They don’t only keep the doctor away: apples are the perfect snack, the perfect fruit, the perfect baking ingredient.
And they are ripe just now in orchards throughout Kent and East Anglia, all the gorgeous Coxes, Russets, Galas and Pippins, my favourite Granny Smiths, and Bramleys for pies and crumbles. You could not have a more traditionally British produce than apples! Which makes me angry seeing some supermarkets' shelves laden with fruit from the southern hemisphere. How wrong is that?
So here comes an apple collection: top 12 recipes featuring gorgeous apples.
Apple cake with spiced, cooked Granny Smith chunks sunk into a cinnamony soured cream sponge and finished with a crisp brown sugar and oat crumble. No mixer needed, the cake is reliably moist and perfect warm with clotted cream or ice cream.
Apple cake with oat crumble
RECIPE
If you can't be bothered to make a cake, apple crumble is the easiest and nicest autumn dessert, put together in a few minutes and baked in half an hour. Apples and rum-steeped raisins covered with oat and cinnamon crumble are the perfect weekend afternoon treat.
My apple pie is a cross between American and English pie versions. The perfect apple pie with sweetened shortcrust pastry and tart fresh apple filling - the best apple pie recipe I’ve tested. It’s totally worth it to make pastry from scratch.
Rustic apple galette is the French take on apple baking, with a shortcrust pastry base and sliced raw apple filling. There’s no blind baking, no precooking apples – and no soggy bottom!
Apples are not only good for desserts: they go wonderfully well with roast duck or goose. Here, a goose breast is seared in a skillet to render fat, then finished off in the oven. It is served with apple and raisin topping to cut through the rich flavour of the meat.
Goose breast with apples and raisins
RECIPE
Dorset apple cake is a rustic heritage bake from the orchards of Dorset, made with local apples, warm spice and a crunchy brown sugar topping. My version stays true to that tradition with wholemeal flour, unpeeled apple slices and a Demerara crust.
Rissoles are croquettes made with minced cooked meat, coated in breadcrumbs and fried or baked. In this recipe they are made with leftover roast duck, and flavoured with apple and cheese. Duck and apples, as I’ve said already, are a great pairing.
Rissoles with apple and cheese
RECIPE
Apple Kuchen is somewhat more of a challenge but it delivers an amazing product: soft, brioche-like cake topped with apples. It's a German classic, with yeast dough base and roasted apples, while the nuts and breadcrumbs give the topping good texture. It's utterly delicious warm, with cream or custard.
How about apple jam instead of boring strawberry or apricot? Apple marmalade is a thick and gorgeous spiced apple preserve with natural pectin. If it’s never jam today, perhaps we can have some marmalade, eh?
Honey cake with dates and apples from Nigella Lawson’s collection is not only suitable for Rosh Hashanah: it’s simply the perfect autumnal cake.
Honey cake with dates and apples
RECIPE
Rustic lemon and apple slices are cut from a buttery traybake with a crumble topping. Easier than a pie, no-blind-bake recipe with lemon curd, poppy seeds and cinnamon apples: simple, zesty, and ideal for afternoon tea.
This might be the easiest apple cake recipe in the world, of the 'mix everything and bake it' type. It's fragrant with cinnamon and cloves, dark brown with cocoa and dotted with pale chunks of apples.