Rosemary Apple Charlotte and Milk ice-cream

4 small apples (washed and peeled -with the skins set aside for later- and diced)
dark brown sugar, or muscavado sugar (for a toffee, nutty taste)
100ml double cream
400ml milk (goat's milk or hazlenut milk would also work really well)
3 egg yolks (you could use the egg whites for a meringue or accompanying apple souflées
a few sprigs of rosemary
2 well-toasted (BURNT) pieces of toast.
a few speculos (speculos are french biscuits which you'd normally have with your coffee- they have a toffee-like sweetness yet the texture of a biscotti meets digestive)

Preheat the oven to 160C.
In a saucepan, add the diced apples, the rosemary, and a splash of water (or calvados if you want alcohol). Keep on a low heat and leave to soften.
In another pan, heat the milk until it begins to boil, then turn the heat down and add the sugar (stirring continuously). Then whisk in the egg yolks, constantly so you don't get scrambled egg. When it is all combined, add the cream and thoroughly stir. Pour the custard into the ice-cream maker (or into a covered tub and put in the freezer).
The apple should be softened by now, so take the rosemary out and add the speculos. Mush it a bit to get a thick consitency, but not too much as it's nice to have the odd lump. Pour the apple mixture into the ice-cream maker, or generously drizzle into your tub to achieve a ripple effect.
On a lightly oiled baking tray, put on the apple skin and leave in the oven until the moisture has started to evaporate. Then, turn the grill on to maximum, and keeping an eye on them (like I should have done better) wait for them to harden and crisp up a bit. It should take a minute at maximum. When they are perfectly coiffed, gently pat them dry with a piece of kitchen towel to get rid of excess grease.
In the toaster put in two slices of toast, and when they are reasonably charred, take them out and generously slice them so you get reasonable diamonds/slithers/any other pretty shape .
The custard should have solidified quite a bit by now, so add the toast to it, and then leave it in the freezer to set.

Serve with the apple crisps and perhaps a dark-chocolate sauce.

Engadiner Nusstorte

I'm in Germany's Black Forest, so it's only fair that I make a recipe from Switzerland.
Engadine Nusstorte translates as Engadine Nut-cake. Engadine is the area the cake is from.

Ingredients:
300g plain flour
150g caster sugar
180g unsalted butter- cold and diced
1 egg + 1 yolk

200g granulated sugar (you could use muscavado or soft dark brown for a more chewy and bitter texture and taste)
225g walnuts- roughly chopped
110ml double cream
2-3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp water

Steps:
Firstly you need to make the pastry:
Rub the butter into the flour, and once you have breadcrumbs, mix in the sugar, egg and yolk.
Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for one hour.

Then heat the sugar with water.
When the syrup is completely melted, stir in the walnuts.
When the walnuts are completely mixed into the syrup, add the cream and honey and bring to the boil (to thicken it).

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a cake tin.
Roll 2/3 of the pastry out and lift onto the cake tin- the pastry should go up 2-3 cm on the side of the tin.
Prick the pastry which is in the base of the tin.
Pour the mixture evenly, and the roll out the rest of the pastry to create a pie lid which you lift on top of the mixture.
Press the two patry layers together and paint with milk or egg yolk for a glossy topping.
Cook in the preheated oven for 50 minutes.

NB: as with many other ingredients, local is best. The walnuts we used in the recipe were from the Rhine meadows.