Name: Tray Bake Apple Pudding
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Ingredients: 400 gm apples, peeled diced (3 cups or 2 to 3 apples | 14.10oz); 100 gm caster sugar (1/2 cup | 3.52 oz or brown sugar); 245 gm Self Raising Flour (1 3/4 cups | 8.64 oz ); 125 gm butter, (4.40 oz | melted); 1 whole egg (beaten ); 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 teaspoon cinnamon; 100 gm caster sugar (1/2 cup | 3.52 oz, raw or hail sugar)

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You can make this Tray Bake Apple Pudding with pantry ingredients and a couple of apples. Stir together and it straight from the oven. Yum!!!

Farmers market Apples

The best way to know what is in season is to pay a visit to your local farmer’s market. The fluorescent lights of the supermarket can often lull us into believing things are in season all year round. They aren’t, check-in at the local markets. That’s where you’ll find all the goodies growing in a reasonable radius of your city and that’s where I was last weekend when I dreamt up this treat.

Inspired by a farmer

I got talking to a really nice guy on the Hillview Fine Foods stall at Marrickville market after I noticed a box of semi-dried plums on the counter. I love this kind of thing with cheeses and baking, and I wondered who bothers to semi-dry their own plums these days? It seems that Jason from Hillview Fine Foods can bother to do lots of things.

Jason’s a guy that grew up on a farm in the Bylong Valley but couldn’t wait to get to the big smoke, moving to Sydney after high school. He clearly has an entrepreneurial spirit because he quickly found his way in Sydney and started a business that eventually stretched nationally before a very unfortunate turn of events caused him to reassess what he needed to do to pick up and keep going.

The decision

Visiting his parents’ farm during his stressful corporate career became a highlight of his downtime. It’s funny how the past sometimes just becomes your future, it seeps back in, and there you are…..looking for a Farm to buy.

In 2011 he found Hillview in Batlow. It already had 3500 apple trees, and after being on the market for some years was seemingly just waiting for him. His parents bought a neighbouring farm that had chestnuts, hazelnuts, and walnuts growing. They added fruit and vegetables and before long, all this produce found a home at markets.

He has managed to include his parents and surrounding local farms in his expanding business. They cover many markets in Sydney and on the outskirts and the business continues to expand into home delivery and wholesale.

Easy Apple Pudding

I am sure you are the same, markets are an exciting place for a cook and it is so tempting to buy everything you see. I bought a lot of apples because they looked so good and rather than let them get soft in the fruit bowl, I made this tray-bake apple pudding

A traybake means easy no-fuss baking and this recipe is just like that. It can be made with other fruits too because it is a simple and adaptable recipe.

What do you need for this traybake?

The Fruit: Apples are great in this traybake. Use pretty much any apple you have to hand. You could also use pears or plums and firm peaches. You could use a mix of apple and strawberry or raspberry but take care using berries or very water filled fruits alone. These will play around with the fluffy cake texture. Use a ratio of 2 parts firm fruit to 1 part softer fruit.
Eggs: I use free-range eggs. The without shell weight of my eggs is around 50 gm/ 1.76 oz
Sugar: caster or granulated sugar is used in the recipe. If you only had brown sugar or golden caster sugar then go ahead and use that too.
All purpose self raising flour: I have used self raising all purpose flour in this recipe. If you don’t have self rasing flour don’t worry! Self raising flour is plain flour with a heaped teaspoon of baking powder per cup. Here that would be 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder. I haven’t tried this recipe using a gluten free alternative. If you do, let me know how it goes. My only suggestion would be a combination of gluten free and almond meal (flour). Gluten free flour alone will not be enough to stand up to the water in the fruit
Butter: melted butter gives the pudding its soft mouthfeel and helps with colour and texture. Add the butter when warm. make sure it is not too hot and equally don’t let it firm up once melted or it will be too hard to stir through
Spices: I have added cinnamon to my pudding but you could also add nutmeg, mixed spice, allspice or ground cardamom. It’s up to you!

Dad conducting tastings of all the fruit

Eat this straight from the oven

The best thing of all is that the tray bake apple pudding should be eaten straight from the oven HOT. No waiting and no decorating icing or slicing. Just dig in.

If you need to keep it, rewarm in the microwave, because it will start to crumble when cold due to all of those chopped apples. It tastes a little bit like apple pie to me. AND I LUVVV apple pie. We served it with whipped cream but you could go for ice cream in vanilla or even caramel flavour.

What to serve with Tray bake apple pudding

Oh I am so glad you asked.

Serve this pudding with ice cream. Vanilla is good but it is extra good with caramel ice cream too. Whipped cream or creme fraiche is also nice with this warm pudding.

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