Thyme baked apples with homemade custard

GILL MELLER’S THYME BAKED APPLES WITH HOMEMADE CUSTARD

As late summer approaches the apple harvest begins in earnest, so this wonderful recipe by Gill is a good one to have on hand. The flavour of fresh thyme coupled with lemon and brown sugar makes for a wonderful combination with the apples and the buttery juices make the most amazing sauce. You can serve the vanilla custard warm with the apples, but we love hot apples and cold custard, it’s just too good to believe.

Preparation time 20 minutes | Cook time 45 minutes | Serves 2 – 3

INGREDIENTS

3 desert apples

1kg of broad beans in the pod, or use 300 – 400g of organic podded beans

4 cloves of garlic

50g of light brown soft sugar

1 small handful of parsley leaves, chopped

The finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 – 4 sprigs of thyme or lemon thyme

25g of butter

For the custard

300ml whole milk

200ml double cream

1 fresh vanilla pod

4 large Stonegate Organic egg yolks

100g caster sugar

1 tbls of cornflour

METHOD

  1. Start with the custard. Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan. Split open the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds with the tip of a knife, into the milk. Heat the mixture to just below boiling then leave to cool a little.
  1. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and cornflour together then pour on the hot milk and cream and whisk until smooth. Return to a clean pan. Cook gently, stirring all the time, until the custard thickens. Don’t let it boil or it will ‘split’. Remove from the heat. Strain into a bowl or jug and cover over the surface to stop a skin forming. Leave until cold, then chill.
  1. Heat the oven to 160°C fan
  1. Halve the apples from top to bottom (there’s no need to peel or core them). Lay the apple halves, cut side up, on a double layer of baking parchment, large enough to encase the apples in a parcel. Sprinkle the tops of the apples with the brown sugar and dot over the butter. Scatter over the thyme, add the lemon zest and juice, then fold the parchment over the apples to create a neatly sealed parcel. You can tie it up with string to keep it all in place.
  1. Set the parcel on a baking tray and place in the middle of the hot oven to bake for 20 – 40 minutes. The actual time they take will depend on the variety and the size but check them every 5 – 10 minutes.
  1. Remove the parcel, open it and prod the apples with a knife to check that they are tender. If they’re not quite ready, rewrap and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes or until they are cooked through.
  1. Serve the apples hot, alongside the cool custard, with all the sweet, buttery juices from the parcel.
BACK TO RECIPES

Follow us @stonegateestate