Darina Allen: The perfect recipes for your 'windfall' apples (2024)

To make the preserve, just fill a large pot with the coarsely-chopped fruit and cover with cold water. Add other flavours if you fancy — a few fistfuls of blackberries, sloes, rowan berries, damsons or haws. If you add a mixture, it can be called 'hedgerow jelly'. Alternatively, simply add mint, chillies or a pinch of traditional cloves. This is a brilliant all-purpose recipe — ‘a-catch-all’ to use up a couple of fistfuls of autumn fruit and berries. I can add some ripe elderberries, and in a few weeks bletted medlars to make a delicious apple and medlar jelly to accompany game or a boiled leg of mutton.

We have also found that the strong pectin-rich apple juice works brilliantly as a natural gelling agent in both strawberry and blackberry jam — both of which can be notoriously difficult to set. We plan to freeze it as an experiment to use in winter jams and jellies instead of jam sugar.

And who doesn’t love an apple tart? Every family has their favourite pastry but this recipe for a buttery ‘break all the rules’ shortcrust pastry was passed on to me by my Mum. It’s not just our favourite but has become many other people’s ‘go to’ recipe for a tart or pie crust. It's made by the ‘creaming method’ so for those of you who are convinced you have hot hands, there’s no need to worry, this one is a ‘keeper’ and it also freezes well.

The whole family will love this autumn apple and blackberry pie, with cinnamon sugar and I’ve also included the aristocrat of apple tarts, the French classic, tarte tatin. This is sometimes made with puff pastry but we also love this tender, irresistible sour cream pastry. Give it a try, — it is made in minutes, see how you like it…

Apple charlotte is an almost forgotten pudding. I find it’s best made with Cox’s Orange Pippin apples and slices of good white yeast bread, soaked in melted butter. No wonder it’s so delicious. I make it just once a year, but the memory of the texture of the crisp buttery bread and the sweetness of the Cox’s Apple puree lingers for months on end.

And finally, check out this simple recipe for apple fritters, another of my grandchildrens' favourites which they have nicknamed Scary Little Monsters because of the funny shapes the batter cooks into on the pan. Sprinkle them with caster sugar and enjoy.

Windfall Apple Jelly and Variations

Making jellies is immensely rewarding. This is a brilliant master recipe that can be used for many combinations. A jelly bag is an advantage, but by no means essential. Years ago we strained the juice and pulp through an old cotton pillow and hung it on an upturned stool. A couple of thicknesses of muslin will also do the job. Place a stainless-steel or deep pottery bowl underneath to catch the juice. Tie with cotton string and hang from a sturdy cup-hook. If you can’t get enough windfall apples, use a mixture of crab apples, windfall and cooking apples, like Bramley’s Seedling, Grenadier or any other tart cooking apple.

• Makes 2.7–3.2kg (6–7lb)
• 2.7kg (6lb) windfall apples of crab apples
• 2.7 litres (5 3⁄4 pints) water
• 2 organic lemons
• 425g (15oz) granulated sugar to every 600ml (1 pint) of juice

Wash the apples, cut into quarters, but do not remove either the peel or core. Windfalls may be used, but be sure to cut out the bruised parts. Put the apples into a large stainless-steel saucepan with the water and the thinly-pared zest of the lemons and cook for about 30 minutes until reduced to a pulp.

Pour the pulp into a jelly bag and allow to drip until all the juice has been extracted, usually overnight. (The pulp can later go to the hens or compost. The jelly bag or muslin may be washed and reused over and over again.)

Measure the juice into a preserving pan and allow 425g (15oz) sugar to each 600ml (1 pint) of juice. Warm the sugar in a low oven. Squeeze the lemons, strain the juice and add to the pan. Bring to the boil and add the warm sugar. Stir over a gentle heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil rapidly without stirring for about 8–10 minutes. Skim, test and pot immediately. Flavour with rose geranium, mint, sage or cloves as required (see below).

APPLE AND ELDERBERRY JELLY

Add a fistful or two of elderberries to the apple and continue as above. Up to half the volume of elderberries can be used (1/2 pint of elderberries works very well although it’s not essential to measure — it’s a good starting point). A sprig or two of mint or rose geranium or a cinnamon stick further enhances the flavour.

APPLE AND SLOE JELLY

Substitute sloes for elderberries in the above recipe. You want about the same quantity by weight of crab apples and sloes.

