This week I have a freezer full of peeled and sliced apples which I spent Friday evening preparing. I received the apples from my brother who lives in Scotland. “Windfall apples” so I needed to work quickly before the apples started to rot. whilst peeling them I had time to think of several recipes that I wanted to try the apples in. I think I must have peeled and sliced about 35 apples in total so I now have several bags taking up space in my freezer. Needless to say I have already started baking with them and at the weekend I made my version of Caramel Apple Betty.
A standard Apple Betty consists of a layer of pastry topped with apples, caramel and crumble but I decided to bake mine with a sponge base. It was only when the sponge was in the oven that I realised the base would be too thick and that I should have made less sponge mix. Never mind I just went with it and when I added the apple topping it squished the sponge down slightly. I loved how the apple pieces were peaking out of the crumble mix and had browned slightly due to the caramel in the recipe. I made the caramel myself just by adding a lot more sugar than water in the pan with the apples. Once the apples were softened I added a small amount of cornflour to help to thicken the sauce up before I added it to the sponge base.
My family loved this dessert as they took pieces for their packed lunches on Monday and Tuesday. In fact the last two pieces were eaten last night by my husband and myself. It was delicious with custard but would be equally as delicious with icecream or cream.
Yesterday, I spent the morning baking and it was quite therapeutic as the creative juices were flowing. I baked a Chocolate Caramel Cake as it is part of the treat box this week. It is “National Cake Week” this week but you don’t need a cake week to bake a cake do you?. Anyway this cake is to celebrate “National Cake Week”. I decided to make it caramel and chocolate as I have a hankering for Twixes at the moment – I’m not eating loads of them I just haven’t seen one in ages so I have been to the supermarket and stocked up on them. It is going to be Twixes with everything this week. So much so, that I mentioned it to my children that I was going to bake a Giant Twix like the ones I have seen on Pinterest. I have never seen them so excited about something because when I picked them up from school the first thing they asked about was the Giant Twix.
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- Giant Twix
The treat I have baked for myself yesterday was some Caramel Apple Scones which I couldn’t wait to try. I used up the remainder of the cooked caramelised apples that I made on Sunday for my Caramel Apple Betty as I had kept them in the fridge. I used the juices of the apples mixed with the caramel sauce in place of the milk which I would have used in a sweet scone recipe. The scones smell delicious as I can smell the apple, as well as, the caramel and cinnamon that I baked the apples in. I covered the scones with some of the leftover crumble mix before I baked them in the oven. When the children saw them two of my daughters tucked straight in – so much for the scones being my treat 🙂
All the Caramel Sauce I used today in the Scones, Chocolate Cake and Giant Twix was homemade. There is still plenty left over so I have stored it in the fridge to use for another bake later in the week. Nothing is going to waste in my kitchen. 🙂