I’ve been moved this week by Adrian Blackshaw of Hemitage Farm in Herefordshire. Adrian and I have spoken about the sorry situation whereby he has lovingly grown a bountiful orchard of Organic Bramley apples, and yet he’s not found a buyer for the fruit. Thirty tonnes are at risk of being wasted. I find this scandalous, and I do worry that we are losing touch with our native ingredients here in the UK and that we lack the cookery skills to deal with these ingredients. I am work on ways to tackle this at the moment. Watch this space for more news soon.
Radio 4 listeners may have caught Adrian on Farming Today this morning in a fascinating interview, with starts around 8 minutes into the programme. I urge you to listen to the piece, which can be found here.
In the meantime, I’d like to share a favourite recipe with you that is sensational made using Bramley apples – the apple strudel. Far easier to make for yourself than you might imagine. Now’s the time to get picking your Bramleys, and this is the perfect sunday pudding to make for your family. Have a lovely weekend.
Thanks to Jonathan Cherry for the photos.
- • 3 large Bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm cubes
- • Juice of ½ a lemon
- • 100g sultanas
- • Pinch of cinnamon
- • 150g light brown soft sugar
- • 200g ready made ready rolled puff pastry
- • 2 tsp milk
- 1) Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas Mark 4.
- 2) Place the cubes of apple, lemon juice, sultanas, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and stir together well. Set aside
- 3) Grease a large baking tray well and lay out the sheet of puff pastry carefully on the tray.
- 4) Spoon out the apple mixture from the bowl along one edge of the pastry, running about 3cm away from the edge.
- 5) Once you have created an even line of fruit along the edge of the pastry, tightly roll up the pastry with the fruit in the centre, like a swiss roll
- 6) Once you have rolled up the pastry, squeeze it together gently and press down on the seam to make sure it is sealed. Fold up the ends well and press together to seal.
- 7) Lay the strudel with the pastry seam underneath. Brush with milk and make a few slits in the pastry on the top.
- 8) Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and the pastry is crispy
I’ve literally just read an article over on another blog about farmers and excess produce that would have been wasted. Take a look at this : http://circusgardener.com/2015/10/31/apple-and-rosemary-tartlets/
Perhaps the gleaning network could help your farmer friend
Thanks for this, Urvashi – very interesting!
Wow, I find this shocking and sad! Thank you for highlighting this issue. I can not believe no one is buying lovely Bramleys. Your recipe is a delicious way to use them and just perfect for a dessert at this time of year!
Thank you so much, Jayne. Glad to hear you agree and like the sound of the recipe x