Not sure about you but we have a fantastic crop of apples this year, both cookers and eaters, this is definitely not an annual occurrence. The weather must have been perfect for pollination during the apple blossom in May.
I don’t take this wonderful bounty for granted so I’m doing my utmost to use as many as possible. We’ve been picking up the windfalls both sour and sweet to make apple jelly. No need to peel but give them a wash first under the cold tap. Cut off any bruises, then quarter and pop into a deep saucepan, pips and all. They include lots of pectin which will help the apple jelly to set. This is a brilliant master recipe, the version I remember from childhood was dripped overnight in a jelly bag or an old pillow slip and always flavoured with cloves, a rich translucent orange coloured jelly gleaming through the glass jars.
Throughout the years, I realised that one could add a myriad of other flavours to make it sweet or savoury. Of course, chopped spearmint or rosemary to serve with lamb and pork or slathered on crumpets warm off the griddle. Fresh sage and apple jelly with pork.
Sweet geranium is another of our favourites, delicious on scones or with meats.
We’re right into early autumn foraging at present – plump juicy blackberries are also in abundance this year. Elderberries are ripe already, weeks earlier than usual as are sloes. If you are up the mountains or even hills, rowanberries are dripping off the bushes. All of these can be added to windfall or crab apples to make apple jellies, either individually or add a fistful of this and that for forager’s jelly. Delicious with game, terrines or many of the aforementioned meats.
If like us, you have more windfall apples than you can cope with, just cook in water until soft, drip and then freeze the juice so you can make more apple jelly when the ‘humour comes on you’ maybe in winter or for Christmas presents. We freeze the juice in plastic litre or gallon containers.
The other brilliant standby is stewed apple or windfall purée or a simple compote.
Use it for apple sauce, base for a crumble or apple snow. Little tubs in the freezer, defrost quickly even in a bowl of hot water. If you too have more apples than you can eat or share with your friends, maybe drop a basket or two into a homeless shelter or direct provision centre. Penny Dinners in Cork are always glad of any contributions.
Meanwhile, here’s a recipe for Apple Charlotte which I suddenly got a longing for. Serve it with custard and oodles of softly whipped cream.
Sorrel and Apple Juice
A clean fresh-tasting drink that’s packed with vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.
Makes 2-3 glasses
225g sorrel, weighed after stalks have been removed
approx. 4-6 dessert apples, depending on size
Destalk the sorrel and juice in a juice extractor; 225g sorrel should yield 125ml sorrel juice.
Cut the apples into quarters or eights and juice (makes approx. 225ml juice).
Mix the two juices together.
Taste and enjoy as soon as possible, served chilled in small glasses.
Nana Dennehy’s Apple Pie
Another everlasting favourite.
Ingredients
225g butter
200g caster sugar
4 organic, free-range eggs
325g self-raising flour
1/4 – 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
2 good sized cooking apples
2 tbsp caster sugar for sprinkling
22.5cm
round tin
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
Grease the tin with a little butter.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and pale in colour.
Add the eggs one at a time incorporating a little sifted flour each time and optional cinnamon. Beat well between each addition. (If the butter and sugar are not creamed properly and if you add the eggs too fast, the mixture will curdle, resulting in a cake with a heavier texture). Pour the mixture into the tin.
Peel and core the cooking apples and slice into 1cm slices. Arrange overlapping in a concentric circle on top of the mixture. Sprinkle with caster sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.
Serve warm with whipped cream or lashings of custard!
Apple Charlotte
This is the scrummiest, most wickedly rich apple pudding ever. A friend, Peter Lamb, makes it as a special treat for me every now and then. It’s also a brilliant and delicious way to use up bread and apples. I make my Apple Charlotte from old varieties of eating apples – my favourites are Egremont Russet, Charles Ross, Cox’s Orange Pippin or Pitmaston Pineapple. It’s sinfully rich but gorgeous.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
225g butter, for clarifying
1kg dessert apples
2-3 tbsp water
175g caster sugar, plus extra to dust
2 organic, free-range egg yolks
good-quality white yeast bread
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6.
To make the clarified butter, melt the butter gently in a saucepan or in the oven. Allow it to stand for a few minutes and then spoon the crusty white layer of salt particles off the top of the melted butter. Underneath this crust there is clear liquid butter, which is the clarified butter. The milky liquid at the bottom can be discarded or used in a white sauce. Clarified butter is excellent for cooking because it can withstand a higher temperature when the salt and milk particles are removed. It will keep covered in the fridge for several weeks.
Peel and core the apples. Melt a little of the clarified butter in a stainless steel saucepan, chop the apples into cubes and add to the saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of water and the sugar. Cover and cook over a gentle heat until the apples break into a thick pulp. Beat in the egg yolks one by one – this helps to enrich and thicken the apple purée. Taste and add a little more sugar if necessary.
Melt the remaining clarified butter and use a little of this to brush the inside of a 13 x 20cm loaf tin (or an 18cm round springform tin) then dust it with caster sugar. Cut the crusts off the bread and cut into strips about 4cm wide and 13cm high and quickly brush them with the clarified butter. Line the sides of the tin with butter-soaked bread. Cut another strip to fit tightly into the base of the tin. Brush it on both sides with butter and tuck it in tightly. Fill the centre with the apple pulp. Cut another strip of bread to fit the top. Brush with melted butter on both sides and fit it neatly to cover the purée.
Bake for 20 minutes then reduce the heat to 180°C/Gas Mark 4 for a further 15 minutes or until the bread is crisp and a rich golden colour.
To serve, run a knife around the edges in case the bread has stuck to the tin. Invert the Apple Charlotte onto a warm oval serving plate. It won’t look like a thing of beauty, it may collapse a bit, but it will taste wonderful. Serve with lots of softly whipped cream.
