The apple (Malus domestica) is part of the rose family and originated in an area known as Almaty which is in Kazakhstan. One of the most cultivated tree fruits, the apple was considered a hybrid until now, but this theory has recently been disproved by  Barrie Juniper from Oxford University.  A single species, the progenitor of the apples we eat today, is still growing today in the Ili Valley on the Northern slopes of the Tien Shan mountains at the border of Northwest China and Kazakhstan. Apples have been widely used throughout the centuries in the religious sense of the word. In the Norse mythology, for example,

Iounn gave apples to the gods to give them eternal youth, Skirnir gave Geror eleven golden apples when he was courting her (what a cheek) and so  it goes on. Buckets of apples were actually found in a burial site in Norway and in the graves of the earliest of Germanic people who lived in England, apples were also found. In Irish mythology examples abound and in the South Western part of England it is still considered a symbol of fertility.  The apples from those tales, however, could not have been the apples we know today and must have been either mystical or the true sense of the words lost in translation. The Romans certainly got hold of the apples we eat from the east and not the north of Europe. Whilst in many legends, myths and faiths apples are referred to as “the forbidden fruit” Christianity isn’t one of them.   A satisfactory explanation to me is that the word apple, when translated, can very often mean “foreign fruit” which seems to explain that the word, “apple” could have been a generic term for forbidden fruit.  After all, to this day humans forbid anything that is strange and new to them.

Heracles had to pick golden apples from the tree of life in the middle of the garden of the Hesperides. (Image above)  When Eris was furious because Peleus and Thetis didn’t invite her to their wedding, she threw an inscribed apple  “for the most beautiful one” at them. Naturally Aphrodite, Hera and Athena jumped to get hold of it, fought about it until Paris (of Troy) chose the winner.  The wicked female goddesses bribed him, but Aphrodite, who offered him Helen of Sparta emerged victorious.  So, if you think about it,  the apple caused the Trojan War and not the women. Well not really, because if Paris had been more of a man, it would never have happened! The last example, as I speed to the end of this article, is of Atalanta, who in the race for a suitor, fell in love with Hippomenes and was finally trounced by the astute man who had the good luck to listen to Aphrodite and threw a few golden apples into the race. In so doing he distracted Atalanta and could marry her within the bounds of the oracle.On a more sober note, the forbidden fruit in the Book of Genesis was not an apple, and I  specifically phoned my priest who knows about these things, to check and confirm. It was, probably, the painters of the Renaissance who thought apples would look pretty in the paintings that fueled the myth.

Hildagonda Duckitt was born in 1840 at the Cape on the farm, Grootte Post to an English father and Dutch mother. A well connected Englishman and member of the first Cape parliament, he had bought it from Lord Charles Somerset.  Hilda was engaged to Lt. William Brown, flag-lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Grey of the Boscawen but he left the Cape just before Prince Albert’s visit in 1860 and that would be the last she saw of him. He broke off the engagement and her heart 7 years later but even this was not enough to kill her passion for food – she  wrote two famous books, the first one, Hilda’s Where is it of Recipes is a personal collection of both English and local recipes and her second one, Diary of a Cape Housekeeper allows the reader to see exactly what life and the Cape kitchen was like at the end of the 19th century. She gravitated between the family farms, spending quite a bit of time at Constantia since her sister had married Henry Cloete, the last private owner of Groot Constantia. This is her recipe.

APPLE CHARLOTTE

Ingredients

• 500g cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 2 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
• 10 thick slices of fresh white bread, crusts removed and crumbed (either by hand or in the food processor)
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 lemon, grated zest and the juice
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar
• 50 g butter, softened
• 1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon

Method

• Preheat the oven to 190C.
• Place the apple pieces in a baking tray with the water, the lemon juice and the sugar – sprinkled over the top and bake until soft.
• Cool slightly and add the 2 tbsp breadcrumbs, the grated lemon zest and mix well – without breaking it up too much.
• Now process the slices of bread, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp butter and the cinnamon so that you have spiced breadcrumbs.
• Generously  butter a 600 ml pudding dish, shake a little sugar in the bowl so that it sticks to the butter and then line this dish generously with the spiced breadcrumbs (about a centimetre).**
• Combine the apple and the breadcrumbs and stir through – then place this apple mixture inside the pudding basin that has been lined with the breadcrumbs and make a lid with the rest of the crumbs, patting it down gently.
• Dot the lid generously with butter and cover the pudding bowl.
• Bake for about 40 minutes.
• Once it has baked, allow it too cool, turn upside down onto a serving dish and serve with custard or lightly whipped cream.

