Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: Zak the Rabbit on September 18, 2006, 09:15
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Hi All
I made an apple pie over the weekend from a recipe in a book. It was rubbish. The book used slices of apple, and thats how it stayed.
Can someone give me a simple recipe for a normal, traditional apple pie, with nice mushy apple inside, nice and sweet, and without other rubbish such as orange rind, sultanas etc
Just something that will be nice with ice cream.
Martin
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yesterday I just cut up some apples and put them in a buttered dish with some sugar and cinnamon and bunged a bit of (defrosted) puff pastry on top, brushed it with milk and sprinkled a bit more sugar on top. It cooked in about 35 mins - lovely mushy apple with crispy pastry. Great with ice cream.
Not really cooking but it only took me about 10 mins to knock up after we came back from the pub.
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Sounds like yours mushed down well, mine stayed as chunks. Not keen on cinnamon, but it sounds like a nice quick pie. Glad to see im not the only one who cheats on the pastry!
The wife says i should have stewed the apples first, but she decided not to elaborate on that!
Not knowing how many apples i'd need (turns out to be 700g, about 3 apples) i collected about a half hundredweight of them! The wheelbarrow was full. Most have gone to the mother-in-law
Martin
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It depends on the kind of apples you have if they cook down into mush easily or not. Brambley don't hold their shape but other cooking apples do. You'd have to experiment.
Stewing apples just means throwing a heap of cored,peeled, and chopped up apple in a pot with a very small amount of water at the bottom to keep the apples from burning before they start releasing their own juices. Cook over low to medium heat and stir occasionally. If they're still holding their shape, you'll have to mash them up or blenderise them, I'm afraid.
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Ah, i had just always assumed mine were Bramleys and they would mush.
Its an old tree, no idea what type it is. Might have to mash 'em
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As OH doesn't like cooked apple, I haven't made apple pie for years, but the bestest EVER apple pies were made by my Dad!
He was a lovely pastry cook and everyone for miles around seemed to turn up on Sundays, as Saturday was his baking night!
His apple pies had large chunks of apple in, but they were just right, cooked right though, but still slightly firm if that makes sense, and he used to add a few cloves. Don't know if it added to the taste, but everytime I smell a clove, I think of those apple pies,
and his jam tarts, toffee apples, cakes, custard tarts, cheese turnovers, steak and kidney pies................
Is it any wonder, I'm so fond of my food??????? Its all your fault Dad!!!!
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Hey Zak,
All you need to do is to peel, core and slice the apples. Pop them into a pan with a little water (as Heather said) and cook them gently until they give a little with a knife (a bit like boiling spuds!)
Then taste a little of the juice, add sugar to taste and boil until the sugar is dissolved (probably a minute or so)
mash this roughly for apple sauce or use as is for a pie filling.
Neil
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Thanks neil, i will give that a go.
Just the last few apples on the tree now, going to have to climb to reach them as they overhang the hedge.
I will try and remember to defrost the pastry first this time as well
Martin
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If these apples stay whole when cooked you could always try tarte tatan,or apple/blackberry crumble.
By yhe way bramleys are not usually ready to pick for a while yet and even if picked early still cook to mush.
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Most of the tree is bare now. Perhaps they arn't bramleys. It is a very old tree.
The mother of a friend of the wifes says if the apples are really fresh they will stay firm. We gave her most of the apples and she sent us a pie back made from them - i had it hot with icecream on yesterday.
FFFFAAAANNNTASTIC!
Martin
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Now THAT'S the way to cook apple pie....
.....let someone else do it!!! :lol:
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okay I don't want to cook apple pie right away - I have stash of eating deserrt apple thingys which look as though they will be rapidly heading for the compot bin if I don't do something useful with them (i have been eating an apple a day but there are simply too many to get through) -
can I cook them in the same way you would cooking apples (ie chopped up and simmered in a saucepan with sugar) and just freeze the result or will they be too sweet? and should i bother to peel them first?
Any ideas will be much appreciated. :idea:
ps. I don't want to make wine or other alcrofrolic concoction with them!
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you don't need sugar to cook apples.
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taste a little of the juice, add sugar to taste
Should have made myself clearer!
Only add sugar if it needs it - not as a default! I mainly add sugar for applesauce (served with pork or ice-cream!), as i put demerara in crumble and on pie crusts.
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You can just peel slice and freeze dessert apples,when you defrost do it in a colander as juice is released,amount seems to depend on variety other wise you will get a soggy pie.
I never put sugar with the apples I sprinkle it on to the pastry for sweetness and the texture.and as Neil says demerara or soft brown sugar in crumble,mmmmm.
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Has anyone tried using sweet cicely to sweeten fruit for cooking? I've read about it, and like the idea of reducing the sugar needed, as I'm diabetic :cry: I believe it's especially good with rhubarb?
Mel
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Sweet Cicley tastes exactly like liquorice. Sweetness and flavour. I've not tried it yet as my rhubarb hasn't come back from dying back in June (it didn't last year either, that's why i'm going to divide it up) and I only bought the sweet cicley plant in June.
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Jekka says 2-4 tablespoons dried sweet cecely or handful offresh leaves with lemon balm into the boiling water in which the fruit is to be boiled,she says this wil reduce the sugar needed.I personally find the aniseed flavour off putting but to others that could be a bonus.
I`m still trying to remove it from our garden,I`ve found it`s invasive even in shady clay..looks pretty though.
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thanks Annie, this makes my task even easier and no saucepans involved for OH to wash up afterwoods :wink:
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I`m still trying to remove it from our garden,I`ve found it`s invasive even in shady clay..looks pretty though.
That's because it likes shade and moistness. Mine is a very small clump with full sun and clay soil which dries out pretty well in the summer.
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Glad I asked, I hate both aniseed and liquorice :cry:
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We inherited the sweet cecily(and lemon balm)with the garden it still comes up in the lawn,flower beds,between paving stones,in a veg bed that had been double dug then raised,in sun,in shade ond in regularly flooded areas-I would keep an eye on any little clump in the sun if I were you.
Funny how a nice plant to one person is a weed to others,and visa versa.