Humble baked apples are going global. I made them for the first time this autumn for Elena, an Italian teacher in charge of a group of students from Tuscany on a week’s stay in Bath. Back home, Elena cooked them for her family. North American friends and relatives are making them too. The version I made for them was given a special, delicious, twist by adding maple syrup.
Of course, having the right apples is important. My favourites are Bramley or Wellington ( a distant dream as there was not a single apple on our Wellington tree this year). On the Continent, a large reinette or pippin would cook well.
Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book has a glorious recipe for Baked Apple Royale:
‘Butter a gratin dish generously and sprinkle it with sugars. Mash roughly equal quantities of butter and sugar, and push into the empty core of the apples. Stand them in the baking dish and sprinkle with some crushed macaroons. Bake in a moderate oven until tender, basting occasionally.’
When cooked, make a glaze from apricot jam heated with a little water to pour over the apples before serving.
Nigella Lawson in How to Eat brings out the Calvados in which she cooks the sugared and buttered apples together with the juice of one lemon. The sauce is reduced to a ‘gooey sticky syrup’ to which single cream can be added if you want it to be ‘fudgy’.
In general, for the filling, use what you like. Brown sugar and dried fruits are the traditional ingredients, with butter added optionally.
Here is my recipe.
Oven at 170°C
4 cooking apples,
4 tbsp caster sugar, golden if preferred (Demerara sugar could also be used.)
40g softened butter (optional)
2 tbsp sultanas or other dried fruit such as currants or raisins (optional)
4 tbsp ground almonds (optional)
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
4 tbsp maple syrup (optional)
Core the apples and mark a ring, by cutting the peel around their widest diameter (NL calls it their ‘equator’). Place them in a buttered baking tray.
Mix half the sugar, the dried ingredients and butter (if using ) together and use to fill the cores. Avoid having dried fruit at the top of the apple as this tends to burn but sugar is good as it caramelises.
Spoon the remaining sugar around the apples and add about 175ml of hot water or hot water and maple syrup.
Bake for about 35 minutes or until the apples are soft but not too mushy. Baste occasionally with the juices.
Serve warm with cream.
A last word on baked apples. High up on the favourite filling chart have to be equal portions of caster sugar, ground almonds and finely chopped Medjool dates or sugar, ground almonds and cooked, mashed quince. Either filling can be with or without maple syrup or butter.
Perfection!
