Grandma's Apple Pie with Caramel Ice-Cream [vegan] Grandma knows it all Part II

“Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.”

—Jane Austen

And obviously grandma's pie is the best pie. My grandma's recipe is beyond simple, but it's just as delicious as simple. Because of its' simplicity you can add so many delicious bits and bobs. We added some homemade ice-cream and a little bit of coconut-caramel sauce.

As usual you'll find grandmas story beneath the recipe, because there is nothing better than reading a story with a slice of apple pie and some ice-cream. This month's story is all about luck and destiny. I strongly believe that there is a reason behind everything, even if we don't like the reason, or if we can't see the reason yet and if one door closes another will open (or we'll have to open another door). Sometimes you'll be annoyed that a door is closed, just to find out (maybe even a lot later) that this was the best thing (great luck?) that could have possibly happen to you.

But enough of those spoilers, let's start with the food.

Today's piece of happiness:

All you need: (serves approx. 4-6 people)

Ice-Cream:

2 cans full-fat coconut milk (~800 ml)

50 gr. brown sugar or coconut sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

pinch salt

Caramel Sauce:

100 ml coconut milk

5 tbsp water

5 tbsp coconut sugar

Apple Pie:

200 gr. flour

200 gr. margarine

100 gr. brown sugar

500 gr. apples (sliced and peeled)

pinch salt

some extra sugar and margarine for caramelising

1. Step: Ice-Cream time | Several hours before you want to serve the desssert/ the cake

Take out your ice-cream ingredient and stir the coconut milk, so that the firm and liquid parts are nicely combined.

Now put 600 ml coconut milk in a pan and add the sugar. While you wait for the sugar to disolve (on a low heat), stir it gently.

Mix the cornstarch and the rest of the coconut milk. I used this beauty to do so ↓ because you really want to make sure, that there aren't any chunks left (it's supposed to be one smooth mixture).

When the sugar is dissolved, add the cornstarch milk to the sugar milk and briefly boil it up while constainly stirring. Then let it simmer until it thickens up, this takes approx. 15 minutes. Don't forget to stir it every now and then.

When it has thicken up a little, put it in a bowl, cover it with cling film and set aside for ~15 minutes. After approx. 15 minutes, put it in the fridge until you are ready to put it in the ice-cream machine. I've put it in the ice machine two hours before serving, so my ice-cream "spent" 1 1/2 hours in the ice machine and another half an hour in the freezer.

2. Step: Caramel sauce | A couple of hours before you want to serve the desssert/ the cake

Add the water and the coconut sugar in a pan. Bring it to the boil and simmer until it thickens up (approx. 2-3 minutes, please don't leave it, it has the tendency to burn quite easily).

When it has thicken up, add the coconut milk and try to add the "firm" coconut milk, rather than the liquid part. Now let it simmer for about 15 minutes, while stirring every now and then. Put it in a jar (or whatever you want to use), put this container in the fridge until you serve it (it will thicken up a bit more).

3. Step: Cake time | At least 1 hour before you want to serve the desssert/ the cake

Take out your cake ingredients, peel and slice the apples. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

Mix all the other ingredients together, grease a baking pan and put the dough in it. Pre-bake the cake for 10 minutes.

During those 10 minutes, caramelise the apples. Therefor melt some margarine in a pan, add some sugar, then just add the apples and in the end they should have a delicious golden colour.

After the base baked 10 minutes put the apples on top and let the cake bake for another 10-15 minutes (again 180°C).

Here you go, the cake it DONE! That was fast, wasn't it?!

I'm delighted to tell you: you have done it! Now go on and enjoy your self made piece of happiness and of course the upcoming story-time❤️

Just add as much ice-cream and caramel sauce, as you want (I recommend a LOT, because who doesn't love ice-cream?!)

So, have a piece of cake, get cozy and the story time shall start.

Some Grandma-facts:

It's my Granny
Her name is Hildegard
She was born in East Prussia (at this time still Germany) and came to West-Germany during WWII
She was born at the 25th October, 1938
She has two beautiful daughters
She has three amazing grand-children
Before she retired she worked as a secratary

That should do the work, so let the story begin

DISCLAIMER: I'm by no means a historian, I tell stories, like they happened to people/ children (not even adults at that point in their lives).

Gdanks , Poland, January 1945

My grandma was born in East Prussia, which was still Germany at this point, this changed during/after WWII as the Red Army came closer and closer. So, Germans like my grandma and her family were better off fleeing. Saying this, fleeing wasn't that great either, your chances to die were still pretty high but at least not 100%. So my grandma's parents (Yes, the father wasn't away fighting, what caused unbelivable "travelling under the train"-stories) took their daughters and the grandma and set off to Sweden. By the way, the mother was super highly heavily pregnant, but the harder the better, right? However, they were never supposed to reach Sweden. They set off to Gdanks to take the Wihlhelm Gustloff (a really big ship). This way they would have been in Sweden very fast, which would have meant that they would have been safe quite fast. But the plan was too great to be unique, the streets were beyond packed and thereby they missed the ship. They were that close, that they literally saw the ship leaving the habour. By the time the ship took off at 1 p.m. on the 30th of January 1945, about 10.000 people were on board, especially women and children. My grandma's family was devastated, because the way to West Germany was incomparably more dangerously. Especially because the father was not allowed to be with them, actually not anywhere but on the battlefield. This way they weren't just fleeing from the Red Army but also hidding from the Nazis (at least the father). However, even if taking the overland route was very dangerous and involved heavy losses (The mother died of typhus a few month after giving birth and my grandma also suffered from typhus), it was nothing compared to what would have happened if they had reached the Gustloff:

On the 30th of January 1945 at about 9 p.m. three torpedoes hit the ship and by 10 p.m, it foundered, taking up to 9.000 lives with it. Well, sometimes bad traffic can be great and I personally think, that this story shows perfectly how missing a chance can turn into something great.

All in all I can say, that personally I'm beyond happy, that this door was closed, because otherwise I probably wouldn't be here today. Even if the people in the situation, weren't too happy about this closed door. But sometimes you just need luck, because you simply can't see the consequences yet. In the end not every missed chance is bad, sometimes it's the best thing that could possibly have happend. ❤️

That's it. I hope you enjoyed this month's story and of course this month's recipe. I'm excited to see you soon (in less than a week already), there is nothing more for me say than:

See you next month and do not forget: Happiness can be delicious, so go on and spread some feliciousness ❤️

Love, Miss Felicious XXX