Apple recipes

Baked Spiced Apple Pudding

Inspired by a traditional recipe from Mrs Charles Darwin’s Cookbook

By peeling the apples they will collapse as they cook allowing their juices and flavour to spread into the surrounding batter.

6 apples (dessert apples are best)
2 tablespoons sugar (plus more for sprinkling)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon sage butter (chop a few leaves of fresh sage and blend with butter) – if you don’t have sage, you can use plain butter

For the batter:
3 oz (75g) flour
1 cup (250ml) milk
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)

Grease an ovenproof dish deep enough to hold the apples and batter.

Peel and core the apples. Place them in the prepared dish.

Mix together the sugar, spices and lemon peel and spoon a little into the centre of each apple. Top with a little sage butter on each apple.

Bake for 20 minutes, and meanwhile, sift the flour into a bowl, make a well in the centre and add the milk a little at a time, mixing to a smooth batter. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Remove the apples from the oven and turn the temperature up to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Pour the batter over the apples and replace in the oven to bake for about 30 minutes until the batter is well risen and brown on top.

Sprinkle with sugar and serve with cream.

Herby footnote:

Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, lived in Lichfield. You can visit his house there, and the apothecary garden full of herbs that has been created as it would have been in his time.

Apple and Ginger Jam

A recipe from Darina Allen’s Forgotten Skills of Cooking

If you’ve ever had trouble getting your jam to set, try the tips in this recipe including warming the sugar and extracting the pectin from the core and peel.

1.8kg (4lb) tart cooking apples
Juice and zest from 2 lemons
25g (1oz) fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1.6kg (3 1/2 lb) granulated sugar, warmed (by heating in a stainless steel bowl in a moderate over for about 15 minutes – it should be hot to the touch but not melting)

Peel and core the apples, putting the peel and core into a saucepan with 435ml (3/4 pint) water. Cook over a medium heat until soft.

Meanwhile, chop the apple flesh and put in a wide, stainless steel pan. Add the lemon zest and juice, the ginger and 600ml (1 pint) water. Bing to the boil and cook until the apples dissolve into a puree.

Strain the water off the apple cores and peel – it’s the water part you want to save for use. Put this appley water into the big pan with the apple puree and bring the whole mixture back to the boil. Add the hot sugar and stir to dissolve.

Boil until it reachers a setting point. Either measure this with a jam themometer – you’re aiming for 105 degrees C (220 degrees F) – or put a plate in the fridge to chill and, when you think the jam is ready, test it by putting a teaspoonful on the chilled plate. Push the outer edge of the jam puddle to the centre with your finger. If it wrinkles, even a little, it will set.

Pot into sterilised jars and cover while still hot. Store in a cool, dry place.

Mint Jelly

This is the recipe gifted to me by my mother-in-law, I can’t see a crab apple tree without thinking of her mint jelly! Though it’s traditionally eaten with lamb, my daughter is famed in our family for wanting mint jelly, whatever the roast, and especially with roast potatoes. I recommend making lots as this will be popular.

3lb green apples (crab apples or japonica fruit aka quinces)
1 pint water
small bunch of fresh mint
1.25 pints vinegar
sugar
3 level tbsps chopped mint

Wash the fruit, cut it up roughly place in a pan with the water and the bunch of fresh mint. Simmer until the fruit is soft and pulpy (if using quinces this will take ages).

Add the vinegar and boil rapidly for five minutes.

Strain through a jelly bag (overnight is best).

Measure the juice and put in a pan with an equal quantity of sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Boil rapidly until setting point is nearly reached (this shouldn’t take long; see the recipe above for testing the setting point).

Add the chopped mint and allow it to boil to setting point.

Pour into sterilised jars, label and store in a cool dark place.

As a rough guide (so you know how much sugar and how many jars to have ready) with this quantity of ingredients you can expect about 1.5 pints of juice and it will make about 5 small jars of jelly.

Apple Squares

An apple preserve with the constitution of Turkish delight

1.25kg (2 ½ lb) cooking apples
500ml (16 floz) water
Pared zest of one lemon
750g (1 1/2 lb) granulated sugar
icing sugar for dusting

Makes about 750g (1 ½ lb)

Preheat the oven to 130 degrees C (250 degrees F, or GM ½)

Brush a 20cm (8 inch) square tin with oil

Wash and roughly chop the apples. Put them in a heavy-based saucepan with the water and lemon zest. Bring to the boil then simmer for about 20 minutes, until the fruit is soft.

Pass the fruit through coarse sieve and then return the puree to the rinsed saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring fresquently until it is dry and forms a paste (about 40 minutes)

Meanwhile, spread the sugar on a baking tray and warm it in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Spoon the warmed sugar itothe saucepan until it dissolves.

Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the paste is ginger-brown in colour. It may take up to 1 ½ hours to reach this stage.

Spoon the paste into the prepared tin and spread it out evenly. Leave it to cool and refrigerate. When it has set (after about an hour) cut it into squares with a knife (dipped in hot water to stop sticking). Toss each square in icing sugar before packaging.