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Apple and Cheese Betty
Arrange alternate layers sliced apples and bread crumbs in an oiled baking dish. Sprinkle each layer of apples with brown sugar and cinnamon, or finely grated, full-cream cheese, leaving crumbs for top layer. Place the dish in a pan of water to bake, as it burns easily. Serve with sweetened cream.
A brown Betty with an unusual option: sharp grated cheese in place of sugar and spice between the apple layers. The instructions assume a cook who knows her way around a pudding dish, so a few numbers help.
- QuantitiesNone are given. For a 2-quart dish, figure about 6 medium tart apples (roughly 2 lb, peeled and thinly sliced), 3 cups soft bread crumbs, and either 3/4 cup brown sugar with 1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon, or 1 1/2 cups grated aged cheese. Serves six.
- OvenNo temperature is stated. A Betty of this kind bakes at 350F for about 45 minutes to an hour, until the apples are tender and the top crumbs are browned.
- The water bath is the pointThe recipe says the dish "burns easily" and directs that it be set in a pan of water. Set the baking dish in a pan with hot water an inch or so up the sides; it keeps the bottom layer from caramelising into the pan before the apples soften.
- Bread crumbs"crumbs" here most likely means soft crumbs from day-old bread rather than dry commercial crumbs, which pack down and turn pasty. Tossing them with a little melted butter or oil before layering gives a better top.
- "Full-cream cheese"Period shorthand for a whole-milk cheese rather than a skim-milk one. Use a firm, sharp cheddar; it grates finely and its acidity is what makes the savoury version work against the apples.
- ApplesChoose a variety that holds its shape and stays tart, such as Granny Smith, Braeburn or Northern Spy. Slice thin and even, about 1/8 inch, or the layers will not cook through at the same rate.
- Sweetened creamMost likely plain cream stirred with a spoonful of sugar and poured over each serving rather than whipped. The recipe calls for it with either version.
Brown Betty is an American pudding of layered fruit and buttered crumbs recorded by name from the middle of the nineteenth century, and it earned its place in household cookery because it turned stale bread and cheap apples into a dessert without pastry skill. What marks this version is the cheese alternative: apples and sharp cheese are a long-standing pairing in both English and American kitchens, where a wedge of cheddar beside apple pie was once ordinary. The water bath may reflect an oven with unreliable bottom heat, where anything sugared could blacken underneath while the top was still pale.