APPLE AND MINT JELLY

Follow the Windfall Apple Jelly recipe and add 3–4 sprigs of mint to the apples as they stew. Add 2–3 tablespoonsof finely-chopped mint to the jelly just before it’s potted.

APPLE AND ROSEMARY JELLY

Add 2 sprigs of rosemary to the apples as they stew and put a tiny sprig into each pot. Serve with lamb.

APPLE AND ROSE GERANIUM JELLY

Add 8–10 leaves of rose geranium (pelagonium graveolens) to the apples initially and 5 more when boiling to a set.

Autumn Apple and Blackberry Pie with Cinnamon Sugar

Serves 8 – 10

• 8 ozs (225 g) soft butter
• 8 ozs (225 g) caster sugar
• 4 eggs, preferably free-range
• 11 oz (300 g) self-raising flour
• 2 good-size cooking apples (approx. 450g (1lb))
• 4 ozs blackberries
• A generous dusting of cinnamon sugar

Cinnamon Sugar

• 110g (4oz) caster sugar
• 1 – 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 x 9 inch (23 cm) round tin.

Cream the butter and sugar until light, fluffy and pale in colour. Add the eggs on at a time, beating well after each addition. Gently fold in sifted flour, mixing well. Place mixture into the well-greased tin.

Peel the cooking apples, slice thinly into ¼ inch (5 mm) slices and arrange slightly buried on top of the mixture. Scatter the blackberries or incorporate as part of the pattern.

Place in a preheated fan oven 170ºC (325ºF/gas mark 3) for 25-30 minutes. Bake until the cake and the apples are cooked. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Serve warm or at room temperature with a bowl of softly whipped cream.

Tarte Tatin

Serves 6-8

The ultimate french apple tart. The Tatin sisters ran a restaurant at Lamotte-Beuvron in Sologne at the beginning of the century. They created this tart, some say accidentally, but however it came about it is a triumph — soft, buttery caramelised apples (or indeed you can also use pears) with crusty golden pastry underneath. It is unquestionably my favourite French tart! One can buy a special copper tatin especially for this tart. It takes considerable courage to cook the caramel dark enough but the end result is so worth the effort

• 1.24kg (2¾lb) approx. Golden Delicious, Cox’s Orange Pippin or Bramley Seedling cooking apples
• 175g (6oz) sour cream pastry or puff pastry or rich sweet shortcrust pastry (see recipe below)
• 110g (4oz) unsalted butter
• 210g (7 1/2oz) caster sugar
• a heavy 20.5cm (8inch) tatin mould or copper or stainless steel sauté pan with low sides

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas Mark 7 for puff pastry. For shortcrust -180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4.

First, roll out the pastry into a round slightly larger than the saucepan. Prick it all over with a fork and chill until needed.

Peel, halve and core the apples. Melt the butter in the saucepan, add the sugar and cook over a medium heat until it turns golden–fudge colour. Put the apple halves in upright, packing them in very tightly side by side, being careful not to burn your fingers. Replace the pan on a low heat and cook until the sugar and juice are a dark caramel colour. Hold your nerve: otherwise it will be too pale. Put into a hot oven for approx 15 minutes.

Cover the apples with the pastry and tuck in the edges. Put the saucepan into the fully preheated oven until the pastry is cooked and the apples are soft-25-30 minutes approx. For puff pastry reduce the temperature to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 after 10 minutes.

Take out of the oven and rest for 5-10 minutes or longer if you like. Put a plate over the top of the saucepan and flip the tart on to a serving plate. (Watch out — this is a rather tricky operation because the hot caramel and juice can ooze out). Reshape the tart if necessary and serve warm with softly whipped cream.

Sour Cream Short Crust Pastry

Makes 500g (18oz)

• 250g (9oz) plain white flour
• 25g (1oz) icing sugar
• 175g (6oz) butter
• 62ml (2½fl oz cup) sour cream

To make the pastry:

Put the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Dice the butter and rub into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add enough sour cream to just bring it together. Divide in two pieces, wrap, refrigerate and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling out. Use for tarts, pies or tarte tatin.

Apple Charlotte

This is the scrummiest, most wickedly rich apple pudding ever. A friend, Peter Lamb, makes it as a special treat for me every now and then.

It’s also a brilliant way to use up bread and apples deliciously.

We make apple charlotte from old varieties of eating apples — my favourites are Egremont, Russet, Charles Ross, Cox’s Orange Pippin or Pitmaston Pineapple. It’s sinfully rich but gorgeous.

