Two dead easy recipes.

Welcome back foodie friends!

First of all a bit of an apology.

I did say this week I would be doing a review of a local restaurant but, unfortunately, with it being the start of the month I've had to do boring stuff like pay the mortgage and the rest of those pesky bills so haven't been able to. On the plus side I have done you two recipes and they're both really easy so no excuses for not making them!

We're talking simple pudding this week. It always sold out when i was head chef at the bank bar in Cannock. Its a delightfully chewy, gooey, crunchy, buttery sweet and sharp "apple crump" with homemade custard made in a microwave, yep, that's right, a humble microwave!

So lets talk about the microwave a little shall we?

I have never been into a professional kitchen that doesn't have a microwave. They are a very useful bit of kit and are most certainly used more than you would expect. Even in the kitchens I experienced on masterchef!
They can be used to make great sponge puddings, defrosting sauces, and heating pre-prepared dishes quickly before they go into the oven to finish off. Its just a question of being careful with them, as the custard recipe will show. I will be doing some full-on microwave recipes in future blogs so watch this space!

Ok lets crack on then.

Apple Crump:

Equiptment:

1 Rectangular ceramic dish about 4 inches by  6 inches by 3 inches deep.
1 medium sized metal-handled saucepan (or a heatproof glass bowl ).

Wooden spoon.

Ingredients:

3 Bramley apples.
200g plain flour.
200g caster sugar.
175g butter.

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees c, or gas mark 6.

Peel and core your apples.

Chop up the apples ( I like to cut them up in different sizes as the little bits will collapse into a sauce and the larger bits will hold their shape a bit more).

Chuck the apple pieces into the ceramic dish and pat them down. (Don't worry about some sticking up a bit, you will see why later).

Put the flour, then the sugar, then the butter in your saucepan.

Then put the dish and the saucepan in the bottom of the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the butter has completely melted.

Once the butter has melted take both the saucepan and the ceramic dish out of the oven.
Wrap a dry tea towel round the handle of the saucepan as you WILL forget that its red hot and burn your hand!

Grab your wooden spoon and mix the flour, sugar and butter together in the saucepan.You only need to mix it so its combined so don't overwork it.




Plonk the mix from the saucepan on top of the apples in the ceramic dish and spread it out to cover them. Again you don't need to be too particular as the odd bit of apple sticking through will caramelize during the next stage and give another different texture.
Turn the oven down to 170 degrees c. or gas mark 3.
Put the crump in the oven on the middle shelf.
Bake for about 30 mins. or until the top is nicely browned.
Take the crump out of the oven and gently portion it up by cutting through with a knife.
 (it'll make 6 good portions).

( unfortunately the app i took the pictures on crashed when my crump was done so i don't have a picture of the finished item, sorry but i'm sure you will know when its done!)

Next the custard, you can do this while the crump rests as it only takes about 10 minutes  by which time the crump will have cooled a little and the topping will have firmed up.

Microwave custard:

Equiptment:

2 plastic bowls.
A balloon whisk.
measuring jug.

Ingredients:

6 eggs (if you can get good quality free range eggs you will get a more yellow custard at the end as the yolks provide the colour).
250ml double cream.
150ml whole milk.
60g of caster sugar.
1 whole vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon of good vanilla extract ( i've used  extract for mine as i didn't have a vanilla pod).
1 teaspoon of cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons of water. (optional).

Method:

Seperate your 6 eggs and put the yolks in one of your plastic bowls. (the easiest way of doing this is to crack the egg shell with a spoon and gently tip the yolk into your hand, its a bit messy but you wont break the yolk by juggling it between two halves of jagged egg shell).
 Do it over a container to catch the whites as you can use them for other
dishes like meringues.

Add the sugar to the egg yolks and whisk them until they are pale and slightly thickened.


put your milk and cream along with the vanilla extract (or seeds from split your vanilla pod) into your other plastic bowl and pop into the microwave. Set the microwave to defrost and heat for about 5 minutes, just so it is warm.


Add a glug of the warm milk and cream to the whisked egg yolks and sugar and whisk in.

Now you can add the rest of the warm milk and cream and whisk that in too.

What you've now got is very thin custard!


Leaving the microwave on defrost, put the custard in for 3 minutes.

Remove the custard and whisk as hard and fast as you can without sploshing it everywhere.

Put back in the microwave and again, on defrost,  cook it for another 3 minutes. The idea with this is that you are constantly raising the temperature with the microwave, then cooling it down by whisking it, which will stop it from splitting.

Whisk again for a couple of minutes. It should now start to thicken.  If its not thick enough microwave again and whisk. What you're looking for is the custard to coat the back of the spoon and if you draw a line with your finger across the spoon it should hold itself.

Now you will notice that this custard wont be as thick as stuff you buy from a supermarket. It will taste great, rich, creamy and with a slightly fluffy texture but believe me you wont get really thick custard without an additive. The stuff you buy in tins has all sorts of thickening agents in to get it to that consistency but if you want to thicken this custard all you need is a bit of cornflour, mixed with water. You don't have to add it, but i know some people like it thick and who am i to judge?
So, if you want to thicken it more, add the cornflour mixed with water and whisk it in. microwave it again for a couple of minutes and whisk it again till its thick enough for you and there you are, done!

Well that's it for my second blog, I hope you have enjoyed it and i really do hope you have a go, even if you make the crump and buy some custard you can still be proud of yourself!

Watch out for next weeks offering. Thanks for your support!

Mat.