Miss Haughton's Apple Crumble
This is my oldest recipe of all. It dates back to my
High School cookery classes at Henry Harbin Girls Secondary
Modern School, in Poole, Dorset, England.
Boy do I
have some memories of that cooking class and especially of
the teacher, Miss Haughton. If ever there was a
teacher to instill fear into a girl's heart then she was it.
She terrified me and I didn't much like the things we cooked
in her class either. Fancy teaching 13 year-olds how
to make Soused Herrings or how to properly segment a
grape fruit.
There was a girl I was quite friendly with at he time
called Heather Collins and I think Miss Haughton despised
Heather even more than she despised the rest of the class.
Heather would certainly stir her up a bit though. I
can clearly remember a pastry recipe we had to create and
Heather was discovered trying to push her pastry through a
sieve! I can't imagine why she was doing that!
I have more memories of those cooking
lessons than of any other subject I studied at
that school. I suppose poor Miss Haughton
is long dead. She seemed old to me, even
in those days.
(I'm looking back through my hand-written school recipe
book now and I've just glanced at part of the lengthy
instructions for boiling cabbage. It says "Boil
steadily until crisply tender (not soggy) from 10 to 30
minutes". I can't imagine any cabbage being crisply
tender after being boiled for 30 minutes, can you?)
I must admit that one good recipe I gained from Miss
Haughton was her Apple Crumble.
To convert any of these ingredients into US measurements please
use this
Quantity Conversion
Chart.
Ingredients:
500 gm (1 pound) cooking apples
3 - 4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
Crumble Topping
1 and 1/4 cups self raising flour
pinch salt
3 tablespoons margarine or butter
2 tablespoons sugar
Method:
Pre heat oven to 180
degrees Celsius.
Peel, core and cut apples into thin slices. Place
in pan with water and boil with lid on until tender. Do not
stir during the cooking.
(Back comes another memory of Heather - she did exactly
what Miss Haughton said not to do: she lifted her saucepan
lid several times, too much steam escaped and the apples
consequently burned on the bottom of the pan. The
straw that broke Miss Haughton's back was when she realized
that it was her very best pan that Heather had been using
too. Poor old Heather copped it again.)
Back to the Method: Beat the cooked apples until smooth
and sweeten to taste. Place in a greased pie dish.
Place self raising flour and salt into a bowl and rub
margarine into it until like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in
the sugar. Sprinkle over the fruit but don't press down
solid.
Bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees
Fahrenheit) for about half an hour.
Serves 4.
Notes:
Instead of using apples you can substitute plums, rhubarb
or gooseberries. If substituting these fruits you will
definitely need to use sugar.
This dessert is delicious with either custard or ice
cream.
Facts:
A medium apple has about 80 calories. 25% of an apple's
volume is air - that is why they float. Apples cleanse and purify the blood and the liver. They are
a good source of vitamin C and fibre. Remember your Gran's old
saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away". Well it's
pretty good advice. Remember to eat the skin if you want to maximize the fibre. Eating an apple decreases the chances of
tooth cavities by cleaning the teeth and massaging the gums.
|
I have a
favour to ask. If you are enjoying my web site
please vote for me by clicking on
Top 100 Recipe Sites
If I get lots of votes I'll
get to the top
of
the list of recipe sites so
more
people
get to visit my web site. Thanks.
|
|
