An Apple a Day

One minute it was all season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and suddenly, whether I like it or not, the Christmas countdown has begun....  However, before I go and get completely obsessed with what colour scheme my tree will be this year, I'm giving one last culinary gasp to Autumn.  It definitely wouldn't win me Star Baker on "The Great British Bake Off" (a totally addictive BBC television baking competition for those who are not in the know) but this apple pie is a slam dunk winner around our kitchen table. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my boys out in the garden apple picking and then munching their way through the fruits of their labours a couple of hours later.

Photo: www.seasonal-love.tumblr.com

The recipe in question is Nigel Slater's " Bramley Apple Shortcake" which comes from his amazing Kitchen Diaries (the first and best one in my opinion). The pastry is crumbly and sweet - it can be fiddly to roll so you need to be patient, and if you do have to patch it, by the time it comes out of the oven all golden and burnished and beautiful, no-one will be any the wiser - trust me.

For the pastry:
butter- 150g
golden caster sugar- 150g
an egg
plain flour - 250g
1 tsp baking powder
a little milk and sugar to finish 

For the filling:
1.2kg Bramley apples (if you can't get Bramleys, choose another tart apple eg Braeburn)
lemon juice
butter - 50g
a heaped tablespoon of caster sugar.

Photo: Andrea Jones

Lightly butter a 24cm shallow metal pie plate. Cream the butter and sugar in a food mixer until light and fluffy.  Mix in the egg, then gently add the flour and baking powder.  Remove and roll into a ball on a heavily floured work surface.  Knead the dough for a minute or two until it it is smooth and soft (it will be quite soft, be warned). 

Cut the pastry in half, roll out one half and use it to line the pie tin.  Wrap the remaining pastry in greaseproof paper and refrigerate it with the lined tin for 20 minutes or so.  It won't hurt if you leave it a bit longer. Set the oven at 180c/Gas 4.  Peel the apples, remove their cores and slice them thickly, as you would for apple pie.  Drop them in cold water to which you have added a squeeze of lemon juice to stop them discolouring. 

Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan when it sizzles, add the apples.  You want them to colour here and there and soften somewhat, but without breaking up.  Scatter the sugar over them and continue cooking until they are very lightly caramelised. As soon as they show signs of frothing remove from the heat.

Place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up, use the juice from the apples to brush the edges of the lined pastry case.  Fill the tin with the cooked apples, then roll out the second half of the pastry and carefully lay it  on top of the fruit.  Press the pastry edges together and patch where necessary. Brush the pastry crust tenderly with milk and sprinkle with caster sugar.  Bake for 40 minutes or until pastry is golden and crumbly.  Leave to cool briefly, then sugar again before cutting.

I love the way Nige (as he's my constant kitchen companion I like to think we're on first name terms by now) advises 'tenderly' brushing the pastry crust with milk, but he's absolutely right. The warm apples make the pastry very soft so you have to go gently or you risk breaking the pastry top.

I kid you not, this is one of the most life-affirming, uplifting mouthfuls of apple you will ever taste - I urge you to give it a go. As they say on the GBBO "On your marks, get set, bake!"

Reasons to be cheerful Part 1: Love, Laughter and Ladurée

Thank goodness we are into February and the unhappiest day of the year is behind us.  Blue Monday has been and gone so the only way is up. My guaranteed happiness formula is a box of macarons from Ladurée and watching old Hollywood musicals - preferably together. Nothing raises my spirits more than watching Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly et al effortlessly tapdancing their way into the hearts of their paramours - it's style, soul and sunshine all the way.

Swing Time 1936

How elegant and classy do Fred and Ginger look?

Photo: Peter Iovino/The Weinstein Company

Jean Dujardin and Bérenice Béjo were toe-tappingly perfect as Georges Valentin and Peppy Miller in "The Artist".  An exhilarating re-incarnation of the heyday of Hollywood - sheer joy.

As tapdancing is to Hollywood, so Ladurée macarons are to Paris. I know there are other makes, but these are the ones for me. The flavours, the colours, the texture, the shops, the packaging, it's all just spot on, and if you get the chance to taste one you won't regret it. They are also the perfect bite size, refined and sophisticated - the Fred and Ginger of the patisserie world.

laduree.fr

Very cleverly, there is now a whole Ladurée empire: beauty products, candles, home fragrances, perfumes, confectionery - each item as delectable and desirable as the next.

laduree.fr/Design by MMcreation.com

I first tasted these 'gourmandises' when I lived in Paris as a student many years ago and now I am lucky enough to have a Ladurée shop in nearby downtown Geneva. English Gent treats me on special occasions as they are fiendishly expensive, so I thought if Lorraine Pascale can do it, then I'd have a go myself.  (Small difference, she's a trained patisserie chef with her own TV show and I'm not). Here's her recipe from "Baking Made Easy". You will need a piping bag fitted with a 1cm/½in nozzle.

 

Ingredients

• 125g/4½oz icing sugar
• 125g/4½oz ground almonds
• 90g/3½oz free-range egg whites
• 2 tbsp water
• 110g/4oz caster sugar
• food colouring (optional)
• 150ml/5fl oz double or whipped cream, whipped

 

 Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 170/C/325F/Gas 5 and line a large baking tray with baking paper.
   
2. Put the icing sugar, ground almonds and 40g/1½oz egg whites together in a large bowl and mix to a paste.
   
3. Put the water and caster sugar in a small pan and heat gently to melt the sugar, then turn up the heat and boil until the mixture starts to go syrupy and thickens - I don’t use a thermometer but if you prefer to use one, it should read 115C/239F at this stage.
   
4. Whisk the remaining 50g/2oz egg whites in a small bowl until medium-stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl, then pour in the sugar syrup, whisking until the mixture becomes stiff and shiny. For coloured macaroons, add a few drops of food colouring. Tip this meringue mixture into the almond paste mixture and stir gently until the becomes stiff and shiny again.
   
5. Spoon into the piping bag. Pipe a little mixture under each corner of the baking paper to stop it sliding around. With the bag held vertically, pipe 4cm/1½in flat circles onto the lined tray, about 2cm/¾in apart, twisting the bag after each one. The mixture should be quite loose to give a smooth finish. The piping will leave a small ‘tip’ on each circle so, when they’re all piped, give the tray 2–3 slams on a flat surface to flatten them.
   
6. Leave to stand for 30 minutes to form a skin then bake in the oven for 12–15 minutes with the door slightly ajar until firm. Remove from the oven, lift the paper off the baking tray and leave the macaroons to cool on the paper.
   
7. When cool, sandwich the macaroons together with whipped cream. They can be kept for a couple of days, if they hang around that long!
   

Three attempts later, and feeling just a tiny bit pleased with myself, I think I've cracked it. Here are the results, using yellow paste food colouring and lemon curd filling.

My top tips would be to use food colouring paste (eg Sugarflair), because you don't want the final mixture to be too runny, (warning - it's a messy process getting it into the piping bag!) and you must mix (with a spatula or spoon, don't be tempted to use the beaters) the meringue into the almond paste and not the other way round as it totally ruins the consistency. I also had to beat my meringues and sugar syrup for a good 5 minutes to stiffen it up.  Next up I'm going to try to make pale pink ones with a rosewater cream filling, and dark pink red with a raspberry jam/cream filling. I'll report back.

Now as I settle down to watch "An American in Paris", I couldn't resist putting my own macarons into an old Ladurée box. Cheeky I know and with full apologies, but I swear it makes them taste even better...