Cornucopia (11) Cornucopia, the horn of plenty, is a symbol of abundance and nourishment in the classical myths and is often associated with autumn. And when I prepared my little pastries I look on the nuts and apples and that little cornucopia would be the right way to celebrate autumn plenty.

It is apple and no other fruit that means autumn to me. And I can’t stop praising the heirloom apples which are often much more aromatic then the new breeds. And for baking cake there is no better apple then my favourite Jakob Lebel. It is a tree which gives a plenty of fruits and which is often found in old gardens and orchards. In the beginning of last century the meeting of german pomiculture society named it as one of tree apple variety they advised to grow because it is so fruitful, aromatic and robust.

And it is a great apple to fill into my cornucopia. I cooked it to a compote and add put it on top of a layer of nut filling. The dough is the same as my favourite sunday braid. Together with the filling the cream in the dough helps to keep it very long fresh.

To achieve the horn of plenty form is much easier as it looks. I tested to variants, one with wide stripes and one with smaller ones and both looks good. The smaller ones are more gracile, the wider ones are easier to handle. I show you here both variants, as both looks very well.

Cornucopia with Apple Nut Filling

Sweet Starter Cornucopia (1)

50g Sweet Starter
50g flour Type 550
25g Water

Dough

Sweet Starter
420g flour Type 550
150g cream
75g Wasser
75g sugar
50g Butter
55g Egg (1 Egg size M)
10g fresh yeast
4g Salt

Apple compote

400g peeled Apple
15g sugar
30g Water

Filling

100g grounded Nuts(Walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds)
25g dry bread crumbs
50g sugar
100g Milk
1 Tso cinnamon
1 Egg white

For Glazing

1 Egg yolk
1 Tbs Water

Mix the ingredients of the sweet starter and let it rise for 4 hours at 30°C.

Knead all ingredients except sugar and butter for 5 min at slow speed. Then knead 7 min at fast speed. Now add the sugar in small increments and knead until the sugar is incooperated before adding the next sugar. At last add the butter all at once. Knead to full gluten development.

Let rise overnight in the fridge or for one hour temperature plus 1-2 hours in the fridge.

While dough is fermenting prepare the filling: Caramelize sugar in a pan until golden then take from the heat an add the milk. Place the pan back on the heat and simmer until the caramelized sugar is completely disslolved. Now add grinded hazelnuts, bread crumbs and spices and stir the mixture until its starts to bubble. Now set aside to cool down. After cooling fold in the egg white.

For the compote cut the apple in small pieces. Cook until the apples are soft but still keep their shape. Cooking time depends on the sort of apples and differ between 5 – 10 min. Let it cool to room temperature.

Cornucopia

Now divide the dough into four equal pieces and roll each piece into a circle of 22 cm diameter. Cut the circle into four parts so that four triangles are formed. Cut stripes into the sides of the triangle, either in 1 cm width (above) or 0.5cm (below pictures). Put a stripe of nut filling in the middle, place the apple compote on top and folds the sides of triangle over the filling.

Cornucopia 2