Canoodle in the name of apples this Sunday!

It’s Apple Day this Sunday –  the perfect excuse to drink cider, mull some spiced apple juice….or make an Apple & Blackberry Canoodle!

There are quite a few apple-y recipes in our cookbook A Pie for All Seasons but this is the only one with  a reference to  good old-fashioned a-kissin ‘n a-cuddling in the title, so here it is.

*Caro’s Apple & Blackberry Canoodle

Serves 4

4 large cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped

Juice and grated zest of 2 lemons

100g soft brown sugar

1 tsp ground mixed spice

200g blueberries

5 sheets of filo pastry

125g unsalted butter, melted

50g chopped toasted hazelnuts

1tps golden caster sugar, mixed with ½ tsp ground cinnamon, for dusting (or use icing sugar)

Put the apples, lemon zest and juice, sugar and spice in a pan and bring to a low simmer. Cover and cook gently for 15 – 20 minutes, until the apples are very tender but still hold their shape. Remove from heat, stir in the blueberries and leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F/gas mark 4.

Place a sheet of filo pastry on a damp tea towel, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with nuts. And another sheet of filo, butter it and sprinkle with more nuts. Repeat with the remaining filo, butter and nuts to give a stack of filo sheets (reserve a few nuts to decorate).

Spread the apple filling along one short edge of the pastry, taking it not quite to the edges. Roll the pastry around the filling, using a tea towel to help you roll and tucking in the pastry at the sides once or twice as you go. Turn it so that the seam is underneath and brush all over with melted butter.

Place on a buttered baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden. Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with the remaining nuts and dust with the cinnamon sugar.

Ta da!

Serve warm or at room temperature, with cream, custard or ice-cream (if you have our cookbook, try the clotted cream ice cream recipe on page 211……)

* Caro is Tristan Hogg’s wife.  She’s a great cook and comes from Taunton, so knows all about apples and cider and stuff.