The apple glut solution n
It’s difficult to use every apple you grow, but Jane has the recipes if you want to give it a go.
Apples are my all-time favourite fruit, but I find it impossible to eat every apple before they start to deteriorate. I’ve taking to pickling, bottling, baking and cooking with them so that I can enjoy their goodness all year.
How to get the best apple harvest
If you have blackspot on your apples, cut it out before preserving.
Blackspot is a fungal disease brought on by wet, humid conditions in spring and summer. It affects both leaves and fruit, with initial infection showing up in spring as dark green patches.
Eventually the lesions enlarge and turn black on leaves, and brown with a grey-black halo on fruit. You may also see small, black, peppered spots on the fruit later in the season.
Spores overwinter on dead, fallen leaves and are released into the air when the weather warms up in spring. Remove all leaves and fruit from the ground to reduce the risk of reinfection.
Preventative sprays with a copperbased fungicide in spring also help. The critical period for control is from the beginning of bud growth until the apples are about 1.25cm in diameter, or until December-january.
A little preventative action ensures you’ll have delicious, spot-free apples in summer and autumn.
Frying pan apple crumble
TIME: 20 minutes SERVES: 4
This is an easy, quick, delicious apple crumble, It’s especially handy when apples are in full production. I mostly use cooking apples if I’m baking them in the oven, but for this recipe, the sweeter dessert apples are best.
For the crumble, I used Homebrand muesli with seeds and nuts for added crunch.
You can double the recipe if you are feeding a crowd.
INGREDIENTS Filling
3 large dessert apples, chopped
(no need to peel) 4 tbsp butter icing sugar, for dusting maple syrup (optional)
Crumble
100g unsweetened, untoasted muesli
or rolled oats ¼ cup brown sugar 2 tbsp desiccated coconut 1 tbsp coconut oil 1 tsp cinnamon powder
METHOD
1 Mix all crumble ingredients together. 2 Heat two non-stick frying pans over a medium heat and add 2 tbsp of butter to each pan. 3 Add the chopped apple to one pan and the crumble mix to the other. Cook both for 3-4 minutes, until the apple is soft and the crumble is lightly golden. 4 Divide apple into four serving bowls and top with crumble. Sprinkle with icing sugar, and drizzle with maple syrup if desired.