Karen Wright: Family gatherings and apple puddings

A couple of weeks ago it was my Uncle David’s birthday, and he and his wife Janet invited us to their home for a celebratory meal.

My Mum came along too as David is her very much younger brother. We had a great meal; it was all made from scratch by Janet.

We had a roast chicken with mini roast potatoes and parsnips, leek and potato mash, carrots, green beans and sides of bread sauce, stuffing and pigs in blankets.

It really was top notch and such a treat for me to get a break from the kitchen.

Of course, there was after's and it was an Eve's Pudding, which is such a traditional dessert. Stewed apples topped with a light vanilla sponge served with lashings of custard!

Apples are everywhere right now along with pears, and you can often see baskets of them outside the homes of people who have fruit trees with a notice saying “help yourself”.

Janet had been given apples from a friend of hers and there were too many to use up in her pudding so she popped them in a bag for me to take home.

I set to work the next day to make some apple desserts of my own. I peeled, cored and sliced apples and I simmered them in a saucepan with a little water and a couple of tablespoons of sugar until they just started to soften a bit.

While that was happening, I prepared a batch of shortcrust pastry for individual apple pies which I made in a cupcake tin and the batter for my Eve’s Pudding.

For the Eve’s Pudding batter I used a Victoria sponge mixture of 100g butter, 100g sugar, two eggs, a splash of vanilla and 100g of self-raising flour.

I creamed together the butter and sugar then mixed in the egg and vanilla. Once it was well incorporated, I folded through the flour and mixed gently until smooth.

I added the cooked apple made earlier in an ovenproof dish and topped with the batter.

I baked in a 180c oven until the batter was firm to the touch, golden and well risen, a perfect pudding for an Autumn day!