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Meringued Apple
1162. Pare and core some large pippin apples, but do not quarter them; wash them in cold water, and put them wet in a deep baking dish, not touching; pour in enough water to prevent burning, and bake them till tender, but not broken; take them out and set them to cool, removing any juice; when cold, fill the core-hole with preserve or jelly, and cover them all over with a meringue put on in tablespoonfuls, and smooth it with the blade of a knife dipped often in water; then dredge the surface with sifted sugar, and put in a cool oven till the meringue is hardened. A meringue or icing is made of beaten white of egg, thickened with sifted sugar (in the proportion of the whites of four eggs to one pound of sugar), the egg being beaten to a stiff froth, then the sugar beaten in, a spoonful at a time; flavour it with lemon juice or rose water.
A straightforward baked apple dressed as a meringue pudding. The one thing to watch is that the apples must come out of the oven tender but still holding their shape, or there is nothing firm enough to carry the meringue.
- PippinsA pippin is any apple raised from seed; in Victorian Britain the term usually meant a firm dessert apple such as Ribston or Blenheim. Use a large baking apple that holds together — Bramley collapses, so prefer Braeburn, Honeycrisp or a good Cox.
- Baking the applesWhole cored apples with a splash of water in the dish take roughly 30-45 minutes at 350F depending on size. Test with a skewer at the shoulder rather than the top; pull them as soon as the flesh yields, before the skins split.
- Drain them dryThe instruction to remove any juice matters more than it sounds. Meringue spread over a wet apple weeps and slides off, so blot the tops and the dish before filling.
- "A cool oven"For setting meringue this means 250-275F. Allow 25-40 minutes; the meringue should feel crisp and dry to the touch and take only the faintest colour.
- The meringue proportionFour whites to one pound of sugar is about 4 oz (115 g) of sugar per white — nearly double a modern Swiss or French meringue. It gives a hard, icing-like shell that keeps its shape. If you want something lighter and more marshmallowy inside, 2 oz per white behaves better, though it will spread more.
- Sifted sugarThis is caster or icing sugar, not granulated. Beat it in a spoonful at a time as directed and keep going until the mixture no longer feels gritty between finger and thumb, otherwise the shell will bead syrup in the oven.
- Rose waterStrength varies a great deal between brands, and some modern bottlings are very concentrated, so add it cautiously: a quarter teaspoon for four whites is enough to start with. Lemon juice can be used at a teaspoon, and it also helps stabilise the foam.
- Yield and servingOne apple per person, four to six in a dish. Serve the day they are made, at room temperature, with cream — the meringue softens overnight in the refrigerator.
Baked apples filled with preserve and hidden under a sugar crust belong to a long line of British "snowed" and "iced" puddings, which became easier to make as refined loaf sugar grew cheaper to buy, grate and sift in ordinary kitchens. Meringue appears in English cookery from France by the early eighteenth century, and by the middle of the nineteenth it turns up in household books as a general-purpose covering — spread over apple charlottes, queen of puddings, tarts and, as here, whole fruit. The flavouring choice of lemon juice or rose water is itself a period marker: rose water was still a standard sweet-kitchen perfume in Britain, a survival from much older medieval and Tudor confectionery, and it faded from general use over the following decades in favour of vanilla.