ACCENT ON APPLES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 95, 18 April 1941, Page 45

ACCENT ON APPLES

to be all about apples, and a very sensible subject, too. Apples are now absolutely at their best, and will continue so for a long time yet. They are cheap, too, especially if bought by the case. Don’t feel that this is an extravagance, but rather an economy; for if the fargily are eating plenty of raw apples, they will not need so much other food, especially other fruit, which would certainly be jearer. Only a very few people find that apples disagree with them, and even these are generally able to assimilate apples quite well in at least one method of serving. For instance, people who find taw apples hard to digest can nearly always eat them if grated, and served with a spoonful of cream and sprinkled with the ever-popular and very nourishing wheat-flakes of which several kinds are on the market. Apples are also an excellent cleanser for the mouth, so encourage the family to eat them after every meal. The teeth will benefit by the exercise of crunching the fruit; and the acid of the apples, having reached the stomach, helps the digestion of meat. We all know at present, my mail seems

that apple sauce helps with the digestion of roast pork and roast duck. So eat all the apples you can while they are plentiful and cheap; preserve them too, and use even the skins: and cores for jelly. Try these recipes: Preserved Apples (a) By pulping: This is the easiest way, and is especially useful for less perfect apples; for the bruised parts can be cut away and the rest used. Just peel, core and quarter (or slice) the fruit, and put into a buttered pan (or saucepan)adding just a very little water, according to the variety of apple. Some kinds need hardly any water; while some are very dry. Boil till soft and pulpy; have sterilised jars ready and hot. Put on the rubber ring, and fill to the Very top with the boiling pulp. Screw down and make airtight immediately. Wipe the rubber ring if any pulp is spilt on it, or the seal will be incomplete. If using jars without tops, just fill to the very top and paste over with strong papers and hot paste. ‘ 2 (b) In syrup: For the syrup allow 2 cups of sugar to 4 cups of water. Boil till well dissolved and allow to cool. Peel, core and cut the apples into quarters or eighths. Pack as tightly as possible into the bottles, Fill with syrup to within half an inch of the top. Use the syrup cold. Adjust the rubbers and lids loosely. Place the bottles into the steriliser or water bath, using cold water. Put

the lid on tightly. Bring the water in the steriliser gradually to the boil, and boil gently until the apples are soft. It will take about 1 to 142 hours, depending on the variety of apples used. Lift each bottle out and screw the lid down tightly. Bottles must be made air-tight. Or the bottles may be put in a cold oven which is then gradually heated to about 250 degrees. Leave the bottles in till the fruit is cooked. If the pulp has sunk down in the bottle, fill up from another. Three bottles put in generally make two finished bottles. Apple and Quince Butter This is a South African recipe, and quite good. Wash and rub the down from the quinces, then peel and core. Take an equal quantity of apples, and peel and core them. Then take the parings and the cores, cover with water, and cook for 30 minutes. Then strain. Cut up the quinces and apples, and cook in the strained juice until tender; then rub through a sieve, add half its weight in sugar, and cook slowly until thick. Turn into hot, dry jars, and seal. Apple Snow This is made with apple puree — which is just apples stewed gently with sugar and not much water, and then pressed through a sieve. It is a very quick sweet to make, especially if you

have jars of preserved apples or apple pulp. That is why preserved apples are so useful -- many dishes can be made up at a moment’s notice without having to buy apples, peel them and stew them. To three cups of apple puree allow the whites of two eggs; about two tablespoons of whipped cream, and a little flavouring-clove is lovely. The apple puree must be quite cold. Beat the egg whites very stiffly in a small basin. Fold the whites gently into the apple puree, also the cream and the flavouring. Pile into individual glass dishes, with a knob of whipped cream on top. Baked Golden Apple Roll With Golden Sauce For this you need some apple puree, sweetened and flavoured with clove or lemon flavouring. Also 60z. of flour, 30z. chopped or grated suet,’ 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, pinch of salt, and cold water to bind. Sift the flour and salt and baking powder together. Add suet. Mix well. Bind to a firm dough: with cold water. Roll out fairly thinly. Spread with the apples, leaving a margin of pastry all round. Roll as for a jam roll, and press the edges well together. Place in a shallow, greased tin. Pour over the hot golden sauce. Bake in a fairly quick oven for about forty minutes, depending on the thickness of the roll. Baste the roll with the sauce several times during the baking process. For the golden sauce, just dissolve 4% cup golden syrup in

