Autumn Leaves are Falling
As the trees turn their gorgeous shades of golden, red and deep, deep orange and the debates about when to put the heating on are fully underway (another jumper is surely the first step?), it’s time to make the most of the abundance of autumn fruits.
I’m lucky to have a fabulous friend with an orchard for a garden and several apple trees – thank you Kate for the bounty. There will be apple jelly, apple pies and that has just reminded my of my mum’s friend Sian and her famous German apple cake, I have to make one of those soon, watch this space…
Help! My friend has a glut of apples!!
If you have a friend like Kate or an apple tree of your own – here’s how to keep the apple products coming all year. Store apples at room temperature for a week or up to six weeks in the fridge, wrapped in damp kitchen paper or a perforated plastic bag.
Got more than six weeks’ worth? Store them for up to year if you tend to them lovingly. They love a cool, dark place and – here’s the fun bit – wrap each individual apple in newspaper (I remember spending hours with my brothers, happily doing this as a kid under the watchful eyes of our grandparents, who I now realise didn’t pay us for our labours…). Check a couple of the apples once in a while to make sure there are no signs of decay.
You could also freeze your apples for up to six months – slice them, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the slices and freeze. They’re best cooked after this as they’ll lose some of their crispness in the freezer.
Crumble Time
I love a crumble, it’s a comforting, wrap-me-up-in-a-blanket kind of a dessert. And it’s so versatile – add whichever fruits you take your fancy. This time I did a combination of Bramley apples and Victoria plums – just apples works, apples and pears, add a little quince, if you’ve managed to forage for some brambles, those would make a perfect addition. You’ll need about a kilo of fruit in total for this recipe.
Serve the crumble warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. If the weather has turned properly chilly, then custard would be perfect.
Autumnal Crumble
Ingredients
- 50g hazelnuts
- 300g plums
- 3 Bramley apples
- 125g golden caster sugar
- 75g butter
- 170g plain flour
- 30g oat flakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan/gas 6.
- Place the hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast until browned, around five minutes.
- Remove the toasted nuts from the oven and tip into a clean tea towel.
- Rub the hazelnuts in the tea towel to remove the skins.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4.
- When the hazelnuts are cool, roughly chop them.
- Quarter and stone the plums and place in a mixing bowl.
- Peel and core the apples, cut into chunks, add to the plums and mix well.
- Put the fruit in the pie dish and sprinkle with 50g of caster sugar.
- Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles very coarse breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar, oats and chopped hazelnuts.
- Sprinkle the crumble over the fruit and bake for 30-4 minutes or until the fruit is cooked (test with a skewer) and the crumble topping is golden.
