Cooking with Apples - Apple Month

Photo courtesy of Kirinoha / Flickr Creative Commons edited by me.

Rather belated I know, but there are still almost TWO WEEKS to get baking before October is out!

There are many different types of apples. They are so versatile although - unlike bananas definitely not a raising agent and can have the opposite effect when baking!

I grew up in a village where we were lucky enough to have a large enough garden with a small orchard. My parents moved away from there only two years ago and I'm still struggling with the loss of my fruit source, my freezer has never been so empty!

Baking with Apples

A basic sponge recipe with ingredients substituted for #freefrom alternatives can be transformed with the addition of cinnamon and nutmeg in the batter, poured on to a circle of apple slices on the base of the tin. Perfect apple cake!

Or simpler still, just stew some apples and have containers ready to defrost in the freezer. When you have some flapjacks handy, crumble one or two over small portions of apple for instant desserts!
 If you need gluten free flapjacks, this is the GF recipe.

We regularly make a crumble mix which is roughly

• 6 oz Dove's Farm flour 
• 2 oz gluten free oats
• 2 oz sugar (soft brown for a warmer, nutty taste) 
• 4 oz Pure sunflower. 

(Obviously you can halve this but I freeze any spare.) 
Mix until it is starting to collect together, sprinkle over (defrosted) stewed apple and bake at 180C for long enough that the top goes golden brown.

I've made Bran and Raisin muffins  :-

My personal favourite, blackberry and apple muffins :-

And last but not least Apple and Cinnamon Fairy Cakes

And if I'm *really* pushed for time, it's a whole cooking apple, core cut out and filled with dried fruit, cinnamon and baked in the microwave (covered in cling film!) for 2-3 minutes. At Christmas time I swap the centre filling for mincemeat!

Delicious.