Apple (continued) - page 17 (out of 17)

Apple Recipes (Continued)

Cakes

Apple Bread

Add one-third as much grated apple to the ingredients for a plain sponge cake to obtain a lovely fresh tasting, fruity cake.

Small Continental Apple and Marzipan Pies for Christmas

350 g Cooking Apples
150 g Marzipan
420 g self-raising flour
270 g margarine
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1-2 tablespoon sugar
water
milk to brush

The above quantities will make about 24 individual pies, so you will need 2 tartlet baking tins, as are used for mince pies and fairy cakes. If you only have one, you will need to bake the little pies one tray at the time. You also need a set of round fluted pastry cutters. If you do not have pastry cutters improvise and use tops of jars you have in the kitchen. To make the pastry put flour, sugar and vegetable oil in a bowl. Cut the margarine in bits and rub into the flower. Add little bits of water carefully to obtain the right consistency for the pastry. Remember that it will get slightly drier when you come to roll it out on a floured surface. Before rolling it out, it may be wise to chill the pastry in the fridge as this will make it easier to handle. Cut the marzipan into very small cubes and put in a bowl. Peel, core and cut the apples into pieces. Mix the apple pieces with the marzipan pieces.

Grease tartlet tins. Prepare a surface for rolling the pastry by dusting the worktop with flour. Before you roll the pastry out with a pastry roller or clean bottle, also dust the top of the pastry with some flour to prevent sticking. Roll the pastry out very thinly, because it will rise in the heat of the oven. Cut out 24 round bits of pastry to line the bottoms of the pies and 24 slightly smaller rounds for the tops. Line the tins with pastry, pack in the apple and marzipan filling quite tightly. Brush the edges with water before you put on the tops to get a good seal. Brush the top of the pies with a milk to obtain a glaze on baking. Bake in a preheated oven at 425ºF. – Gas Mark 7 for 10-20 minutes until golden brown. The pies are best served warm and can be reheated for this purpose in a microwave just like mince pies. A teaspoon of cream on top will add an extra luxury touch.

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Drinks

Apple Water

“The following is an excellent recipe for a suitable drink for all fevers and feverish conditions:
Slice thinly 3 or 4 apples without peeling. Boil in a saucepan with a quart of water and a little sugar until the slices become soft. The apple water must then be strained and taken cold.” Mrs. Grieve.

Lambswool

Lambswool is an ancient recipe with many varieties, depending on what ingredients were available.
It was made at Halloween and also on for the Wassailing Ritual (see Traditions and Lore).
“Roast apples, or crabs, formed an indispensable part of the old-fashioned ‘wassail-bowl’, or ‘good brown bowl’ of our ancestors. “And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowl In very likeness of a roasted Crab” Puck relates in Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.
The mixture of hot spiced ale, wine or cider with apples and bits of toast floating in it was often called ‘Lamb’s wool’, some say from its softness, but the word is really derived from the Irish ‘la mas nbhal’, the feast of the apple-gathering (All Hallow Eve), which being pronounced somewhat like ‘Lammas-ool’ was corrupted into ‘lamb’s wool’. It was usual for each person who partook of the spicy beverage to take out an apple and eat it, wishing good luck to the company.” (Mrs.Grieve)

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Miscellaneous

Dutch Apple Pancakes

200 g self-raising flour
1 or 2 eggs (adding 2 eggs makes the pancake easier to turn)
About 500 ml milk
4 g salt
2 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
Butter, margarine or oil for frying

Put the flour in a bowl, which is large enough to be able to stir your mixture vigorously. Break the egg and put contents into the flour. Add salt as well. Next you need a wooden spoon. Add a little bit of milk to the bowl and stir until the milk and the egg is mixed well with the flour. If you add too much milk all at once, the pancake mix will be full of lumps, so continue adding small quantities of milk at the time and stir in between to mix. You can test if your pancake batter is the right consistency by scooping some on your spoon and letting it droop back into the bowl. It should be thin enough not to clot to the spoon, but thick enough to pour in a ‘thread’ (as opposed to drops of liquid).

Put the frying pan on the fire and melt a knob of butter, margarine or cooking oil. When the fat is hot, pour in just enough pancake mix to cover the bottom of the pan thinly. Using some sort of ladle gives you more control over quantities. Quickly spread thin slices of apple into the mix. Turn the pancake to cook the topside only when the bottom is browning and the top is becoming dry. The latter happens quicker if you put a lid on the frying pan. It takes practice to prevent big pancakes with lots of apple in it from breaking. If you have difficulties, try making your pancakes smaller or use a lid and a plate to turn the pancake.

Apple, Onion and Cumin Rice*

The Cumin in this recipe can be replaced by garam masala as a variation
8 oz. whole grain rice
1 large cooking apple
1 onion
1 pint vegetable stock
1 teaspoon cumin
vegetable oil
salt and pepper

Wash, core and slice the apple. Heat a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in a pan and cook the apple and onion pieces until they begin to soften. Add the rice and cumin and stir-fry for a few minutes mixing all ingredients together. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Add salt and pepper to taste and leave to cook gently until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked.

Cheese and Apple Charlotte

1 lb. cooking apples, peeled and thinly sliced
6 oz. breadcrumbs
2 or 3 sticks of celery, chopped
salt and pepper
1-2 oz. sugar
4 oz. grated cheese
2 oz. butter (if butter is hard, grate it for easy spreading)
3 tablespoons milk

Grease a fireproof dish and sprinkle bottom and sides with breadcrumbs. Put in a layer of apples and celery. Sprinkle a little bit of cheese, salt and pepper and some dots of butter on top of this layer. Continue building layers in the same fashion, but keep a bit of butter and a tablespoon of cheese and a tablespoon of breadcrumbs for the top. Add the milk and sprinkle the remaining cheese, breadcrumbs and butter over the top. Bake for 40 –45 minutes at 350ºF. – Gas Mark 4.

Savoury Apple Flan

1 lb. cooking apples
2 medium onions
4 oz. short crust pastry
4 oz. grated cheese
2 eggs
½ pint milk
salt and pepper
2 firm tomatoes. (As a variation, the tomatoes can be replaced by mushrooms as a garnish. Slice and sauté gently in butter before use).

Chop the onion and peel, core and slice the apples. Simmer briefly in a little water until tender. Line an 8 inch ovenproof flan dish with pastry. Pour apple and onion mixture into the dish. Cover with the grated cheese. Beat eggs, add milt, salt and pepper and pour the resulting mix over the apple and onion filling. Bake for about 30 minutes at 400ºF. – Gasmark 6. Slice the tomatoes, arrange on top of flan and cook for a further 10 –15 minutes until the filling is set and the pastry cooked to satisfaction.

String roasted Halloween Apples

In the time when many people did not have ovens, nor any other cooking appliances, food was prepared on the same fire, which heated the room. At special times such as Halloween, apples would be suspended from strings over the hearth, a precursor to our oven-baked apples of today. It must have been quite an art to remove the roasted apple just in time, for if you left it too long, the softened apple might fall into the fire!
When a festive pot of warm spiced, mulled wine, cider or ale was made for the occasion, the stringed-up apples were suspended just above the pot, so the fully roasted apples would automatically fall into the mixture.
We have descriptions of this practice from rural Wales and Cumberland in England, but it is likely that this exciting ritual was widespread in many places. Next time you have a roasted apple, remember our ancestors, gathered together round the hearth in their cottages and farmhouses on these dark nights, without electricity, when winter was drawing in.

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