- grown only in Britain
- stores well – ours are keeping particularly well this year
- the best apple for cooking
- versatile – good with pork as apple sauce, or with brambles as a pudding. We are enjoying stewed Bramleys with porridge during this cold snap!
Nutritional Value of Bramley apples
Bramley apples contain:
- antioxidants, including polyphenols,
- flavonoids
- vitamins C & A
- potassium, calcium & iron
- fibre
Bramley Apple Week 2010 is a reminder that an apple a day is the road to good health.
Celeriac and apple mash
apples
We had this yesterday during a conference at Chatsworth House. It went well with the beef cobbler – and would be the perfect accompaniment for game.
Ingredients for apple and celeriac mash:
2 Bramley apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 small celeriac – about 500g, peeled and cut into chunks
knob of butter
Caster sugar to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Method:
- Add the apple and celeriac chunks to a large pan of boiling, salted water.
- Boil for 8-10 minutes until tender.
- Drain.
- Mash, until smooth, with a potato masher or ricer, adding the butter and some ground black pepper.
- Taste and add a little caster sugar if the mixture is a bit tart
This recipe for apple and celeriac mash is a quick and easy recipe, ideal for the colder months.
This Green tomato chutney recipe is a great combination of apples, shallots and green tomatoes. It is cheap & easy to make if you grow your own apples, shallots and green tomatoes. It is also a way of using up the damaged, pecked or wind blown apples.
green-tomatoes
Ingredients for 5 or 6 500kg jars
- 1.5kg green tomatoes
- 1 kg cooking apple
- 450g shallots
- 450g sultanas
- 450g demerara sugar
- juice of 2 lemons
- 50g root ginger
- 50g salt
- 25g mustard seeds
- 1.75litres wine vinegar
- 2 red chillies
chutney-green-tomato
Method
- cut up the tomatoes
- peel, core and chop the apples
- peel and slice the shallots
- crush the ginger with a rolling pin
- halve the chillies
- place the ginger & chillies in a muslin bag, tie it securely & place in the preserving pan, & add all the other ingredients
- put the pan on a gentle heat & stir until the sugar has dissolved
- then simmer for about two hours without the lid on the pan
- when there is no more runny liquid, and the chutney is creamy and thick, remove the muslin bag
- pour into warm, sterilised jars, cover, seal and label
- keep for 2 months to allow the flavour to develop
This recipe for green tomato chutney will make a good Christmas gift.
Kevin’s wife’s Apple Butter – thanks Kevin for this recipe!
1.Windfall apples (any)
2.Quarter, removing bruised and eaten bits. Keep pips cores skin intact.
3.Smallest amount of water to just covering bottom of lidded pan, this is to get juices flowing.
4.Low heat (side of range for those of us fortunate to have old fashioned range wood of course).
5.Stir occasionally lifting softened fruit to top.
6.When you have a ‘golden’ (not burnt) brown mush, push through sieve to remove skin, pips etc.
7.For every pint of puree add one pound of sugar (or metric equivalence)and one flat t spoon mixed spices.
8.Stir in sugar and spices. Set at side of range with lid, to allow sugar to dissove naturally (even overnight)Sue never hurries her preserves!.
9.Have ready warmed clean jars.
10. Place pan on medium heat, flat ended wooden spoon at the ready. Unlike ordinary jams which you do not stir, this requires moving very thick mix off bottom to prevent sticking and burning,(don’t worry if do get some stuck, fish out quick with the wooden spoon).
11.You require a ’soft’ rolling boil – movement on the top.
12.After 10-15mins check butter for its setting qualities. Place a t spoonful of mix on very cold plate. Set aside for a cooling moment. Tip plate on side, if mix wrinkles but stays put your ready for jarring. If not keep cooking and try again.
13.Add own variations of other fruit with apple as base. To keep pectin levels up probably no more than a third other fruit-consistency will vary.
Apple butter is especially nice for Victoria sponge filling as it does not run away.
Apple butter is my wife’s base recipe for apple & plum butter.
Kevin has commented that he has not got enough plums to make preserves so ‘we will make traditional apple and plum ‘butter’.
The end result is a stiff, sliceable preserve. Keeps years! ideal for sponge cakes as it is fairly ’solid’, does not run.’
