Martje's Tyfferim Baked Apples

An excerpt from Martje's Royal Cookery Book:

Baronous Hodge on apples in Frewyn: Much like bread, apples are at the heart of the Frewyn meal. Butter and cream be what they may, the mutton and pork finest on the continents, but the natural fruit of the region is the greatest treat any visitor can have. There is a saying on the farms here, particularly around Tyfferim and Sethshire, that if there are more apples than Frewyns in the country that autumn, the first spring yield will be a surplus. I do not know that there is any credence give to this, but the count of Frewyns at any one time is reckoned at about six million, unless they have just had a war, in which case it is about four and half. They are a hardy race, and they love their apples as much as they love their national velitations, but much like children on any one farm, apples are so ubiquitous in Frewyn that not only do they have a multitude of grafted varieties by region, but they have a sundry of drinks and desserts to follow, a litany of ciders and pies as far as the table in any great hall is long—they even use cored apples as tipples during harvest. Caramel apples in the late summer, battered apples in the early winter, apple dumplings throughout the year—there is always time made for the wholesome fruit, and anything made with apples here is considered healthful, regardless of how much sugar or pastry goes into it. A baker’s dozen in Marridon is a farmer’s bushel in Tyfferim, every seller from Amene to Diras offering more than purchase price. Amazing apple country all around that region, orchards festooning the landscape from Barrellyn to Farriage, the best apples coming from the patch of meadowland just under the highlands. All the best cider hails from that region, the apples left on the tree until after the first frost, giving the cider an easy chance at fermentation and a effulgent taste. There is nothing so refreshing and nourishing as a warm mulled cider in the midst of a Frewyn snowstorm; one is absolutely carried away by the flavour-- tinged with ginger peel, pine honey, cinnamon, mace, and a dash of lemon, there is nothing better, and I charge you to find me a man in Marridon who would disagree. The snow might not accord with the Marridonian sense of comfort, because my countrymen like so rarely to be put out, but with their resources and natural fervour, Frewyns can better bear hardship as long as there is an apple to be got at the end of it.

Baked apple with pastry

Martje’s method: Everyone and their ma knows how to make a baked apple. Us in Tyfferim what

grow up on the farms are born with baked apples in our mouths. It’s a sin to the gods those what don’t know how to turn a good fruit. Apples’ re everywhere in the kingdom, and even the small-uns can do for a jam or a cider or somethin’. Some folk from Hallanys and Karnwyl do their baked apple with a bit o’ left pastry, ‘cause they’re wrong and like to make what’s simple hard for ‘emselves, but in Tyfferim, we do it right: apple, honey, spice, garnish, and shise sin. The secret to doin’ a good baked apple is a few good store apples, and the best keepin’ apples are from Beryn’s land near home. A large sweet apple gives no waste: they can be made into pies, mash, potage, tart, jam, and if they don’t behave ‘emselves in the oven, into the batch for the scrumpy with ‘em. Best way to do a baked apple is in the mornin’, when the bread ovens are hot. I seen a few o’ the brickmakers do ‘em in the kilns with their potatoes whilst they’re waitin’ for their tiles to fire, and that makes ‘em bake right quick. Get yer oven nice and hot, once you got that on, wash yer apple and keep the peel on. Don’t margle me about peelin’ nothin’. The peel’s where the flavour lives. The meat o’ the fruit is all sugar, and if you don’t keep the peel on, the meat’ll mash, and into the scrumpy it goes. Core yer apples—peels on, ‘cause I don’t wanna hear the bellyachin’ and all—put ‘em on a sheet or in a fired bowl, to keep the inside from leakin’ into the oven. Take dark honey-- buckwheat honey is best, if you can get it—and mix it together with yer spice, cinnamon and mace is just fine, don’t need much—add a bit o’ ginger and lemon for taste. Mix that and fill yer cores with it, but only about three quarter the way up. Garnish with a bit o walnuts or hazelnuts, if you got ‘em. Put that in the hot fired oven for no more than twenty minutes. Any longer and the apples’ll sink. Take ‘em out and cut right into ‘em with a spoon, and don’t mind about the coolin’. Bakes apples gotta be had hot, especially on a winter morn. Nothin’ better than that and honeyed oats when yer hungry in the winter. A stew and a roast are all right, but nothin’ cures the ails o’ winter like somethin’ simple and sweet.