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:
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.
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.
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
MORE DESSERT APPETISER IDEAS!
Baked Black Figs Ratafia
The ninth in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Recipe Challenge. Juicy and delicious, the variety is Col de Dame Noir.
Cut in half and topped with ratafia mixture they are easy to handle as a
finger food...read more
Cranachan Cream Crowdie
This
is the second recipe I'm posting in my 100 gluten free party food
recipe challenge. A traditional Scottish Harvest Home Celebration
dessert, mini version in a tot or shot glass. Cranachan is a
celebration of Scottish produce, here however with just a hint of the
Caribbean. ...read more
Chocolate Roulade Layer Cakes with Chocolate Ganache
The
fourth recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Recipe Challenge. A
traditional luscious French flourless and fatless sponge or biscuit roulade,
which here I've made into mini triple-layer cakes with home-made fresh
apricot compote and chocolate ganache...read more
Mini Pavlova
The eleventh recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. Named for the Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova.T here is something rather wonderfully decadent in being able to eat one in just a few bites!..read more
STUFFED GRAPE 'TOFFEE APPLES'
The fourteenth recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. Sometimes it's important, albeit a little crazy, to create a recipe which should be prefaced with the words 'difficult and finicky'. I'd seen photographs of ...read more
Ice Scream - Raw Milk Rich Vanilla Ice Cream Appetisers. Gluten-free
The sixteenth recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge.
Inspired by a scene from the 1963 Horror Comedy Spoof The Raven with Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and a very young Jack Nicholson. We had such fun making these...read more
Pistachio Stuffed Dates. Gluten-free
The
seventeenth recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. As well as being a
festive dish, this recipe for stuffed
dates is also an accompaniment for mint tea a fragrant and typically
Moroccan drink...read more
Cashew Stuffed Dates. Gluten-free Petits Fours
The twenty-first recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. This time I'm using cashew nuts and marrying them with apricots...read more
Caledonian Cream. Traditional Festive Scottish Dessert
The
twenty-third recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge.
Caledonian cream, is associated with Burns' Night suppers, wedding
breakfast menus and was a favourite of Queen Victoria's Christmas fare
at Balmoral...read more
RETURN TO MAIN CONTENTS PAGE
RETURN TO 100 GLUTEN-FREE PARTY RECIPES CONTENTS
© Sue Cross 2017
