Ingredients Method About this recipe Comparing apples with oranges was the name of the game for my fruit bowl for a while there, thanks to Wonky Box. It got me thinking – oranges are lovely in baking, but I haven’t come across many recipes where …
Sometimes, despite the best of intentions, fruit can go a little south in the fruit bowl. Things in general feel like they have gone a little south lately. This time a year ago our current COVID circumstances would have been unimaginable to pretty much all …
Pork and porridge. It’s not too often you get these two together, but they are both delicious with a little applesauce, no?
Admittedly, my first thought on arriving at Apple Sauce in the Edmonds Cookbook (apart from no, not more apples) was ho-hum. Apple sauce eh? What can you do with that? It looks a bit like snot, therefore not particularly photogenic. There’s not a lot of excitement in making it either.
This was all a little unfair and some internet browsing has piqued my interest. Preparing apple-based sauces goes back to medieval Europe and many cuisines have their own version. Check out this recipe for Norwegian apple sauce with rye cinnamon crumbs and yoghurt. Oh my, wouldn’t that be a lovely sight to greet you for breakfast! Or, this recipe for Danish applesauce (‘æblegrød’) with cream!
So you can imagine I embarked on my Applesauce with a little more excitement after this. It’s very easy and a very good way to use up any apples that are past their best and loitering in the fruit bowl. I’ve been enjoying it with my morning oats, greek yoghurt and a little dusting of cinnamon, which is a very nice way to start the day indeed.
Ingredients:
Put all ingredients in a pan and simmer over a low heat, until the apples are ‘pulped.’ I have not come across this expression before, so I took it to mean ‘mushy’!
At this point, Edmonds instructs beating it with a fork until smooth. Being a softer City-girl, I used a stick blender rather than a fork and elbow grease, which gave a nice smooth finish.
This keeps well in the fridge for several days, covered with a little cling film.
How do you like them apples? That’s how I feel I should be addressing you, because we really have had a lot of apply recipes by this point in the Edmonds A section. But I love a good flan and this little number is easy …
You may be a bit tired of my Winter and Autumn range of stodgy, warming things that include root crops and apples, and trust me, I’m just tired of Winter, but this is quite a pleasing little loaf and really easy to make. Don’t be …
Every Autumn when I start spying lovely plump pears, plums and apples, thoughts of warming fruity goodies are not far behind. This particular little loaf I’m bringing you today has been a long time in the making. It first starting flitting about the corners of my mind a few years ago, when the aforementioned greedy Autumnal thoughts lead me to this delicious chocolate and pear cake. So this Autumn, finding my fruit bowl running over with many sweet little apples, I began hankering after something upside down-y involving apples.
It has taken a little experimenting, but I am happy to settle on this combination of slightly spicy ginger loaf topped with apples. Upside down fruit-topped baking, I have concluded, needs a reasonably hefty cake to support it, and ginger loaf is up to the task. I used this ginger loaf recipe as a base with some tweaking of my own, including a little wholemeal flour to give it some extra muscle. And also because I love wholemeal flour.
For this spiced apple and ginger loaf you will need:
Apple topping:
Ginger loaf:
Butter your loaf tin. Peel your apple if you like, although I prefer mine with a little bit of skin. Quarter the apple and cut each quarter into thin slices. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle into the bottom of the loaf tin. Lay the apple slices in top of this mixture and set aside.
Melt the butter and golden syrup together in a large saucepan. Add the egg and the sugar and mix in. Then add all the other dry ingredients except for the baking soda. Mix the baking soda into the milk and then add this to the mixture.
Pour the ginger loaf mixture into the tin, on top of the apples.
Bake for 50 – 55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. This may seem like a long time for a little loaf, but the fresh juicy apple slices make the mixture quite moist and mean the loaf needs longer to bake. Trust me, I have been faced with the sad, sucking noise of turning out under-cooked baking in earlier versions of this apple-topped cake, when I have had less patience with the length of baking time.
Rest the loaf for a few minutes in its tin before running a knife around the edges and gently turning upside down.
The apple keeps this loaf tasty and moist. It can be a little prone to breaking up, so you may like to use a spoon, particularly if you fancy this warm with some vanilla ice-cream. This, I can recommend.
Happy baking.
I have come into possession of two fruity items this week – a lovely big batch of stewed apples courtesy of my sister, and a tin of strawberries. Yes, tinned strawberries, what a strange thing indeed. I found them in the supermarket on special for …