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Apple cake |
Apples falling out of favour?
Clare Latimer wonders why domestically grown apples are being ignored and suggests two desserts for ‘yummy’ ways to use them
I JUST can’t get my head around why at this time of year, when there are more apples on the trees than we have had in years, the shops are selling Chilean and New Zealand apples. Fine when apples are out of season, but why now of all times?
Friends have given me bags and bags so I am spending my free evenings peeling and stewing the “cookers” and then freezing them in freezer bags and cake tins. Using cake tins means that you can take the frozen apple out of the tin and just freeze the discs of fruit in plastic bags. This works very well for last-minute puddings.
Apple cake with chocolate
This works well as a tea-time cake or a pudding served with a bowl of crème fraîche or, if you want to be really naughty, add lashings of clotted cream. Serve it warm if using as a pudding. This will be the perfect yumminess!
Ingredients
Serves 8
225g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
450g Bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into very small cubes
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
225g caster sugar
3 large eggs
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
25g ground almonds
25g dark chocolate, coarsely grated
1 tbsp demerara sugar
Sprinkling cinnamon powder
Icing sugar.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350F/gas 4. Grease a deep 24cm spring form cake tin and line with baking paper. Put the apple cubes into a bowl and pour over the lemon juice and stir well to coat the apple pieces. Put the butter, caster sugar and lemon zest in a bowl and beat until pale and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Sift in the flour and the baking powder into the bowl and fold in the ground almonds. Drain the apple well and stir into the mixture; finally, fold in the grated chocolate.
Spoon into the prepared cake tin, smooth over the top and sprinkle with the demerara sugar and cinnamon.
Bake in the oven for one hour or until well-risen and golden brown. Check by inserting a skewer or sharp knife into the centre of the cake and it should come out clean. If the cake starts to look a little too brown, cover with a sheet of baking paper after about 45 minutes.
Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes. Remove the cake from the tin and place on a serving plate. Dredge well with icing sugar.
Peasant girl with a veil
When I was a child my mum often made this pudding. It can work well for a family dinner or served at a smart dinner party. It is one of my client’s favourite autumn puds. You can use frozen prepared apples and then any bread left over can be whizzed to make breadcrumbs and then frozen in a tub so then just cooked and assembled at the last moment.
Ingredients
4 heaped desp brown sugar
50g butter
225g breadcrumbs
675g cooking apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
4 desp caster sugar, or more or less to taste
Juice of 1 lemon
300ml double cream, whipped
25g dark chocolate, coarsely grated.
Method
Put the brown sugar and butter in a large, heavy-based frying pan and melt gently, then add the breadcrumbs and mix well.
Fry gently until they are crispy, brown and caramelised.
Meanwhile, cook the apples in a saucepan with half of the sugar and the lemon juice. When cooked, check for sweetness and add more sugar as necessary.
Cool both mixtures, and then layer in a wide dish, starting with the apple and ending with the breadcrumbs, doing two layers of each.
Top with the whipped cream, then the grated chocolate.
Serve chilled. |
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