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Apples Baked Another Way
Take 8 or 9 good baking-apples; wipe them carefully, and place them in a shallow earthenware dish, half an inch apart. Put them in a gentle oven, cook them as slowly as possible, and do not allow them to burst. When quite tender, set them aside to cool, and serve with sifted sugar. Time to bake, three-quarters of an hour. Allow one for each person.
A plain baked apple with nothing in it and nothing on it until it reaches the table. The whole method rests on low heat and patience.
- Oven settingA "gentle oven" is a low one; modern equivalents are usually put somewhere in the 250-325F range, though the recipe itself gives no temperature. The point is to soften the flesh without the steam inside building fast enough to split the skin.
- Keep them wholeThe apples are neither cored nor peeled. Left intact they hold their shape and their juice; the instruction not to let them burst is the hinge of the recipe. Pricking the skin once or twice near the stem, or running a shallow cut around the equator, lets steam escape without collapse.
- Choice of appleFirm cooking varieties hold up; Bramley, Rome Beauty, Northern Spy and similar are safer than dessert apples, which go to fluff. Choose fruit of even size so they finish together.
- The timing is a minimumThe timing -- Three-quarters of an hour is what the recipe specifies; larger apples may want longer. Test with a skewer at the shoulder rather than by the clock.
- The dishA shallow earthenware dish is a low baking dish, commonly glazed. Spacing them half an inch apart matters: crowded apples steam each other and the skins go slack.
- Sifted sugarThis is fine sugar pushed through a sieve over the fruit, closer to caster or superfine than to modern powdered sugar, which contains cornstarch. Sift it over once the apples have cooled or it will simply dissolve.
- ServingThey are served cooled, not hot; the recipe sets them aside after baking. Cream or a thin pouring custard alongside would not be out of place. One apple per person, as written.