APPLES IN PUDDINGS AND DESSERTS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 149, 1 May 1942, Page 22

APPLES IN PUDDINGS AND DESSERTS

we are all anxious to make the very most of it. It is probably best to eat the apples raw; and even very old people who can no longer enjoy the thrill of biting into a crisp juicy apple and crunching it up, skin and all, may still get most of the benefit either with or without cream or by "scraping" them. Give Grandma and Grandpa a teaspoon, and a nice juicy Sturmer with a slice cut off the top, and let them scrape out and eat all the firm flesh, leaving only the skin and the core. It passes a half-hour away very nicely and very profitably. I have seen hospital patients, whose hands were crippled with rheumatism, managing to enjoy apples in this way, and very happy to be able to put in a little time, too; for the days are sometimes long for them. Very little children, too, who might choke with lumps of apple, can be fed with it scraped out freshly with a spoon, But the family cannot be given raw apples for dessert instead of a pudding, day in day out, so here are some Apple Pudding Recipes. Apple Dumps, with Hard Sauce For the crust, take 4 oz. flour; 4 ozs. butter; 4 ozs. cornflour; ¥% oz. sugar; pinch ‘salt; 1 small teaspoon baking powder, and 1 egg yolk to mix. Rub butter into the flour and sugar, drop in the yolk, and mix with milk or water to the right . consistency. Cut into squares to fit the apples, which are cored and peeled, Put the apples on the pastry, fill the cores with a mixture of 1 teatime is here again, and

spoon of cinnamon and 1% cup sugar, dot with butter on top. Fold the pastry over the apples, pinch the moistened edges together,and arrange the Dumps in the baking dish or casserole. Pour around them the following mixture: — Simmer the skins and cores of ‘the apples in water to cover, for about 15 minutes. Strain and add, for each 2 cupfuls, 4 tablespoons of butter; 3 tablepoons of lemon juice; 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind; % cup sugar; and % teaspoon cinnamon. Brush the Dumps over with the slightly beaten egg white, and sprinkle with sugar. Have the oven very hot for about ten minutes, then reduce the heat and bake till the dumps are cooked right through. Hard Sauce.-Work 14 cup butter till creamy, and add gradually a cup of icing sugar, a pinch of salt, and grated lemon rind and lemon juice to taste. Any flavouring essence can be used-orange is particularly nice, or clove or pineapple. Pile lightly in a pretty dish and serve with the Dumps. Wholemeal Apple Pie Fill a deep pie-dish with thickly sliced cooking apples; add 14 cup cold water with a little lemon juice to flavour. Rub together 3 heaped dessertspoons of fine wholemeal, 2 dessertspoons brown sugar, and 2 oz. butter till like crumbs. Press this over the apples, smoothly, and cook in a moderate oven about % hour. If a big pie, you may need double quantities of wholemeal, etc., but keep the proportions. Quick Apple Pudding This is very easy, always a favourite, and the pastry fluffs up well, and is not

stodgy. Stew sufficient apples, and when softening, put the following crust on top of them in the saucepan, in the same way as you put a suet crust in on top of a stew for a Seamen’s Pie. The lid of the saucepan must fit properly, and must NOT be lifted during the 20 minutes which it takes to cook. The Crust-Half a cup of flour; % cup wholemeal; and 1 teaspoon baking powder sifted into a: basin; rub in 2 tablespoons butter or good dripping, and mix with milk, to a soft dough. Flatten out with to fit inside the saucepan. Apple Pudding Two ounces of butter; 2 oz. sugar; 4 oz. flour; 1 cup.chopped apples; 1 teaspoon baking powder; and 1 egg. Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg, then add the sifted flour and baking powder. Chop up the apple small, and add last of all. Steam about 2 hours. The apple flavour goes all through the pudding, but does not stay in separate pieces. Orchard Pudding (steamed) This is delicious and not nearly so much trouble as it sounds. Make a good suet crust with 8 oz. flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 4 oz. finely grated suet; a pinch of salt, and milk to mix. Roll out, and divide into three parts, Grease a pudding basin, and cover the bottom with 2 tablespoons of red currant jelly, or strawberry jam. On top of this put a layer of pastry large enough to come three parts up the sides of the basin. Fill up this space with sliced apples, sprinkle with sugar, and about half a cup of water flavoured with lemon juice. Cover the apples with a thin layer of pastry, and spread on top of it a layer of black -currant jam-about 2 tablespoonfuls. Put the third layer of pastry over the top, cover with buttered paper, and steam for 2% hours. Serve with cream. Very good. Apple Custard Peel, core, and quarter 4 or 5 apples, put into an oven dish, add a little water and sugar, and bake till soft. Then add the juice of half a lemon or one orange, or the pulp of 2 or 3 passionfruit; or a (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) few cape gooséberries may have been added to the apples, and cooked with them. A banana is now sliced and laid over the apples, and a good custard poured over, made with 2 beaten eggs, 1% cups milk, a pinch of salt, a dessertspoon of sugar, and a little flavour-ing-orange, clove or pineapple. Bake in moderate oven till set. Tenterden Apple Pie This is the traditional Apple Pie of the county of Kent. Two pounds of cooking apples; % Ib. sugar; 4% Ib. cheese; some cloves; and some short pastry. Peel, core, and cut the apples into thick slices. Place a layer in a pie dish. Sprinkle on a tablespoon of sugar, then add the remainder of the fruit and sugar, and the cloves. Pour in 4% teacup of water, Cut the cheese in thin slices, and cover the apples before putting on the upper crust. Sprinkle with the merest suggestion of pepper, and a little nutmeg, and 1% teaspoon of castor sugar. Roll out the pastry, line the edge of the pie dish with a strip of pastry, put on the pastry cover. Press the edges together, raise them slightly with a knife, sprinkle on a little castor sugar, and bake in a good oven 40 to 50 minutes. Apple Caramel Rice Meringue Cut the tops of six apples, to form lids. Core apples, and scoop out some of the pulp. Cook 4% cup well washed rice in boiling salted water till soft. Strain. In another pot have 1 heaped tablespoon of butter melted, and 1 small cup of brown sugar. Stir over a low heat for a few minutes. Beat this caramel into the cooked rice, fill the apple cases with it, and put on the apple lid. Bake about half an hour. Then take out and cover each with meringue made by beating till stiff 2 egg whites with a good half cup of sugar and a pinch of salt. Return to oven to set meringueabout 15 minutes. Devonshire Apple Curranty % Ib. flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 lb. grated suet; 4 or 5 large sour cooking apples; 2 tablespoons sugar; 3 tablespoons currants or sultanas; 1 egg, salt, and milk to mix. Chop apples into pieces the size of a lump of sugar. Blend the flour, baking powder, suet, sugar, and salt. Add chopped apples and currants, and mix with beaten egg, and only just sufficient milk to make a mixture of cake consistency. Grease a piedish, put in the mixture, and bake for about an hour. If preferred, grease a basin and fill with the mixture, cover with butter paper, and boil for 2 hours. Apple Devonshire Pudding Boil together till thick 1 pint milk; 1 oz. butter; 3 oz. breadcrumbs; and 2 oz. sugar, Then add 2 egg yolks. Pour tnis over a piedish of stewed apples. Now bake in the oven till the custard will set. "Vhip up the 2 egg whites, with 2 oz, castor sugar, put on top, and put back in the oven to bre this meringue.