Taste of Home : Apple Charlotte

I’ve mentioned the television series that I recently filmed in Cornwall often in this book, mainly because most of the recipes in the programmes are for dishes I cook at home a lot. The runaway success of the series was this Apple Charlotte, which I cooked in an orchard at Tresillian House, near Newquay. It’s a very special recipe—my mother’s and one of her favourites.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

125g butter

350g Bramley apples

250g Cox’s apples

2 tbsp sugar

A little grated lemon zest, to taste

6-8 slices white bread, about 5mm thick, crusts removed

Custard, clotted cream or ice cream, to serve

Method:

Grease a pudding basin, about 15cm in diameter and 10cm deep, with plenty of the butter. Peel, core and finely slice the apples.

Rinse in cold water and put them in a saucepan with the sugar, lemon zest and 30g of the butter. Cook to a pulp over a low heat and then beat to a purée with a wooden spoon. Allow to cool. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C

Melt the remaining butter. Dip each slice of bread in the butter and then line a pudding basin with about three-quarters of the slices. Pack them in tightly and don’t leave any gaps.

Spoon in the cooled apple purée and cover with the remaining buttered pieces of bread and gently push down.

Tightly cover the pudding with foil and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for a further 8-10 minutes until the top is golden brown. Leave the pudding to rest for 5 minutes before turning out onto a serving plate.

Serve with custard, clotted cream or ice cream.

Rick Stein At Home: Recipes, Memories and Stories From a Food Lover’s Kitchen (BBC Books) is out now

Read more: 10 fun facts about Apples

Read more: 10 recipe ideas for leftovers

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