Apple Recipes
The Best Traditional Recipes for English Apples

Apples are one of England's oldest and most beloved fruit. They've been grown here since time immemorial and our ancestors found England's climate ideally suited to the cultivation of many different varieties.

Kent, Devon, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and - of course - Somerset are the English counties most associated with apple orchards.

Dessert apples, cooking apples and cider apples have been grown here for hundreds of years.

And how important apples were to the ancient English is seen in the fact that Avalon, the mythical home and final resting place of King Arthur, is known as the Isle of Apples.

But while we have a long tradition of growing, eating, drinking and cooking with apples, we have the invading Romans to thank for bringing cinnamon and raisins, those two most wonderful ingredients in many apple recipes.

English cooks have always been inventive with their apple recipes and here is a selection.

Some I've been making for years.

Some I've just discovered and not yet tried.

And I'm still out there looking, never fear. I love apples far too much not to.

Most of the apple recipes listed here are very easy to cook ... so if you have apples in the house and don't know what to serve for pudding or afternoon tea, then give these ones a try.

I'll guarantee that you won't be disappointed.

Click the titles for ingredients and how-to-make instructions of these traditional English apple recipes.


Apple Crumble

This is a true winter warmer recipe. Apples and spices, hidden under a crust of oats, flour, butter and sugar - this pudding fills the kitchen with the heady scents of cinnamon, cloves and dried lemon.

One of my favourite apple recipes, this is a typical tea shop cake: thick wedges of moist, crumbly cake loaded with Bramley apples, fragrant with cinnamon. Lovely with a big dollop of cream and a large pot of tea.

Another teatime treat, from Devon this time. Looks like a rock cake, but breaks open wonderfully moist and fragrant with cinnamon. Great with Earl Grey tea.

A real cliché, this one. You can find it on many pub and restaurant menus. I think it's better made at home and eaten as soon as it comes out of the oven, with thick cream or thick vanilla custard.

A posh sort of apple pudding, where the filling is surrounded by thin, crustless slices of white bread. Nursery food? Maybe. But very tasty nevertheless. Especially with custard.

These are a traditional take on the even more ancient baked apple. A whole apple, filled with sultanas and marmalade, encased in pastry and baked until golden brown. Great conversation piece for a dinner party. And darned tasty, too.

Apple Turnovers, all crunchy pastry and lemony apple filling, make a great pudding. But add some whipped cream to the cooled pastry and they scale new heights as a teatime treat.

There can be few foods so comforting as baked apples on a chilly autumn evening. Serve them plain with custard, or stuff with mincemeat for a fragrant treat that will remind you of the joys of Christmas.

I could not imagine celebrating Halloween or Guy Fawkes Night without Toffee Apples. I guarantee that the sticky, crunchy apples will disappear faster than the scent of boiling sugar will leave your kitchen!

So that's my selection of traditional English apple recipes. If you'd like to add to them, I'd be delighted. Just let me know here and I'll add it to the list ... along with your name and story.