Thanks Kevin – that sounds good so here is a recipe for apple & plum butter:
Ingredients:
3 lb Apples
1 lb Plums
¾ lb sugar to each pint of pulp
cinnamon can be added when cooking the fruit
Method:
Cook peeled, cored & chopped apples in a little water until soft.
Add stoned plums to the apples, cook until soft.
Push the pulped mixture through a nylon sieve.
Add ¾ lb sugar for every pint of pulp.
Bring the pulp & sugar mixture to the boil.
When setting occurs and pour into heated jars or pots immediately.
Cover the pots.
Serve apple and plum butter on:
- biscuits
- sponge cake
- toast
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away” because the nutritional value is so good – as shown for Bramley apples below:
1 medium Bramley apple weighing 154gm has:
- calories 80 (0 calories from fat)
- total fat 0
- cholesterol o
- sodium 0
- total carbohydrate 22g
- dietary fibre 5g
- sugars 17g
- protein 0g
- vitamin A 2% of daily requirement
- vitamin C 20% of daily requirement
- calcium 2% of daily requirement
- iron 2% of daily requirement
apple-harvest
The Bramley apple bicentenary is in 2009, because the first Bramley tree was grown from pips planted by a young girl, Mary Ann Brailsford, in her garden in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England in about 1809.
Bramley-apples
In 1846 the local butcher, Matthew Bramley, bought the cottage and garden. In 1856 a local nurseryman, Henry Merryweather, was so impressed with the apples that he asked Mr Bramley if he could take cuttings from the tree and start to sell the apple. Bramley agreed, but insisted the apple should bear his name – hence ‘Bramley’s Seedling’.
Bramley-apple-harvest
Henry Merryweather’s book of accounts on 31 October 1862, records that he sold “three Bramley apples for 2/- to Mr Geo Cooper of Upton Hall”.
Click the link to read about the many events have been arranged to celebrate the Bramley Apple Bicentenary in 2009.
Hornsea Herring Apple:
- is both a desert and culinary apple
- old Yorkshire apple
- variety originated circa 1855.
- Hornsea Herring Apple trees are available from Hornsea LifeBoat crew in limited numbers.
- use Hornsea Herring apples from Nov-Feb
- Hornsea Herring fruit is quite large with a very firm flesh.
- apples cook to an aromatic puree with some bite with flavour of acid-drops.
At one time in Hornsea, it was a condition for some tenants that a Hornsea Herring Apple Tree had to be planted and tended.
Bramley Apple Week (3-10 February 2008) celebrates the Bramley Apple which is the best of all cooking apples.
Bramley apples:
- are only grown in Britain
- are versatile, used in savoury & sweet dishes
- retain their flavour throughout the cooking process
- produce a light, airy, moist texture, with a ‘melt in the mouth’ consistency
- count towards your five a day
The Bramley Apple site lists the Health Benefits of Bramley Apples:
powerful source of antioxidants, including polyphenols, flavonoids, and vitamin C, as well as a good source of fibre, and potassium.
high in fibre which reduces the risk of developing heart disease.
The antioxidant content of apples has been linked to the prevention of lung cancer, improved pulmonary (lung) function, and the prevention of type II diabetes.
The vitamin A helps maintain vision and keeps your immune system healthy. Iron prevents anaemia and potassium keeps up muscle function.
Apples contain flavonoids called quercetin, which has been shown in numerous studies to have anti-cancer properties.
Bramley apples are the best cooking apples because they produce a light, airy, moist texture when cooked and retain their flavour.
Comment:
I love apples! Obviously, we don’t have Bramleys here in the Annapolis Valley (the Apple Capital of Nova Scotia, if not the country), but we have Gravensteins (a Slowfood International Food now), Cox Orange Pippins, Russets, (these are two of my favourites) and of course a slew of others that are fairly well known: Gala, Honeycrisp (vastly overrated) Jonagold, Spigold, Golden and Red Delicious, McIntosh (ick!) among many, many others. I like apples with a real snap to them and lots of flavour; usually we have two or three different cultivars here in the house, since there are lots of fruit growers locally.
Comment by jodi – February 8, 2008 2:51 am
