Vegan Tufahije (Bosnian Walnut-stuffed Apples)
We have been experimenting on Balkan cuisine made vegan for almost a week now. This recipe is the sweet one of a wonderfully tasty series of great vegan dishes from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia. A dessert, that is traditionally so sweet, that my husband and me had to adapt to our digestive capacity and reduce the amount of sugar to minimal …
Try this beautiful blend of spices and tasty apples, healthy walnuts and plant milk, with a personal twist that makes this recipe a bridgemaker between my own cuisine and the traditions of Bosnia.
My personal re-creation of Tufahije
I like how these Poached Apples turned out. Not too sweet, but nevertheless tasty. I added some spices to the poaching liquid, such as fresh ginger, lemon peel and cinnamon. It subsitutes the amount of sugar traditionally used to poach a tasty apple. Just lowering the sugar would have resultet in a rather flavorless liquid. The filling remained more or less the same. I just replaced the dairy milk with a naturally sweeter version of plant milk (almond and rice), a product that we have bio in the store nearby. The walnuts we had to ground ourselves, as we only had whole walnuts at home. But this goes fast using an immersion blender (see that you cover your container with a cloth, otherwise the pieces will jump in all directions!). To give the filling a nicer balance, I added some lemon juice.
What do you need to prepare these Vegan Tufahije?
Vegan Tufahije (Walnut-stuffed Apples)
Equipment
- 1 device to ground the walnuts if using whole walnuts
Ingredients
For the apples
- 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 cm fresh ginger
- 2 tbsp cane sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 large (bio) apples I used Golden Delicious, can be any apples of the same sice
For the filling
- ca. 50 ml plant milk
- 50 g ground walnuts alternatively 2 handfuls whole walnuts
- 1 tbsp sweetener (agave syrup, cane sugar or similar)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Wash well and peel half the lemon with a sharp knife, trying to cut off only the yellow part and not the white part. In a pot that is as small as possible to fit in the two whole apples, combine the lemon peels, the ginger, the sugar and the cinnamon stick with as much water as it needs to reach the middle of the apples when standing in the water upright. Bring this liquid to a boil.
- In the meantime, wash and peel the apples. Add half of the peels to the poaching liquid. Carefully core the apples, trying not to make them break! Using an apple corer: Place the apple on a cutting board, stem side up. Center the apple corer over the stem. Press the corer down through the center of the apple, twisting slightly. Pull the corer out, removing the core in one piece.Using a knife, place the apple on a cutting board, stem side up. Insert the tip of a paring knife about half a cm from the stem. Carefully cut around the core in a circular motion, angling the knife towards the center. Remove the core by pulling it out from the top or pushing it out from the bottom. Check that there are no seeds or harder bits remaining inside.
- Place the apples upright into the pot with the poaching liquid. Reduce heat and simmer for ca. 8 minutes. Carefully turn the apples upside down, continue to cook for approximately 10 minutes. They should be soft, but not break. Take the apples out of the liquid and let them cool down.
- In the meantime, mix the milk, the walnuts (ground them finely before, eg with an immersion blender, if you are using whole walnuts!) and the sugar in a saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. It should thicken up quickly. Add the lemon juice. Try to adjust the amount of liquid and walnuts accordingly. It should give a filling adequate consistency, not liquid, but not too dry either. Adjust also the sweetness or sourness to your taste!
- As soon as the apples have the temperature that you prefer (we like to eat them still warm, but traditionally they are placed into the fridge, covered with cling film, before stuffing), carefully fill them with a small spoon. Serve with some cinnamon or vegan whipped cream on top.
