The well-loved cookbook challenge #2

Apple cakes and puddings

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

The idea of the well-loved cookbook challenge stemmed from one of my most popular posts, the idea being to make and share something from a well-used cookbook that’s more than 10 years old. 

Because I’d like as many of you as possible to pitch in with your favourite recipes it’s free to read and everyone can comment but if you’d like to subscribe for more recipes, restaurant and travel tips and wine recommendations (see the full list of benefits here) you can sign up for as little as £5.

This month the theme is appropriately enough - apples - more specifically apple cakes and puddings. An ingredient you’ll find in almost every fruit bowl and fridge.

We tend to regard puddings as a bit of a treat these days but at one time they were a staple part of a meal, filling up the family after what might have been  quite a meagre main course. 

Before starters were commonplace and snacks constantly available it wasn’t particularly indulgent to have a pud. Many homes would have had an apple tree. Butter (or marge), sugar, eggs and flour were in every pantry, along with apple-friendly baking spices like cinnamon and cloves.

Apple pie and apple crumble were - and still are, I imagine - the most common recipes (the one above was from a photo library so I’ve no idea how to make a crust like that before you ask!) but I can remember my mum making Eve’s pudding (apples with a cake-like sponge on top). Served with bright yellow Bird’s custard.

I love the sound of the Devonshire Apple Drugget in Mary Norwak’s English Puddings, sweet and savoury, a slab of a pudding made with breadcrumbs, another cheap ingredient that home cooks would have had to hand. (Drugget is apparently a word for a soft woollen carpet or underlay!)

In the Hamlyn Colour Cookbook there was a recipe called Danish peasant girl with veil. Apple puree layered with breadcrumbs fried in butter till they were crisp topped with whipped cream and grated chocolate - or a broken up Cadbury’s chocolate flake. There’s another version here.

There are some terrific apple cake recipes too. The Ethicurean near Bristol used to make a heavenly sticky toffee apple cake which sadly still remains a closely guarded secret but this looks close enough.

I’ve also got my eye on Dan Lepard’s apple walnut and custard cake in his book Short & Sweet, which was published back in 2011. A keeper of a book if there ever was one.

For a quick apple pudding you can deep fry apples in batter as they used to do in Chinese restaurants, dipped in caramel and coated in sesame seeds or, as my friend Elly Pear did at the weekend, make apple fritters with a cider sorbet. She used a National Trust cookbook but there’s a recipe here.

You can of course mix apples with other dried and fresh fruits. Here’s a favourite recipe from my book, Food Wine and Friends.

Apple, raspberry and almond crumble

Serves 4-6 

(Note, contains nuts)

I’ve suggested making the crumble mixture by hand because the food processor makes it a bit too fine. But by all means feel free to use one.

3 large Bramley apples, quartered, peeled and sliced

3-4 tbsp unrefined caster sugar

250g fresh or frozen raspberries

For the crumble topping

150g (6oz) plain flour

25g (1oz) ground almonds

110g (4oz) chilled butter

50g (2oz) unrefined caster sugar

25g (1oz) flaked almonds

You’ll also need a shallow ovenproof dish, lightly buttered

Put the peeled apples in a large saucepan. Sprinkle over 3 tbsp of the sugar and add 2 tbsp water. Cover the pan, place over a low heat and cook for about 10 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally until the apple pieces are soft but still holding their shape. Stir in the raspberries and check for sweetness, adding a little extra sugar if it seems too sharp. Transfer into the prepared baking dish and leave to cool.

To make the topping put the flour and ground almonds in a large bowl. Keep cutting the butter cubes into the mixture (an old fashioned pastry cutter is ideal for this) then rub the butter and flour mixture together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and carry on rubbing for another minute or two. Stir in the flaked almonds

Switch the oven to 200°C/170°fan/400°F/Gas 6. Spread the crumble mixture evenly over the fruit, making sure you cover the whole surface, then bake for about 35-40 minutes until the the topping is golden and the fruit juice bubbling around the sides of the dish. Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes before serving with custard, cream or vanilla ice-cream

This is lovely, by the way, with a Sauternes or similar sweet Bordeaux wine.

Which childhood apple recipes do you remember and what’s your favourite apple recipe these days? 

Do make something from one of your old books and post a photo on instagram or Substack Notes tagging it #welllovedcookbookchallenge

Note, there won’t be a Friday 5 this week, cos I’m in Sicily. ‘Postcard’ to follow!

If you enjoyed this post it would be great if you’d give it a ❤️.