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The Cardinal Cuts – A Heavenly Pleasure

Wonderfully tender biscuit meets sweet meringue, together they nestle on a layer of coffee cream. To melt away! With the tips for the perfect cardinal cut, you too will certainly succeed in making the classic in confectioner quality!

Hop, hop, hurry!

Cardinal cuts consist of sponge cake and meringue – two masses that are better not to be kept waiting! If the whipped cream stands too long for the meringue, it will collapse and not be as fluffy as you would like. In this case, a few drops of lemon juice and beating the egg white again will help, which should make it firm again. So that the slices can be prepared quickly, it is best to line the baking tray with baking paper before preparing the sponge cake and meringue. A time-saving investment is a second piping bag, so you can place the sponge cake in nice strips on the baking tray immediately after applying the egg white mixture without having to wash out the piping bag and refill it in between.

Color to taste

Originally traditionally coated with apricot jam, today cardinal slices are often filled with coffee cream. But also the combination with delicate pink strawberry cream simply tastes irresistibly good! Variants with vanilla cream or whipped cream with cranberries are also delicious. You can choose your color depending on whether you prefer it bitter or sweet.

Don’t keep your cardinal cuts waiting!

However, the combination of meringue and creamy filling also means that the cardinal slice will want to be eaten fairly soon. It is therefore not so good for preparation, but rather for quick plastering.

Nowadays, cardinal slices are often filled with coffee cream. But also the combination with delicate pink strawberry cream simply tastes irresistibly good! Variants with vanilla cream or whipped cream with cranberries are also delicious. You can choose your color depending on whether you prefer it bitter or sweet.

Don’t keep your cardinal cuts waiting!

However, the combination of meringue and creamy filling also means that the cardinal slice will want to be eaten fairly soon. It is therefore not so good for preparation, but rather for quick plastering.

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Heavenly Delicious: Make Your Own Baked Apples

From a culinary point of view, the pre-Christmas period offers many delicious delicacies: Whether tree cake, cookies or gingerbread – you are spoiled for choice when it comes to Advent coffee. But now we would like to offer you a tasty and, above all, healthy alternative: how about a hot baked apple in vanilla sauce? The fruit can be prepared in the oven or quickly in the microwave. Make baked apples yourself – it’s easier than you think!

Not a baked apple fan yet? That should change soon. Baked apples are a wonderful alternative to cakes and cookies, especially in winter. What’s more, this wintery delicacy is easy to prepare yourself. But read for yourself…

To prepare baked apples, you should first use firm and tart apple varieties. The red Boskoop, Gravensteiner, or Cox Orange are excellent.

Years ago, you just popped the apple into the hot oven and waited for it to pop before sprinkling the cinnamon and sugar on it. Today, on the other hand, the core of the apple is removed and the resulting cavity is used to add delicious ingredients. There are actually no limits to the imagination. What you like is allowed in terms of ingredients. In addition to almonds, raisins, muesli, oatmeal, some honey, and hazelnuts, you can also add nougat, marzipan, jam, or winter spices to the baked apple. A few knobs of butter ensure that the apple does not become too dry. And the savory version of the treatment also causes a stir!

By the way: If you don’t have much time and don’t want to do without your baked apple, you can also prepare the wintry dish in the microwave. Depending on the size, the apple can be heated in a bowl for three to five minutes at around 600 watts and then left to cool for two minutes. We wish you Bon appetite!

Make baked apple yourself

Ingredients for 2 servings:

  • 1 tbsp dried cherries
  • 1 tbsp dried cranberries
  • 1 tbsp sultanas
  • 6 tbsp apple juice
  • 2 tart apples (200 g each)
  • 1 tbsp chopped almonds
  • ½ vanilla bean
  • 1 tbsp cane sugar
  • 150 g yogurt (0.3% fat)
  • 2 tbsp eggnog (optional)

You will need these kitchen appliances:

  • 1 casserole dish
  • 1 bowl
  • 1 small bowl
  • 1 work board
  • 1 small knife
  • 1 tablespoon
  • 1 teaspoon
  • 1 core cutter

Preparation steps:

  1. Place the dried cherries, cranberries, and sultanas in a small bowl with 2 tablespoons apple juice and soak.
  2. Wash the apples and remove the core with an apple core.
  3. Add the chopped almonds to the cherries, cranberries, and sultanas and mix everything together.
  4. Using a teaspoon, spoon the mixture into the apples and place in a casserole dish.
  5. Pour over the remaining apple juice. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 °C (fan oven: 180 °C, gas: mark 3) for 30-35 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile, split the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the pulp with a sharp knife and mix with the sugar.
  7. Mix the vanilla sugar with the yoghurt and, if you like, eggnog until smooth. Place on plates, place 1 baked apple on each and serve.

