Autumn Favourites: Tangerine’s Apple Butter
We asked some of our beloved restaurants in Beaminster what their favourite things were to prepare in Autumn. Sue and Chris from Tangerine Cafe were quick on the uptake to share the secret behind their Apple Butter recipe – the perfect thing when you have a glut of apples, and the perfect addition to any Dorset Apple Cake! Here’s what they say:
In the beautiful garden at Tangerine Cafe & Gallery, we are privileged to have our own Bramley Apple tree. In the summer last year we held a poetry reading under its benevolent branches. We think our tree is over a hundred years old and it produces about a 1000 apples every year. We can’t possibly use them all and we give lots away to our customers.
This year I have been developing our own version of a local favourite: Dorset Apple Cake. My aim was a moist and fragrant cake with a crunchy topping. I have perfected it now and it has had excellent reviews. I won’t give away my recipe. I’ll just say that I use a higher proportion of apples than most recipes call for, dark brown sugar, and local farm fresh eggs and milk. We are lucky here to have so much fresh produce on our doorstep. Homemade apple juice has been popular with our customers too, and Chris has been making this using several of our apples along with a sweet red eating apple. Our apples are also good in combination with other sweet fruits such as pineapple and watermelon.
A good way of making use of an abundance of apples is to make preserves and one of our favourites is Apple Butter. This is a dark, sweet and tangy concoction that is amazing with savoury dishes like our vegan nut loaf or with roast meats, and equally good on hot buttered crumpets.
Apple Butter
2 kg apples
4 cups of dark brown sugar
half cup of apple cider vinegar
Juice of one lemon
Begin by coring, peeling and cutting up your apples into slices and cooking in a saucepan on the hob with a little water and lemon juice. When soft mash to an apple sauce. The next step is to concentrate the apples and caramelise them. Do this by pouring the sauce into an ovenproof casserole dish with a lid. Add the dark brown sugar and mix. Cook in a very low oven. Every half an hour take the dish out and stir. When ready the apple butter will be dark brown. Pour it into sterilised jars and seal with a lid. This amount will make 2 to 3 jars.
For more information about Tangerine Cafe & Gallery, please visit their website at https://tangerinecafe.co.uk/
