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Apple Puffs, or Flip Flaps
Make as for Strawberry Batter Cups, using tart apples, pared, cored, and sliced or chopped. Use two layers of apple: in the centre and on top, Sprinkle with sugar and spice before baking. Use gem pans for the distinctive form of "Flip Flaps."
A one-line variation that depends entirely on a recipe printed elsewhere in the book, so the first job is finding the base batter. What follows assumes the usual popover-style fruit batter of the period.
- Find the base recipe firstEverything here hangs on "Strawberry Batter Cups," which is not reproduced on this page. Do not guess at the proportions; look the base up in the same book before starting, since the ratio of egg to milk to flour is what decides whether these puff or sit flat.
- Gem pansA gem pan is a heavy cast-iron muffin pan; period examples came with varying numbers of oval or round cups. A modern cast-iron muffin pan is the closest equivalent; a standard steel muffin tin works but gives a softer crust and less of the abrupt rise the name is pointing at.
- Heat the panIf the base recipe turns out to be a thin popover-style batter, the usual handling is to grease the pan and heat it in the oven before filling, so the batter meets hot cups. Check what "Strawberry Batter Cups" actually directs before assuming this.
- Oven heatNo oven heat or timing is given on this page; both would come from the base recipe. If it calls for a quick oven, that is conventionally read as roughly 400-450F; a moderate oven as roughly 350-375F, which will give something closer to a small cake than a puff. Avoid opening the door while a batter puff is rising.
- "Two layers of apple"Batter in the cup, a spoonful of apple, more batter, then apple on top. The recipe allows the apple either sliced or chopped; chopping small makes it easier for the batter to set around the fruit.
- Tart applesRead as a firm cooking apple that holds its shape. Granny Smith, Bramley, Northern Spy or Rhode Island Greening all suit; a soft eating apple is more likely to collapse in the time the batter takes to set.
- Sugar and spiceUnspecified, as usual. A teaspoon of sugar per cup with a pinch of cinnamon and a scrape of nutmeg is in keeping. The top sugar will caramelise, so watch the last five minutes.
- Yield and servingYield depends on the base recipe's batter quantity and the size of your pan. Puffs of this type deflate quickly, so serve them hot, straight from the pan, with cream or a hard sauce.
Gem pans were a common fixture of American kitchens from the later nineteenth century, heavy cast-iron trays generally said to take their name from the "gems" -- small quick breads -- baked in them. "Flip flap" belongs to a family of nursery-sounding names attached to puffed batter cakes in nineteenth-century English and American cookery; the name is often explained as describing the way the batter climbs and then flops as it cools, though this is traditional explanation rather than documented derivation. The recipe's terseness is characteristic of cookbooks organised by ingredient rather than by method, which leaned on cross-references so that one batter could be printed once and then used with several fruits in turn.