Cooking with Claire- Upside Down Apple Pudding

We all have friends whom we know as really good cooks and love swapping food stories with. Today I would like to introduce you my good food friend, Claire Enever, who has gained herself a reputation in the Albury- Wodonga area for whipping up many a delicious storm!

Claire grew up on her family's farm on the gorgeous Mitta River in the North East of Victoria. A country girl at heart, she has always had a passion for cooking. Wherever she is, be it at work or on the tennis court, there will be a plate nearby filled with freshly baked cake, slice, biscuits or last nights left over of some gourmet dish. Everyone loves Claire's cooking!

Today Claire shares one of her favourite cakes- Maggie Beer's Upside Down Apple Pudding. Claire came across this recipe in a Womens Weekly Magazine a few years ago. I made it on the weekend and it certainly does taste as good as it looks!

I am absolutely delighted to be a guest cook on Town Mouse Country Mouse.

Maggie Beer’s Upside-down Apple Pudding will be perfect for your next special afternoon tea or dinner party.  This classic dessert has layers of apples and lashings of syrup and thick cream…it’s amazingly delicious!

Make this cake on a day that the kids are at kindy, day care or, when they are having a nap, as this recipe is a little fiddly and time consuming and you will need to concentrate…especially when making the caramel syrup!!!  I did find the syrup quite sweet, so I served it on the side rather than drizzle it over the pudding. This recipe does call for a large quantity of verjuice, so if using a small bottle, you may need to buy two!

Enjoy- My Master Taster (Tim) says this dessert is gourmet! Claire x

Upside Down Apple Pudding

POACHED APPLES

3 medium Pink Lady apples

1¼ verjuice

¼ cup caster sugar

2 sprigs rosemary

2 Tabs extra verjuice

VERJUICE AND ROSEMARY SYRUP

½ cup caster sugar

2/3 cup verjuice

1 sprig rosemary

PUDDING BATTER

3 eggs, separated

2/3 cup caster sugar- (1/3 cup for the yolks and 1/3 cup for the whites)

½ cup plain flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat your oven to 200 deg cel (180 deg cel if fan forced). Grease and line a 20cm cake tin, ensuring that paper is about 3cm higher then tin. (I used a springform pan and just lined the base).

2. Cut the unpeeled apples into quarters and remove the core. then slice lengthways into 2mm pieces.

3. Place the verjuice, sugar and rosemary in a large, high-sided frying pan and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to low and gently simmer the apples for 4-5 minutes or until tender.

4. With a slotted spoon, remove the apples from the pan. Reserve 1/4 cup of the poaching liquid and set aside.

5. Place the frying pan with the remaining liquid back over a high heat and bring to a golden caramel; add the extra verjuice to inhibit the caramel from cooking further. Return the apples to the pan and gently sauté to give them some colour. Remove from heat.

6. Arrange caramelised apple pieces in the base of prepared cake tin.

7. For the pudding batter- place the yolks and half the sugar (1/3 cup) into a medium bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until pale and creamy. Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder. Gradually beat in olive oil and reserved poaching liquid.

8. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites (using clean beaters) until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining extra sugar and beat until sugar has dissolved. Gently fold the meringue mixture into the pudding batter, in batches, until combined.

9.  Spread the pudding batter into the cake tin over the apples and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the puddings springs back when touched. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn upside down onto a serving plate and gently ease out cake.

10. For the remaining syrup- combine the sugar, 1/2 cup verjuice (keep remaining for at the end!) and rosemary in a small saucepan. Stir until sugar has dissolved and bring to boil. Allow to boil until it starts turning a dark caramel colour. Remove from heat and add the extra verjuice to stop the caramel from cooking any further. I found that the syrup changes to a caramel colour as it cools, so be careful not to overcook this. It is very sweet, so you may also like to alter the sugar quantity.

11. Drizzle the syrup over the pudding and serve with thick cream.

A very special Thank you to Claire for sharing one of her favourite recipes.

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