Baked Stuffed Apples
This recipe requires really good cooking apples, the kind that go fluffy when baked. Here we have used Ohinimuri apples but we have lots of others that are equally good for baking, including Mayflower, Giant Geniton, Lord Nelson and Bramley.
Kay’s Baked Apple Recipe
The following recipe is from Kay’s book Change of Heart
4 Cooking apples
12 dates
1/4 cup of honey
1 tsp mixed spice
i cup of water
Core the apples and fill the holes with 3 dates each. Place in a baking dish, sprinkle spice over them and then the warmed honey. Pour water into bottom of dish and bake until the apples are fluffy and soft. Serve with custard, cream, yoghurt or kefir.
Baked Stuffed Apples – Gail and John’s alternate recipe
The baked stuffed apple pictured was made using our (Gail and John’s) slightly different recipe.
Cooking apples – 1 per person
Raisins – approx half a cup per person
Cinnamon – 1/4 tsp per person
Honey – 1 heaped tsp per person
Tahini – 1 heaped tsp per person
Mix together raisins, honey, cinnamon and tahini to form a paste, core the apples, place in a baking tray and then stuff the hole with the mix. Bake until the apples are fluffy and soft and serve as above.
Apple Cake
This is a very delicious super nutrient dense cake that is satisfying in a way that cakes made with white flour and sugar just can not be. It is the nutrient density that makes it so satisfying!
1 cup butter
2-4 TBspns honey
4 large free range eggs
4TBsps nut flour. You can use any flour but to maker great cake it must be finely ground, we use chestnut flour or walnut flour ground in our corn grinder, or masa corn flour ( flour corn nixtamalised and ground fine in corn grinder) you an buy many nut flours in organic shops and supermarkets
4 heritage cooking apples, cut 2 in half, cored ( keep cores for vinegar)then cut into slices. Sometimes depending on the variety I partly peel them but usually leave the skin on. Cut the other two in half, core and dice the apples into 1cm cubes. I would choose tree ripened apples such as Giant Geniton, Granny Smith, Reinette Du Canada, Worcester Pearmain and Northern Spy if to make this cake. A serious cooking apple is my second most important fruit tree after a lemon!
Grease the bottom and sides of your tin generously with butter, (use a tin that has removeable bottom). Arrange slices of 2 apples in a design on bottom of the tin.
Melt butter, add honey to warm butter and melt honey. Beat eggs in another bowl and add nut flour to eggs, then add diced apple to egg mixture. Add butter mixture to egg mixture, stir well then pour into sliced apple in bottom of cake tin. Bake in a moderate oven until cooked usually around 45 minutes to an hour. If you double the mixture as I often do it will take an hour. Leave to cool then remove sides of cake tin, and place a plate over the cake and turn upside down so that your apple design is on the top.
Apples in Ghee
1 apple per person, cored ( put the cores into your vinegar bottle)and sliced into 1cm thick slices, or cubes
1 Tbsp ghee or butter for each apple
cinnamon or a cinnamon stick to taste
a pinch of sea salt
1 heaped Tbsp per person of toasted coconut
full fat yoghurt or kefir (home made from raw milk) to serve
Fry the apples in ghee and cinnamon with the salt until golden brown, and serve with yoghurt and toasted coconut.
Optional: some organic raisins or date slices, or even some blueberries added to the ghee when cooking apples. We froze organic blueberries when they were in season for this breakfast.
This is a great breakfast , with loads of flavor, nutrition high quality traditional fat traditional fat (ghee, coconut and yoghurt) which is the aim of this exercise! It’s also what makes the meal satisfying and makes you feel full all morning! No more craving for sugar two hours after a commercial breakfast a cereal loaded with sugar….
Apple Pudding
This is a favourite that reminds people of the Bread and Butter pudding of my childhood! (Serves 8)
6 small or 4 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced ( keep the cores for the vinegar pot)
6 eggs
2 Tbsp honey
1 cup butter
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 – 1 cup raisins
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 heaped Tbsp but flour (handground nuts are best, slightly coarser than nut flour)
Melt butter and let cool slightly. Dissolve honey and beat into butter, then add eggs, nut flour and salt.
Cover the bottom of a baking dish with the sliced apples, then pour the pudding mix over the apples and sprinkle with nutmeg.
Bake for 1 hour in a moderate oven.
Dried Fruit
For most of us, dried fruit is a special treat and, once we have our orchards into production, an easy thing to do. Much of our excess fruit can be dried, so long as you have a dehydrator of some kind. I have seen them built into the chimney of a woodstove – very impressive. In the meantime of course, many of you have electric models. One characteristic of high Brix (nutrient dense) food is that it does not oxidise or go brown when cut, not nearly as fast or as much as low Brix food.
I usually place the fruit I’m preparing for drying in a solution of water with a little lemon juice in it to stop the oxidation or browning process. To prroduce quality dried fruit the temperature must be around 60°C and you need to check the fruit every two hours or so. To keep the drying process even, you will have to turn some fruit over and swap trays around.
Vinegar
Good quality vinegar is relatively expensive, but it is very cheap to make your own. You can make vinegar from the fruit or peelings of any fruit. The fruit you use will determine the flavour of the vinegar. (Makes 1 litre)
2 cups chopped fruit, cores or peelings
1/2 cup sugar, rapadura or honey ( you can make vinegar without sugar if you begin with apple juice or crushed apples ad do not need to ad water. The sugar however is used up in the fermentation process so it not there at the end in the vinegar)
1 litre water
Cover the fruit with rapadura and water, mix well and leave for 1 week, covered with a cloth but not an airtight lid. Strain the solids off and then cover again with a clean cloth. Stir vigorously daily for 1 minute or more to aerate with a clean spoon. The more you aerate the liquid, the faster you will achieve vinegar!
Continue until the liquid has turned to vinegar (you can tell by tasting) and you have a clear slimy cover floating on top of the vinegar. This is called the vinegar ‘mother’. Once your liquid has turned to vinegar it must be bottles or the vinegar will turn back to a watery liquid . It must be bottled in narrow neck bottles that are airtight.
You may choose to take the mother out; strain it off and use that to begin your next vinegar. You can also add all the dregs of your home brewing operations into your vinegar pot. We add the dregs of our honey mead and apple cider, but all wines and beers make good vinegar when you either stir daily for a while or add the vinegar ‘mother’.
I find it easier to make a lot at a time. At this time of the year when the apples are abundant. Heritage apples with loads of flavour ( i.e. nutrition) make the best apple cider vinegar. My favourites are the c tree ripened apples such as Giant Geniton, Granny Smith, Reinette Du Canada, Worcester Pearmain and Northern Spy which are all great cooking apples, some of them wonderful desert apples too.
This recipe requires really good cooking apples, the kind that go fluffy when baked. Here we have used Ohinimuri apples but we have lots of others that are equally good for baking, including Mayflower, Giant Geniton, Lord Nelson and Bramley.
This is a very delicious super nutrient dense cake that is satisfying in a way that cakes made with white flour and sugar just can not be. It is the nutrient density that makes it so satisfying!