I love apples, as do Mr Z (5) and Mr R (2) who get through so many apples as snacks! We got involved in the Waitrose campaign by cooking a simple Apple Pie at home with some seasonal apples. This is so easy to do and the children love to eat it with custard. Apple pie is a classic Autumn recipe that all the family can enjoy.
How to make a simple apple pie:
- Peel and chop the apples (I have used about 6 to make this small pie)
- Cook the apples in a saucepan with water and a bit of sugar until they soften up. You can also add spices for taste, such as ginger and cinnamon. I also added raisons
- Line the dish with pastry (I use jus roll so very easy!) then fill with the apple topping.
- You could either cover all of the apple with pastry to make the pie lid, or make a lattice as I have done here. I normally cover the whole pie but I thought I would try out a different effect.
- Cook on gas mark 5 for 30-40 mins or until it looks done
- Serve with custard or ice cream.
If you want to get a little more ambitious, Waitrose have sent me another Apple recipe which I can share with you:
How to Make Ginger and Apple Puds
Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 30-35 mins
Total: 50-55 mins
Ingredients:
- 150g essential Waitrose Butter, softened plus extra for greasing
- 175g unrefined dark brown soft sugar
- 3 medium Waitrose columbian blacktail eggs, beaten
- 150g self raising flour
- 3 pieces Waitrose Chinese stem ginger in syrup.
- 2 small Cox or Royal Gala apples.
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180c / gas mark 4. Butter 2x 200ml pudding basins and line the base of each with a disk of parchment. Cut 6 squares of kitchen foil about 15x15cm in size, butter one side of each square and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat 150g of the sugar with the butter until very pale and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, then the flour. Strain the ginger, saving about 3tsp of syrup, and finely chop. Peel, core and dice 1 apple. Mix it into the cake mixture with the ginger.
3. Cut the top and bottom from the remaining apple. Cut the apple into 6 horizontal slice. Sprinkle the remaining sugar onto a plate and dip the apple slices in, to coat thickly. Place a slice into the base of each basin.
4. Divide the cake mixture between the 6 basins and level each surface. Cover tightly with tin foil squares. Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins or until risen and spongy to the touch. Leave to rest for 2-3 mins. Use a sharp knife to loosen the edge of each sponge and turn out. Drizzle with the reserved ginger syrup and serve with a dollup of creme fraiche.
Tips: Use smaller apples so that when sliced, the pieces easily fit into the base of each pudding basin.
To get even more ideas of how to cook with your seasonal apples, have a look here at Waitrose Recipes
It’s Apple season and Waitrose are working to help educate children about the benefits of seasonal fruit and vegetables. Apple season is a little later than usual this year, due to the weather conditions we have had but as Alan Titchmarsh explains in the video below, this is actually a good thing as it has produced a bumper crop of great quality apples!