*We calculated the quantities and adapted the recipe to suit our modern lifestyles.

**Today we use slices of bread but Hildagonda used the crumbs.

THE EASIEST APPLE CAKE IN THE WORLD

Ingredients

• 80 g unsalted butter (plus enough for greasing)
• 300 g selfraising flour
• 3 large eggs
• 150 g caster sugar
• 3 large apples, cored, peeled and chopped
• Whipped cream for serving.

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C

• Grease cake tin with butter and dust with flour and then with granulated sugar, discard everything that does not stick.
• Whisk butter and sugar until pale and fluffy and then add the eggs one by one until the whole mixture is well combined.
• Sift in the flour and then add the apples and mix gently.
• Pour mixture into tin and bake for 30 – 40 minutes, depending on your oven.
• Remove from oven and leave to cool, turn out and serve either warm or cold.

INDIVIDUAL HONEYED APPLE GRATINS WITH ALMOND CRUSTS

Ingredients

• 4 large golden delicious apples
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons honey
• butter

Method

Preheat oven to 170 C

4 ramekins, buttered

• Peel, slice and quarter the apples and cut each quarter into very thin slices.
• Fry the slices very quickly in butter until they are just soft, adding the honey until it has melted in the process.
• In a separate mixing bowl, beat the eggs until they are light, add the apple mixture and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until set.
• Remove from the oven to cool.

Almond crusts

• 3 egg whites
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 60g melted butter
• 60 g cake flour
• 125 g flaked almonds

Method

Pre heat oven to 220 C

• Beat egg whites until they are stiff, gradually adding the sugar and the vanilla extract.
• Fold in almonds with a spatula, and then the flour and the melted butter.
• With a tablespoon make 8 little mounds of the mixture on a buttered baking tray, flattend each mound with a fork and bake in the pre heated oven for 10 minutes.
• As soon as the are cooked, put one on each dessert plate, turn over the apple gratin and cap with a second almond disc.
• Serve with cream or home made custard.

QUICK APPLE SQUARES

Ingredients

• 2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and finely cubed
• 4 rolled out squares of pre-purchased flaky pastry  (12 cm squares are just perfect)
• 25 grams melted butter
• 2 heaped teaspoons caster sugar

Method

Pre heat oven to 190 C

• Put the pastry squares on a baking tray, prick with a fork and bake in a pre-heated oven for about 5 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and if the pastry has puffed up too much, simply press it down gently and allow to cool.
• Sauté the apples in butter and sugar until the apple just colours.
• Remove and allow to cool.
• To bake, top each square with a layer of sautéed dice apples, return to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes until the apples have crisped and are golden in colour.
• Serve with cream or custard or ice cream or whatever you like.

AFRIKAANS APPLE CHUTNEY

Ingredients

• 500 g Granny Smith Apples
• 1 Onion
• 2 fresh bird’s eye chillies
• 2 tablespoons, grated ginger
• 275 g sugar
• 2 lemons, zest and juice
• 1 teaspoon cardamom, the seeds removed from the pods
• 1 teaspoon pimento (allspice), ground
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cloves, ground
• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
• 375 ml cider vinegar
• Ground black pepper to taste

Method

• Peel and chop apples into small cubes, chop onion finely, chop up the chillies and place everything into a pot with the vinegar, the lemon juice for about 35 minutes.
• Remove from the stove and allow to cool down.
• Spoon into glass jars that have already been washed and sterilized.
• Place a piece a wax paper that has been dipped in brandy on top of each jar of chutney before closing.
• Seal and store to use as and when necessary.