Saturday, November 04, 2006

Apple sponge



I got this traditional English recipe from this little cookbook I bought for £1 in a pound store - where everything in the shop sells for £1 or less. Yes, they sell things for less too. The last time I went there, they were having a "half-price sale" on certain items! 1/2 of £1 - wow, savings of 50p! *wink*

Anyway, I like the recipes because they use English apples - Cox Orange Pippin, for one. I would love to try local or traditional English varieties just to see how they turn out in the recipes.

There are a few recipes in this book that seem a bit weird to me - one or two are savoury ones using pork, which I am not really hankering to try. Most, however, are really basic and simple (assuming you have puff pastry or sweet shortcrust pastry at home, that is).

This apple sponge recipe is one of the quick and basic ones that didnt call for any kind of pastry. It was just right to use up two medium Granny Smith apples (I dont know if they're a special English variety, I used them because they were the only apples I had!), although the book does not specify any particular apple for this recipe - just any cooking variety would do.

According to my little cookbook, this sponge is best served warm with clotted cream. I'd go for the icecream, personally speaking.

Recipe for:
Traditional apple sponge




Ingredients:

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced to medium thickness (5mm)
1 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup caster (superfine) sugar
1/3 cup sultanas
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk (or as required)
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp demerara sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

Method:

1. Grease a 6" round pan lightly with cooking spray or butter. (I used a heart-shaped pan.) Heat the oven to 200degC.

2. Sift the flour and salt in a mixing bowl.

3. Rub in the butter or margarine, then stir in the caster sugar and sultanas.



4. Add the beaten eggs and vanilla essence and mix, adding as much (or as little) milk as required to make a fairly stiff batter.

5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and level with the back of a flat spoon, dipping the spoon in water to stop the batter sticking to it.



6. Arrange the sliced apples in a concentric overlapping pattern (if using a round pan) to cover the surface of the batter.



7. Sprinkle the cinnamon-demerara sugar mixture over the apples.



8. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30-45 minutes or till the sponge tests done.

9. Let the sponge sit in the tin for 5 minutes,



then turn it out onto a serving plate.



10. Serve warm with icecream or clotted cream.

7 comments:

Vani said...

This is such a visual treat! I'm sure it tastes great too, eap with ice cream! :)

Anonymous said...

That dish looks really sophisticated. But it looks like the recipe is pretty straightforward.

Menu Today said...

Hi Shammi,
It looks soooo nice...

Anonymous said...

Hi Shammi.... its my first time here.... this looks absolutely great and simple to make.... thanks for sharing. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Shammi,
I am a long time lurker, first time commenter here . I just finished making/charring your apple spongecake right now.
Trust me to mess up a real straight-forward ,simple recipe!!!
Please excuse me for sounding real stupid... how do the apples get cooked?. When I made this, the cake part was already done but the apples weren't. So I broiled it to cook the apples!!!Now I have charrred apples on a beautiful sponge cake!!Oh dear!
Any tips/suggestions would be appreciated.Thanks!
Oh, I almost forgot to add... you do a great job here & have a very nice style of writing.Keep up the good work!

MK

Shammi said...

MK: Hi there, glad you de-lurked! :) Re the apples - I think maybe you were expecting the apples to become soft when cooked? I assume that's why you tried to broil them. Well, the apples dont get mushy or anything like that. Basically, when the sponge is done, consider the apples done too :) Anything else I can help with?

Sonu said...

looks awesome!!!!!!1must try