The best variety for savoury and sweet apple sauce is Bramley. They are the popular cooking apple, big with glossy green skin and they cook to a lovely pale golden fluffy puree which is easily achieved by beating with a wooden spoon. I cook the peeled and cored apple – often you only need one – with water and squeeze of lemon to stop it discolouring. Once it has fluffed (covered), it’s beaten off the heat with a wooden spoon and then returned to a gentle heat with sugar to taste and a tad more lemon. That’s it. I often add a lump of butter too. Apart from serving it with roast pork, which is when I most often make it, it is good with bangers and mash, with smoked mackerel (and creamed horseradish sauce), spooned over Greek yoghurt, maybe with a few toasted almond flakes and with rice pudding. I love it with porridge (over a spoonful of yoghurt). Actually, it’s a useful thing to have in the fridge, useful for impromptu puds.
Serves 4-6
Prep: 10 min
Cook: 10 min
1 large Bramley cooking apple, approx 250g
about 6 tbsp water
½ lemon
sugar
butter
Working quickly to avoid oxidization, quarter, core and peel the apple. Chop into small pieces into a lidded saucepan adding a generous squeeze of lemon. Add enough water to just cover, under rather than over. Bring to simmer, cover and cook briskly for 3-4 minutes. Check if the pieces are starting to fluff. If not cover and cook for a couple more minutes. Beat with a wooden spoon to break down the apple. If very wet, bearing in mind the sugar will slacken it, simmer briskly uncovered, stirring constantly and vigorously to avoid it catching to boil off the water. Stir in 1 tbsp sugar and a knob of butter. Taste and add more sugar and lemon as required.