Mmmm smells like Fall.

apples

Why Fall? Why not call it Autumn? I am British after all. I say Fall because this particular smell doesn’t remind me of Autumn in Britain at all, maybe Christmas, but definitely not Autumn. It reminds me of the States more than anything else.

Last year I was over in Seattle for 5 days, in many ways it was quite a boring work trip, very little socialising and lots of time by myself. On the Saturday before I flew back I met with a work colleague’s (from the UK) sister, we did a bit of shopping and she told me about how Halloween mad she was (for her boys of course). Halloween is a much bigger deal in the US than it is over here.

We walked around a number of stores that were decked out in orange and black and autumn leaves. Every shop smelled of spices, and it was wonderful. That day was by far the best day I had on that Seattle trip, and while the Spiced Apple Sauce was cooking this morning I was transported straight back.

I decided to make this Apple Sauce for a desert (more on this tomorrow), originally this sauce was only going to be the base for a curd. The first step of making apple curd is to gently cook apples till they break down. Once I had finished this first step I tasted it, the smell filled my kitchen and most of our flat. It was wonderful! Just the way it was.

Spiced Apple Sauce

~ makes 1 jam jar worth

  • 3 British cox apples (these are quite small apples)
  • 1/2 cinnamon stick
  • 1/4 tsp of Allspice
  • 1/4 cup of cater sugar
  • 1/4 cup of water
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

  1. Wash and then peel your apples, keep the peel. Dice the apples and cover in the lemon juice (you don’t want them to brown). Keep the cores.
  2. Add the diced apple, peel and cores to a saucepan, add the remaining ingredients.
  3. Leave to simmer on a low heat with the lid on for at least 20 minutes, make sure it doesn’t dry out and burn. Add more water if necessary.
  4. Once the apple is starting to break down remove the apple sauce from the heat. Pour the sauce through the sieve, pushing through as much of the sauce as you can. You should only have the cores and peel left in the sieve.
  5. Place the sauce in a jar and keep in the fridge before using. Use within one week.

sauce

I used this sauce as part of a sweet dessert but the sweetness didn’t come from this sauce (but instead from the custard). Although this recipe isn’t based on any particular recipe, and I haven’t yet tried it, I think it would go amazingly with savoury dished too – like pork.