Apple Pudding

It's apple week in the Chocolate Shavings kitchen! For some odd reason, I had never really been apple picking. I have a distant memory of my parents taking me to this farm once outside of Paris and picking a couple apples and learning how to make bread, but it wasn't exactly the same adventure.
It was raining pretty heavily this weekend but we decided that apples would be picked, rain or shine. When we got to the farm, I was in awe. There's just something about picking the apple straight from the tree. It might seem like an obvious statement, but it's easy to disconnect yourself from where your food comes from, even at the farmer's market. Seeing this plump tree full of ruby red goodness made me giggle. Tugging at each apple to see if it was ready to leave its home, and tasting the different types of apples, their varying sweetness and tartness. It was a moment of pure bliss.

For my first recipe of apple week, I made apple pudding. I adapted the recipe from Delicious magazine, with a couple tweaks. I have about 60 apples calling my name in a big basket.. so be prepared for a lot more apple-themed recipes in the days to come!


Apple Pudding
Serves 4

2 big apples (I used Cortland), peeled, cored and roughly chopped
1/2 lemon, juice and zest
2 1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 cup of self-rising flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
50 grams of room temperature butter
1 egg

Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a small bowl, combine the apple pieces, lemon juice and zest, cinnamon and half of the brown sugar. Set aside.

In a another bowl, using an electrical mixer, beat the butter and the rest of the sugar (about 2 minutes). Add the the egg and vanilla extract until just combined. Slowly add in the flour until just combined. Divide the apple mixture into 4 individual ramekins and add a spoonful of the flour mixture ontop. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Enjoy!