A=Apples and P=pressie

Yesterday, I took my mother out to visit my brother and one of the reasons we went was to pick up some cooking apples. These apples are from one of his neighbour's trees and can you believe they never use them. The branches hang over into the field behind my brother's house so they are easy to scrump (steal). The haul was not as good as in previous years but I'm happy. Now I have to start preserving them. You may also espy some cucumbers,at the end of the table,they are from my brother's garden.

Last night Embee returned home from his week in France and Belgium he hasn't unpacked any of the wine from the car so I'm not quite sure what he brought back. However he did bring me a Norah Jones CD, some hand made chocolates and chocolate pate which is in a tin that reminds me of an old fashioned boot polish tin. I will save that for when the family visit but the date on the chocs means I have to eat those!


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Making the most of my Bramleys

Instead of sitting in front of the TV last night I was having a blog browse and was rather taken with a recipe for a 'Somerset Apple Cake' that was recommended by June of 'bread water salt oil'. Yesterday, she wrote about the best cooking apple in the world . The history June provides of this versatile apple is very interesting and you will find the recipe there. Many agree that Bramleys are best, myself and Sam at becks&posh included. So as I had the Bramleys and all the other ingredients this inspired me to get baking before breakfast. I am really pleased with the result (though not sure my version looks quite the same as June's). The aroma of cinnamon is making us drool (my mother keeps commenting on the wonderful smell). Somehow I cannot justify cake for breakfast and anyway it's too hot to cut at the moment so I'll stick to my muesli and save the pleasure for later.


Having done some chores and the weekly shop it was home for coffee and cake. My mother declared it to be delicious and I have to say I could not disagree. It was moist with a subtle taste of the cinnamon, I actually wondered if I should have used a little more cinnamon or maybe I just need a new tub as this one has been in my cupboard for a while. The only problem is it's moreish and I should probably freeze some to stop the temptation. However, my brother is visiting tomorrow so perhaps not and you never know I may get someone call and it's nice to have something homemade to offer. I can see if I'm not careful I will be doing more cooking and piling on even more pounds now I am retired!!
So if you are wondering what to do with spare cooking apples give this a try.

PS You will need to look in becks&posh archives for her amusing Bramley Post.

Apple Crumble

When I was reading the Sunday Mail 'You Magazine' I noticed a section "Autumn Collection' Mood food for the Mellow season. I thought I might try 'Celeriac and Apple Mayonnaise with crisp Bacon' as I had most of the ingredients in the fridge. However having bought celeriac the missing ingredient I still haven't found time to make it so far this week. Instead I decided on the crumble as I still had lots of bramley's to use up. The recipe was actually for blackberry and apple but my crumble is plain apple as I didn't want to stop and defrost blackberries from the freezer. Sam you will be pleased to hear I did not add bran!! When my children were young they were not great with their vegetables and I always added bran to the crumble for extra roughage; they always complained but ate it.

Crumble Serves 8
Bramley Cooking apples 700g
Self-raising flour 225g
Demerara sugar 200g
Blackberries 300g
Unsalted butter175g chilled
Porridge Oats 100g

Pre-heat oven 200c, peel core thinly slice apples place in large bowl (this is my favourite old fashioned mixing bowl) with 2 tbsp flour and half the sugar, then gently mix in blackberries. Then arrange fruit in a shallow 2 litre ovenproof dish. Dice chilled butter. Combine remaining flour, oats and remaining sugar and rub in butter until you have large crumbs like this Scatter crumble over fruit and bake for 35 mins until top is golden brown and crisp and juices are bubbling up at the sides. Leave to cool 20-30 mins ( can be eaten hot or cold)

As Mike is a diabetic I omitted the sugar but added a small amount of sugar substitute and for a variation I added cinnamon to the crumble mix. I also wondered what it would be like with the oats and I have to say it was voted a success (by Mike, my mother and my neighbour, David) and the cinnamon worked well.

Whisky Custard
Whisky 1-2 tbsp
Fresh Custard ( made or cheat buy tub 1x 500ml) Of course you can substitute this for anything you fancy such as cream or ice cream. I decided the Whisky custard would have to wait for another day; I know some would say that's the best part but I have to watch the calories!!

Bramleys are Best

I am really going to surprise my daughter Sam here at becks&posh who has just posted a blog on Bramley apples. Not very exciting you may think but Sam lives in San Fransisco and apparently cooking apples are hard to find. She found some yesterday and was drooling about making apple pie. Last week when I visited my brother, who lives about 20 miles out of Bristol, I came home with this crate of Bramleys that we had picked close to where he lives. I then harvested the last of our blackberries and made delicious blackberry and apple. Pity I didn't have any clotted cream to go with it, another of Sam's favourites. I know the photo won't be up to your standards Sam but I am trying !!
PS have just seen your comments on my previous post and I was already doing this before your prompt.