Frosted Baked Apples, Victorian Christmas Favourite. Gluten-free

There are so many traditional sweets based on apples and eggs which were served in the Christmas period, some recipes we have dating back to the Elizabethan period. Amongst them were the poetically named 'Snow Pudding', 'Apple Florentine', 'Dish Of Snow', 'Snow Cream' and the notorious 'Apple Hedgehog' the bane of cooks and hostesses alike and no doubt the cause of many a nervous breakdown in the kitchen. This latter, a fiendishly difficult and spectacular party centrepiece was finally abandoned by the Victorians as being 'too laborious' but I am going to attempt it in mini version. Another similarly spectacular dish was 'Pommes Flambantes' aka 'Blazing Apples' aka 'Apple Yule Logs' which as the name suggests involves a pyrotechnic element. Hopefully I will get around to this dish too.

Here though I'm going for the less spectacular, much less time-consuming but never-the-less delicious 19th century party favourite, Frosted Apples. This was a sort of 'poor man's' or rather happy cooks version of 'Apple Hedgehog' and here I'm making them with a quick-bake French meringue.

INGREDIENTS

(makes 20)

10 small apples. Again I'm using a couple of cider apple varieties from our orchard, which by now have ripened on the trees to a pretty decent 'cooker' even almost dessert level but still with an agreeable tanginess which balances the sweetness of the meringue. Seen above with their attendant mistletoe make for a very seasonal feeling!

For the Stuffing:

20 raisins
Seville Orange Marmalade, see my recipe link below.

For the Meringue:

3 egg whites

75g - 3oz of blonde cane sugar
A little raw cane sugar (rapadura)

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 190°C or 375°F 

METHOD 

Wash and halve the apples horizontally. Remove the core and pips, turn the halves over and remove the stalk and calyx. Place in a heat-proof dish

Seal the gaps left by the removal of the two latter with a raisin.

Use a teaspoon to stuff the apple halves with the marmalade.

 

VARIATION:

This recipe is also delicious with my previous baked apple filling (see link below).

Pour in 3-4 tablespoons of cold water around the base of the apples. This will stop them drying out before they are cooked through, it will also mean they will part-steam and be juicier but still hold their shape.

Cover the dish with baking parchment and place in the middle of the oven for around 25 minutes.

Whisk up the egg whites to form stiff peaks. Gently fold in the blonde cane sugar. Cover the filling of each apple with a generous layer of meringue 'frost' and sprinkle with rapadura.

Place in the oven on the top shelf. Cook for 5 - 15 minutes. Check after 5 to see if the meringues are the required golden colour.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Best wishes from Normandie,
Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2017

Baked Stuffed Apples with Dried Fruit & Nuts à la Chantilly - Gluten Free

Apples are one of the things we are never short of here in Normandie and as there are many interesting, ancient, festive dishes associated with them, I will be presenting a few for this series. We have an old traditional cider apple orchard and although we grafted some of the  trees with old eating apple varieties, others still have the same ancient small sharper flavoured fruits of yore. However, by leaving our cider apples on the trees, sometime around the end of September and through to the beginning of November these respectively become 'eaters'. Because they are often much smaller than dessert and cooking apples, cider varieties lend themselves very easily to individual appetiser dishes. Furthermore because they still retain a slightly acidic tang, they are eminently suitable to be stuffed with sweetmeats. If you are using dessert apples then alter the sugar accordingly. For an extra festive touch I like to add a dusting of mixed spice or similar.

INGREDIENTS

(makes 20)

10 small apples

For the Stuffing:

I2 prunes
2 figs
4 apricots
10 almonds
20 raisins
20 cranberries
1 small lemon (zest and juice)

1 dessert spoon of rum or similar

1 dessert spoon of raw butter

1 dessert spoon of raw coconut oil

2 dessert spoons of raw cane sugar

For the Chantilly:

100ml or ¼ pint of raw cream

1½ - 2  dessert spoons of  raw cane sugar

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 190°C or 375°F

METHOD 

Chop the fruit and nuts. Add the sugar, lemon zest and juice and the spirit if you are using it. Set aside for a while to allow the flavours to develop and the fruit to absorb the liquid.

Wash and halve the apples horizontally. Remove the core and pips, turn the halves over and remove the stalk and calyx. Place in a heat-proof dish

Seal the gaps left by the removal of the two latter with a raisin.

Mix the coconut and butter into the stuffing and use a teaspoon to stuff the apple halves.

Pour in 3-4 tablespoons of cold water around the base of the apples. This will stop them drying out before they are cooked through, it will also mean they will part-steam and be juicier but still hold their shape.

Cover the dish with baking parchment and place in the middle of the oven for around 25 minutes.

Whisk the cream and sugar together for the Chantilly. Place the cooked apples on a festive plate and allow to cool slightly before topping each apple half with a teaspoonful of Chantilly and dust with icing sugar and (if liked) mixed, apple pie or similar spice.

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2017 
 

Baked Black Figs Ratafia Hot Gluten-free Dessert Appetiser

Juicy and delicious, served hot or cold, here I'm using a medium size fresh black fig, the variety is Col de Dame Noir. The fig is named for the fashionable high lace collars, in this case black (but there is a white and grey version too), which were being when this fig was first raised. There is a baby fig variety called Ronde de Bordeaux and if you choose these you can obviously make twice as many appetisers from the same amount of topping. I created this simple recipe a few years back in late Summer, when a friend turned up with a huge bag full of black figs from his garden. We ate many of them fresh but when the remainder became very ripe, we found they were even more delicious with the addition of another contrasting but complimentary flavour. Cut in half and topped with ratafia mixture they are easy to handle as a finger food and you can serve them just as they are or add a paper case.

...or you can serve when just warm and top with a little cream and an almond.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 20

10 figs (halved)

20 whole almonds or 10 if you want just to use halves! They actually look well on the plate as a mixture.

Cream (optional)
Paper cake cases (optional)

For the ratafia mix:

2oz (60g) Blanched Almonds
2oz raw cane sugar (60g) (rapadura)
¼ teaspoon of rose water
1 egg white

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 190°C or 375°F

METHOD

Pound the almonds with the rosewater. (Or you can buy ready-to-use powdered almonds aka almond meal).

Stir in the sugar.

Whisk the egg white until stiff and add it slowly to the almonds and sugar.

Keep folding in the egg white until you are sure it is  thoroughly mixed.


Place the figs on a lightly buttered dish.

Using a teaspoon, cooled in ice-cold water, drop a little amount of mixture onto the centre of each fig. Make it heaped towards the middle and away from the edges as this will allow room for expansion during cooking. At this point add the almonds to those you are intending to serve hot.

Place in oven on the middle shelf and cook for around 10-20 minutes or until the ratafia feels slightly firm to the touch. Check them at 5, 10 and 15 minutes to see how they are progressing! It will depend on how juicy the figs are as to how quickly they will cook.

Serve hot fresh from the oven, as they are or in a paper case.

As mentioned above, I also like to serve them cold with a little raw cream and an almond.

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

RETURN TO MAIN CONTENTS PAGE 

RETURN TO 100 GLUTEN-FREE PARTY RECIPES CONTENTS 

©  Sue Cross 2017