before the baking day. But you can, also, let the pre-doughs ferment overnight, and do the mixing of the final dough on baking day.


DAY 2:
Remove dough from refrigerator 2 hours before using, to warm up.

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Grease sandwich loaf pan (I use a 9-inch one)

On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough into sandwich loaf, and place, seam side down, in prepared pan.

Brush with egg wash, score, and sprinkle with rolled oats, pressing the flakes gently into the dough (it's important to score first, otherwise the flakes obstruct the slashing.)

Mist with oil spray, cover, and let rise at room temperature, or until it has grown to 1 1/2 its original size, about 45 - 60 minutes.

Bake bread at 350ºF for 25 minutes, rotate 180 degrees for even browning, and continue baking for another 30 minutes. The bread should be golden brown, sound hollow when thumbed at the bottom, and register 195 F.

Remove bread from pan, and let cool on wire rack.

November on Mount Desert Island - quiet time in Bar Harbor

Submitted to Yeast Spotting

Re-written and updated post (originally posted 1/5/1202)

Submitted to Panissimo:  Bread & Companatico                                       
                                        Indovina chi viene a cena                                             
This month's Panissimo is hosted by Menta e Rosmarino






 

APPLE CIDER DONUT MUFFINS

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts












 
We like out local newspaper, the  "Bangor Daily News", because of its well written reports and excellent photos. It, also, often publishes interesting recipes, I made quite a few of them, and most turned out very nice.

Just before I went on my fall trip to Hamburg, I saw a muffin recipe that really piqued my curiosity.

I was looking for recipes with apples, because I still had a whole bag full of tiny apples gathered from abandoned orchards at the roadside. After making two apple pies, I felt I needed a bit of change.

First trial: good, but still a bit too sweet for my taste

Fia's Apple Cider Donut Muffins promised muffins that tasted like donuts.

I like donuts, (if they are not doughy, overly sweet mass products à la Dunkin), but I had never heard about a donut-muffin-hybrid. 

My first trial, with half the recipe amount - I didn't want to feed armies, after all - turned out pretty good, but needed a bit of tweaking. 

Though I had reduced the sugar, we found the muffins still too sweet. And the fruity aroma of the apples was overpowered by nutmeg, even though I had halved the amount here, too.

The consistency resembled donuts, and the crumb was nice and moist. But, nevertheless, I thought the muffins could do with a little more apple. 

When I'm on the phone with my son in Hamburg, I always gush about my baking. This time, I promised, I would bake something for him, in his own kitchen, during my visit.

Apple pieces for an extra moist muffin crumb

From my cousin Uta's garden I had brought some nice Boskoop apples, and my son likes donuts.

So what was more appropriate than making Donut Muffins?

With a whole large apple, even less sugar, and only a pinch of nutmeg, the muffins turned out so good, that Per and his girlfriend munched them down in no time. 

The original recipe contains cider, but I baked some with hard cider, too. Instead of all white flour, I substituted some with whole wheat pastry flour. 

The original recipe suggests dipping the muffins first in cider, than in cinnamon sugar. I found that sprinkling the sugar works better.


APPLE CIDER DONUT MUFFINS  (10 pieces)

 125 g tart apples, peeled, cored and finely cubed (about 1 1/4 large apple, like Booskop, Granny Smith or Pink Lady)
1/2 cup/120 ml cider (or hard cider)
  57 g butter, softened (1/2 stick)
  45 g white sugar
  35 g brown sugar
   1 ½ eggs *)
  2 tbsp. vegetable oil
 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup/60 ml milk
130 g all-purpose flour
  35 g whole wheat pastry flour
¾ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
¼ tsp. ginger
¼ tsp. cloves
cider for dipping (about 1/4 cup)
cinnamon sugar, for sprinkling

*) To halve an egg, place a cup on a scale, break the egg in the cup, and measure the weight. Then beat the egg lightly, and take half of it for the batter.

Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Grease 10 cups of a muffin pan.

In a small sauce pan, bring apple cubes and cider to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, until apple pieces are soft, but not completely disintegrated.

Whisk dry ingredients until well aerated

 
In a medium bowl, whisk flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices, until well combined and aerated.

Mix wet ingredients separately

In a mixer bowl, cream together butter and sugars, until fluffy. Add eggs, and beat, until well combined. Mix in oil, vanilla and milk, until well blended.  

Dry and wet ingredients are briefly mixed

Add flour mixture in 2 portions. Mix only, until all just comes together. Then fold in the cooked apples with the juices.

At last fold in apple pieces with the juices

Distribute batter evenly over the 10 muffin cups. Bake muffins for 15 minutes, until they are lightly browned, an needle comes out clean, and the tops feel elastic if you press them lightly with your finger.

The batter fills the cups to 3/4

  
Let muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan. In the meantime, place cider and cinnamon sugar in two cups or small bowls.

First dip muffins in cider, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar

  
Remove muffins from the pan, and place them on a wire rack (set it over a baking sheet or large piece of paper for easier clean-up!) First dip each muffin top quickly into the cider, and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Per's little kitchen was well equipped for Mom's baking