Baked apple with ginger

Ginger is a wonderful ingredient that relieves colds and adds a wonderfully savory touch to baked apples. If you like ginger, you should definitely try this baked apple variant! Ingredients for 4 people: 4 yellow apples 2 tbsp. sugar ½ tsp. cinnamon 1 pinch ginger powder 1 piece of fresh ginger 4 tsp. icing sugar 400 ml apple juice (or white wine) 1 cinnamon stick ½ vanilla bean 2 tbsp. Remove the core with a melon baller.

Mix the sugar with the cinnamon and ginger powder, sprinkle into the opening, and put the lid back on. Peel the ginger, and cut it into fine strips. Caramelize the icing sugar in an ovenproof pan, and deglaze with the apple juice. Add the cinnamon stick, ginger, and the sliced ​​vanilla bean, and simmer briefly. Put the apples in and bake in the oven at 180 °C for about 25 minutes. Take the apples out of the sauce and keep them warm. Stir cold butter into the caramel sauce. Spread the sauce on dessert plates as a mirror, place the apples on top and sprinkle with icing sugar.

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Pomegranate – Heavenly Fruit With That Certain Extra

Unlike some of the newer superfoods, the pomegranate has been known in this country since the Middle Ages. Hardly anyone seriously doubts that he is healthy. But what about sustainability?

The bright red pomegranate with its many seeds is often referred to in tradition as the food of the gods. Some even believe that it was a pomegranate that Adam and Eve ate that led to their expulsion from paradise. The pomegranate has been known and loved as a natural household remedy or special treat for the upper class for several thousand years.

Modern studies certify numerous possible medicinal effects of the fruit, its seed and its juice. In addition, the pomegranate should be rich in vitamins, minerals and healthy secondary plant substances. The fruit is not only delicious, but is also said to be extremely healthy in any form, a real superfood.

The origin of the superfood pomegranate

The pomegranate has been known and widespread in Europe for so long that it is no longer possible to say exactly where it originally came from. He probably comes from Central or Southeast Asia and reached the Middle East and various campaigns in ancient times to (Southern) Europe. The Spaniards, in turn, eventually brought the pomegranate plant to Latin America.

Today, the pomegranate tree is grown commercially primarily in India, China, the southern United States, Latin America, the Middle East, Spain and Italy. The plant does not tolerate low temperatures and prefers tropical or subtropical climates, so in Central Europe there are only isolated cultures in heated greenhouses, but in southern Europe it can already be found without a greenhouse or growing wild.

Harvest time for the fruits, which are actually berries but are called apples because of their appearance, is from September to December.

The pomegranate seeds and their pitfalls

Only the seeds of the pomegranate are eaten, as the white flesh tastes very bitter. However, the seeds are firmly attached to the rest of the fruit, so it takes a special technique to extract them. Caution is advised: the juice of the fruit has a strong staining effect, and stains on clothing can hardly be removed.

When storing, make sure that the apple of paradise is never exposed to excessive heat. On the one hand, the pomegranate can be kept for several weeks if stored in the refrigerator or in a cool, not too humid place. On the other hand, the shell bursts under the influence of heat and the pomegranate seeds splatter everywhere – the berry also owes its name to this “explosive” property.

Cut and eat pomegranate properly

Cutting and eating a pomegranate properly is a real challenge. Peeling it makes only limited sense, because too much juice escapes.

Instead, we recommend rolling the ripe pomegranate back and forth on the kitchen worktop with the palm of your hand and applying little pressure to remove the stone. But beware: too much pressure will cause the seeds to burst, resulting in the (also very tasty) juice.

After rolling, remove the stalk at the top and make a radial cut in the pomegranate – like an orange. The upper half can then be bent open so that the seeds can be knocked out with a wooden spoon or something similar.

If you want to reduce the risk of juice splashes, open and core the fruit in a bowl of water. The pomegranate seeds taste great on their own, in muesli or in numerous dishes, from savory to sweet.

Make your own pomegranate juice

Of course, you can also buy pomegranate juice in organic shops. But the pleasantly sour juice is easy to make yourself. As with pitting, roll the pomegranate back and forth with your hand at first, but more often and with significantly more pressure. The pomegranate can then be squeezed with a press or by hand like a lemon.

The faster version: after rolling, simply cut off the stalk, insert a straw into the opening and enjoy the pomegranate juice straight from the fruit.

Pomegranate: calories, vitamins and other nutritional values

The pomegranate and its seeds are excellent sources of minerals and vitamins during the cold and wet season.

Thanks to its long shelf life, the pomegranate provided people with vitamin C, vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and B6, folic acid, vitamin E and beta-carotene as early as the Middle Ages.
However, the vitamin C content is not nearly as high as one often hears: oranges, for example, contain about six times as much of the important vitamin.
On the other hand, the pomegranate is relatively low in calories, 100 g contain 74 kcal.
In terms of minerals, the red giant berries mainly provide potassium, but also calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and zinc.

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