Serves 4-6

• 1 kg (2¼lb) dessert apples
• 225g (8oz) clarified butter
• 175g (6oz) caster sugar
• 2 organic egg yolks
• good quality white yeast bread
• 1 loaf tin – 13 x 20cm (5 x 8inch)
• Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.

Peel and core the apples. Melt a little of the clarified butter in a stainless steel saucepan. Chop the apples into cubes and add to the saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of water and the caster sugar. Cover and cook on a gentle heat until the apples break into a thick pulp. Beat in the egg yolks one by one — this helps to enrich and thicken the apple purée. Taste and add a little more sugar if necessary.

Melt the remaining clarified butter and use a little of this to brush the inside of the tin and then dust it with caster sugar. Cut the crusts off the bread and cut into strips about 4cm (1 1/2inches) wide and 13cm (5 inches) high and quickly brush them with the clarified butter. Line the sides of the tin with butter-soaked bread. Cut another strip to fit tightly into the base of the tin. Brush it on both sides with butter and tuck it in tightly. Fill the centre with the apple pulp. Cut another strip of bread to fit the top. Brush with melted butter on both sides and fit it neatly to cover the purée.

Bake for 20 minutes then reduce the heat to180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for another 15 minutes or until the bread is crisp and a rich golden colour.

To serve:Run a knife around the edges in case the bread has stuck to the tin. Invert the apple charlotte onto a warm oval serving plate. It won’t look like a thing of beauty, it may collapse a bit, but it will taste wonderful. Serve with softly whipped cream.

Apple Fritters

Funny how one sometimes forgets a recipe; we hadn’t had these for ages, but I remembered them recently and they taste just as good as ever. As children, we particularly loved fritters because they used to fry into funny shapes, which caused great hilarity. These can also be shallow-fried in a pan. You can add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the sugar to toss the apples in for extra flavour.

Serves 6–8

• 110g (4oz) plain white flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 organic egg
• 150ml (5fl oz) milk
• good-quality vegetable oil, for frying
• 450g (1lb) cooking apples (about 4), Bramley’s Seedling or Grenadier
• 225g (4oz) caster sugar or cinnamon sugar (see apple and blackberry pie recipe)

Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and drop in the egg. Use a whisk to bring in the flour gradually from the edges, slowly adding in the milk at the same time. Leave the batter in a cool place for about 1 hour.

Heat the oil in a deep-fryer to 190°C (375°F).

Peel and core the apples. Cut into rings, no thicker than 1cm (1⁄4 inch). Dip the rings into the batter and lift out with a skewer, allowing the surplus batter to drain off, then drop into hot fat, a few at a time. Fry until the batter is golden brown and the apple is tender. Drain well on kitchen paper. Toss each fritter in caster sugar or cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately on hot plates with softly whipped cream.

Wild Foods:

Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris)

Crab apples are wild apples that probably grew from seeds in an apple core that was tossed from the window of a car. They are in season at present and may be picked off the tree, but many grow quite high so they can be difficult to reach. However, the windfalls that lie on the ground are also worth collecting. Once the bruised bits are cut out and thrown into the compost bin, the remaining skin, pips and stalks are fine for making jellies.

Sea Buckthorn

The yellow berries of sea buckthorn are ripe now. We’ve got a fantastic crop this year, I’ve been combing cookbooks to find recipes in which to use them. A touch of frost will sweeten them but freezing them on the branch has the same effect. Careful when you are harvesting them, the branches are thorny. Sea Buckthorn are high in Vitamin C, omega 3, 6, and 7, brilliant to boost our immune system. Just crush the berries with a pestle and mortar and take a shot of the juice. You can also make a sea buckthorn syrup as a basis for ‘spritzy’ drinks and of course an apple and sea buckthorn jelly.

HOT TIPS

Upcoming courses at Ballymaloe Cookery School….

Plan ahead for Christmas: we’ve added a number of Christmas-themed courses to our Ballymaloe Cookery School schedule – Monday, Dec 14 – Friday, Dec 18. Lots of variety to choose from, brilliant for a pressie or why not gather a few friends together and plan a trip to Ballymaloe. For more information go to cookingisfun.ie

Don’t miss Rory O’Connell’s new cookery show – ‘How To Cook Well with Rory O’Connell’ - Every Tuesday at 8.30pm on RTÉ One