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Dried Apple Sourdough

The apple season has just finished where I live. To preserve some of the fruit my parents made a big solar drier and have dried a lot of apples from their orchard. I was thinking about warm bread last night while I looked at a stack of these dried apples and had a lightbulb moment – apple sourdough!

Fruit sourdough is delicious with the contrast between tangy bread and sweet fruit, and I added just a touch of spice. Although I used dried apple any fruit would work. I submitted this recipe to the yeastspotting blog too – check it out, plenty of inspiration there if you need some.

apple sourdough (7 of 9)

Ingredients

  • 400g (about 3 1/2 cups) white flour
  • 1 handful of dried apples (or other fruits) cut into in smallish pieces
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 generous pinch of powdered cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp active sourdough starter
  • 6g (1 tsp) salt
  • about 1 cup of filtered water

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add sourdough starter and honey and stir in. Add most of the water and mix well. Continue adding water until the dough is workable and not too sticky. Allow to rest for 10 minutes, then knead for a few minutes or until smooth. For more detail, see my post on making a sourdough loaf.

Leave until well risen – mine took overnight.

Shape into a loaf by flattening out the dough into a sheet about 2-3cm (1 inch) thick and longer that it is wide.

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Fold one third of the dough over itself.

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Then fold over the other third to make a cylinder. Pinch shut along the seam. Turn the loaf over so the seam is on the bottom. This folding gives the dough some internal structure that helps stop it sagging as it rises.

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Set the loaf aside, covered with a lightly floured cloth until it has risen noticeably again – mine took another 2 hours.

I bake bread in an old aluminium roasting pan. I cooked with the lid on for 30 minutes at 230C (450F) for 30 minutes, then took the lid off and baked another 15 minutes to let it brown up.

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Slathered with good butter, this bread was a success! The apple rehydrated slightly but still gave a concentrated hit of tart/sweet flavour that worked with the sourdough.

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Green Tomato And Apple Relish

Tomato season is over, just a few stragglers on the vines plus a few that will never ripen now. Yesterday I helped pull down the plants and trellis from my mums tomato patch to make room for something else. I came home with a big box of green/orange/red tomatoes for making delicious green tomato relish. Its great having a few jars of homemade chutney and relish around – they keep well in or out of the fridge because of the vinegar. A sandwich made with this relish on good bread with a nice sharp aged cheddar is heaven!

chicken sage sausages (1 of 9)

I based my recipe on Stephanie Alexander’s indispensable The Cooks Companion, but I added apples too since I have some nice ones to use. This is a spicy relish with lots of subtle flavours, but you can change the spices around as you like. Cumin is great in chutneys and relishes so often I use that too.

chicken sage sausages (2 of 9)

Ingredients

  • 1kg (2lb) tomatoes – a mixture of green and ripe ones. All ripe tomatoes can be used too for a richer sauce. If you can’t find green tomatoes any supermarket ones will do. See what I did there?
  • 1/2 kg (1lb) apples
  • 1/3 cup white wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp seeded mustard
  • 2 tsp Garam Masala
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cornflour
  • 1 pinch powdered clove
  • 1 pinch chilli flakes
  • 1 pinch turmeric powder

Variations

Not everyone likes sultanas in relish but if you do, add half a cup. If you have vincotto, add 1-2 tsp for a hint of sultana and caramel sweetness.

Method

Slice tomatoes and onions. Peel, core and slice apples. It’s easy to nip out the stem bit of each tomato with the end of a knife but not essential.

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Tip all ingredients except the cornflour into a large saucepan.

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Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for around an hour, stirring every 10 minutes to check it isn’t sticking. Most of the free liquid should be reduced.

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Mix the cornflour with about 1 tbsp water and stir well. Spoon out a little liquid from the sauce and mix with the cornflour paste. Tip the mixture back into the sauce pot and stir well. Simmer for a few more minutes.

Remove from the heat. Use a stick blender to break up any larger lumps, but don’t puree it too much – leave some texture.

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Taste for sweet/sour balance and if necessary add a little more vinegar or sugar to taste.

Pour into sterile jars – an easy way to sterilise jars is to run them through the dishwasher. The vinegar in a relish makes it unlikely to spoil, so you don’t need to boil the full jars like you would if canning vegetables. If you want to be extra cautious put the jars in a large saucepan, tip in hot water nearly to the top of the jars and simmer for 30 minutes. I always put a tea towel under the jars when doing this so the jars don’t jump around and crack.

chicken sage sausages (9 of 9)

If you liked this…

A Quick Guide to Making Preserves

Home-Made Pickles, Chutneys & Relishes: A practical guide to making delicious preserves at home

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Apple Crumble Pizza

There’s apple orchards all around my home town and they’ve been busy harvesting this week. My little tree has usable fruit for the first time too!

apple pizza (1 of 1)

So I have some nice fresh apples, and today I had a spare dough ball after making lunch. Apple pizza? Why not? Here’s what I used:

  • 2 large apples
  • 1 dough ball
  • 2 tbsp raw sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup flour

I didn’t have them handy but the pizza would have been even better with

  • walnuts
  • sultanas
  • cream to serve

Not that I need an excuse to use any kitchen gadget but I was glad to get a chance to use my apple peeling machine. When I first saw these I thought they were ridiculous. I was wrong. With this little baby I can peel, core and slice a kilo of apples in a few minutes.

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The apple peeling machine. You pull back the shaft and spear an apple…
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turn the handle, and a blade peels the skin and the apple is sliced and pushed through a corer…
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voila! Cored, peeled, sliced apple in seconds.

I put 1 tbsp butter in a non stick pan over medium heat and sautéed the sliced apple.

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After around 5 minutes it started to look a bit soft so I added 1 tbsp raw sugar and stirred until the sugar was all melted and caramelised. Then I added 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder, stirred and removed from the heat.

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Next I made a little crumble topping by mixing 1/2 cup flour with 2 tbsp sugar and 1 heaped tbsp butter. The trick is to cut the butter into little pieces and just rub it into the flour with your fingertips. It should form crumbly clumps.

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I shaped the dough ball into a base, scattered over the apple pieces and crumbled the crumble on top. If I had them I would have added a few sultanas and walnuts too.

The whole lot went onto a pizza stone, preheated for 30 minutes in a fan forced oven at 250C / 480F.

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I took it out after 6-7 minutes, when the crumble was brown and the edges of the apple nice and crispy. This was one of my best dessert pizzas – just wish I had some cream left to serve it with too!

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