Apple and Raspberry Slice

An ode to apples across a lifetime....a day late.

Oh apple how many ways can I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Well there’s my first love from childhood, the ubiquitous apple crumble. Not with oats but rather a spiced almost streusel like topping crowning a soft squidgy almost jammy apple base. Best served hot with lashings of vanilla ice cream and cream because no one should be forced to choose. That’s after drowning it in homemade custard of course. Puddles of a golden yellow vanilla scented sweet emulsion hand stirred compulsory only please. Almost like a good gravy to pool on your spoon with mouthfuls of fruit resulting in strands at the bottom, when holding little jewels of crumble crumbs, perfect for scraping up with your spoon for that last little delight.

Whilst like all first loves my passion for crumble endures a woman is allowed to let other loves in once in a while, at least in the kitchen she can. As a nod to an anniversary trip and mine and my husband’s mutual love of apple in baked goods I created this Spiced Apple Loaf. A robust loaf style cake reminiscent of a banana bread held together with a few reliable ingredients like Greek yoghurt, oil, honey and some warm punctuating spices. She’s a reliable robust cake always ready to play host to a slathering of salted butter and bridge the gap between dawn and lunch either as a breakfast or second breakfast masquerading as morning tea. Indeed it’d probably also be perfectly lovely as a muffin too. Note to self….

In a further nod to baked loves of days gone I followed my craving to create something a little more indulgent. Missing one of Melbourne’s most loved cake shops and the creations of her treasured creator I had a stab at a vanilla layer cake with magnificent apple pie filling and mascarpone topping. Who knew mascarpone was the perfect ingredient to create light clouds of creamy vanilla frosting laced with cinnamon to hint at the essential elements of classic apple baking.

Out of sheer frustration in my ongoing pursuit to master my Nana Apple Pie I abandoned all efforts and took a completely different direction. Called to arms by the turn of the seasons and a love of rustic pastry and spices…and of course apple, Apple Hand Pies in Rye Pastry were born. The nutty and crumbly characteristics of the addition of rye in the pastry makes the perfect canvas for the combination of spices and autumnal apple filling nestled inside. And they’re only small so really just a snack…right?

Our little love affair has even leaked into morning and night with the addition of apple to my porridge or blueberry compote at breakfast and lovely salad for dinner on warmer nights. Apple has even found itself in a little slaw snuggled up next to a pork cutlet.

Since the beginning of time Apples have formed the basis of a plethora of dishes and metaphors. Both enticing a love and keeping a doctor away. They’ve been featured in mythology, folklore, fairy tales and biblical stories since time immemorial often becoming the centre point to various types of symbolism and philosophies. Like me many of us will have lovely food memories associated with apple dishes. Perhaps this is rooted in the apple’s place in a baby’s introduction to solid foods as one of the first fruits offered to blooming little palettes. Mostly benign of allergen, not too sweet and abundant in nutrients apples have been used by mothers across generations in their initial forays into bringing their babies into the family’s eating culture. And across generations families have included apple dishes at their tables across the day, dinners and celebrations.

Now let’s try Apple and Raspberry Slice.

Ingredients:

125 gms butter melted

225 gm/1 ½ c self-raising flour

75 gm/ 1/3 c white sugar

75gm/ 1/3 c brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground all spice

½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Pinch salt flakes

3 apples peeled, cored and thinly sliced. I used granny smiths and pink ladies. Use what you have.

2 eggs beaten

2 tsp vanilla extract

100 gm fresh or frozen raspberries

1 tb demerara sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 180c, line a 30cm x 19.5cm slice tin.

Melt butter, set aside to cool. I do this in the microwave, keep it simple if you can.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. Prepare apple as directed above, tip into dry ingredients and toss to distribute and coat evenly. Beat together cooled melted butter, vanilla and eggs. Pour with ingredients into dry ingredients and apple mixture, mix gently. You may need to use your hands here to combine everything well. There may still be a few dry bits of flours but this shouldn’t be much and will sort itself out in the oven.

Distribute half the mixture across the base of the prepared tin. Try and cover the base as much as possible but don’t be too fussed if there’s the odd little gap here and there. Sprinkle over the raspberries and top with remaining apple mixture similarly to the base. Sprinkle over demerara sugar and pop in the oven. Bake 30 mins. Remove when golden brown, firm to touch and a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool to at least just warm before cutting. Cut into pieces of your desired size.

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Finds & Forays

Today’s piece started with a somewhat Shakespearean phrase. It’s a hangover from a novel I’ve just finished. Have you read Jodi Picoult’s new book By Any Other Name. Jeepers I’m still climbing out of the rabbit hole that tipped me into. What an amazing read through time linking a woman of Elizabethan England and one of present-day New York in the same fashion as the movie Julie and Julia. Bringing to light the controversial theory of origin of Shakespeare’s works, which I’d never heard of and exploring themes of discrimination, gender and race all in a way I’d never seen it was fantastic read after a slow start. Clear the decks if you read it and please report back I need to de-brief.

Do you enjoy wine? Enjoy it but stick to the same known bottles but would like to try something different and have no idea where to start? Or really just want to understand wine a little better. In a completely unashamed plug and quite possibly in what will get me in trouble can I recommend this excellent new account to you. Full disclosure I may or may not be the mother of said writer/sommelier but thankfully I can happily recommend his excellent work. He’s a wonderful wine communicator and passionate about what he does.

Ok the sun’s shining. I’m going to pull on my runners and go for a walk and listen to the lovely Mr Tucci on my current fave podcast.

Over and out friends, enjoy your weekend.

S xx