My mum is famous for her meringue. And not in a good way (sorry, Mummy xx). I say this with all the love in my heart, but she has a reputation for making meringues like chamois leather. My grandmother, on the other hand, had the absolute knack for it; crisp and chewy on the outside, yet with an airy and fluffy interior.
This is her recipe for what we still like to call Granny Pudding, a dessert that is so quick and easy to knock up on a rainy weekday evening, and that is equally delicious eaten warm from the oven, or in 2am darkness straight from the fridge (like last night; my sincere apologies to everyone who was expecting there to be leftovers this morning).
As with many family recipes, the quantities given here are mere guidelines, please tweak them to your own satisfaction. When I say I used a kilo of apples for this pudding, it was actually eight reasonably sized dessert windfalls, I would think if you are using whopping Bramleys it would be about six. In the same vein, I always prefer more spice than most; as my son Wolf said to me yesterday, “you think literally everything tastes better with cinnamon in it, Mum!” And just for once, I am right 😀 x
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 kilo apples
200g caster sugar, plus about 2 or more tablespoons to sweeten the apples
4 eggs, seperated, at room temperature
1bsp cornflour
1/tsp mixed spice
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Peel, core and roughly chop the apples, and place in a saucepan with enough water to cover the bottom of the pan to a depth of about a centimetre. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat, then simmer until the apples have broken down into a pleasingly rough puree. Remove from the heat, add the mixed spice and then add sugar to taste; I prefer the stewed apples to be quite tart, as there will be such a hit of sweetness from the meringue.
Place the egg whites in a large bowl or kitchen mixer, and whip until they form stiff glossy peaks. Now whisking gently, add 100g of the sugar, a spoonful at a time, before sprinkling over the cornflour and mixing again. Continue to add the rest of the sugar, once again adding each spoonful slowly.
Add the four egg yolks to the apple mix and stir to combine, before tipping into a large oven proof dish. Gently add the meringue on top and spread to cover, using the back of a fork to make satisfying ruffles on top. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the top is crisp and golden; I would check it after 10 minutes, as with such a high sugar content it can catch and burn quite easily.
Serve with a nice cup of tea, a blanket and an episode of Stranger Things 🙂 x