about % cup of boiling water, and a tablespoon of butter, and pour it immediately over the roll while very hot. Blackberry and Apple Butter This is a very nice filling for tarts, or even in a bread and butter sandwich, or on biscuits, One cup of apple puree, 3% cup blackberry puree, 30z. butter, 4 egg-yolks or two whole eggs, 134 cups of sugar, and one or two teaspoons of lemon juice to improve the flavour. Just place all the ingredients into a double saucepan (or a basin in a saucepan of water) and cook till quite thick -- about ¥2 to % hour. Have the water boiling in the pan. Seal as for jam. A.T.P. Jam The initials stand for apples (2Ib.), ripe tomatoes (4lb.), and passion-fruit (1% dozen). Scale the tomatoes and remove the skins. Peel the apples and slice and boil together until soft. Add 5Ib. of sugar (brewers’ crystals are recommended) and boil very quickly for 30 minutes. Then add the pulp of the pas-sion-fruit and boil a little longer till it sets nicely when tested. Apple-Sauce Prune Cake This is good any time. It is a recipe I got from Los Angeles. Two cups of flour, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda, %4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ¥% teaspoon cloves, 42 teaspoon nutmeg, 44 (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 cup thick unsweetened apple-sauce, 1 -cup finely sliced apple prunes, Sift the: flour, measure,- sift again with the soda,. salt and spices. Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, creaming till light and fluffy. Add the egg, beat well. Add the applesauce, prunes, and beat. Add the flour mixture gradually, beating after each addition until smooth. Bake in a wellgreased tin in a moderate oven for approximately one hour. Savoury Apples (Dorothy Anne) Cook 3 or 4 carrots, cut lengthways in the usual way, until they are fairly soft, but not quite cooked. Core and peel as many. large cooking apples as required for baking. Strain the carrots, roll in salt and pepper and a little flour, and stand upright in the centre of the apple where the core has been taken out. Bake slowly in a moderate oven. Serve with white parsley sauce. Quite a nice vegetarian dish served with spinach or other vegetables. Apple Dumplings Peel and quarter about two pounds of sour apples, and drop them into a rich syrup made of three cups of sugar and one cup of hot water, and let them simmer till soft but unbroken. Have a batter ready, made of one-third of a cup of butter, one-third of a cup of sugar, %4 teaspoon salt, 1 egg well beaten, 14 cupfuls of sweet milk, 2% cups of flour, 24% teaspoons of baking powder. Cream the butter, add the sugar and egg. Sift flour and baking powder, add to the mixture, alternating it with the milk. Butter a good sized pie-dish, and drop the batter by spoonfuls into it, and with it spoonfuls of the hot apples, and syrup, much as one juggles with the mixture of marble cake. Then pour the remaining hot syrup over all. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon and bake ‘in a hot oven for about half an hour. It will then be delicious with crisp brown bits of paste risen here and there through little rivers of syrup. It will be crisp and soft, solid, liquid, jellied, spicy, bland and appley all through. Small Apple Puddings (Mrs. Wright) Make a suet crust with 144 cups of flour, ¥2 cup of wholemeal, 2 tablespoons of castor sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, good pinch of salt, and 30z. of shredded suet. Mix it to a nice dough -_-

with about 1% cup of warm milk and water, with 12 teaspoon each of ginger, cinnamon and clove flavouring. Roll out, and line four small basins, or cups without handles, keeping a piece of paste to cover each one. Peel and core 4 nice apples carefully, and place one in each pastry-lined basin. Mince 14lb. of "cake fruit mixture," add % teaspoon each of orange and lemon flavouring to 1 teaspoon of hot water, and add this to the minced fruit. Mix all well with a fork. Fill up the holes in the apples with this, and place a small piece of butter on top. Dissolve a tablespoon of honey in four tablespoons of hot water, add a few drops. of clove flavouring, and pour over each apple. Cover with suet top, then with butter paper and a rubber band. Steam. in one large saucepan for about 114 hours, They may all be put into one, big pudding if liked. Serve with thin ginger sauce.