Apple Compote

I thought I’d better quickly type up the apple compote I made with the last of our apples from the garden before I forgot what I did.

We eat loads of various compotes with porridge, yogurt or ice-cream and sometimes on pancakes for breakfast so we get through masses of it. I generally cook up a couple of kilos of fruit at a time. This particular one is fragrant with warm spices and is especially good with porridge although, to be fair, I like almost anything with porridge…

Hells bells - I’ve just realised it’s exactly a month today until Christmas!! Now if that doesn’t get you up and cooking, nothing will…!

2kg apples
150ml water
juice of a lemon
150g white sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
½ tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
¼ of a nutmeg, grated

Peel, core and chop the apples into dice; put into a deep wide pan with the lemon juice and water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the apples start to soften (I won’t give you an exact timing because it really depends which apples you use).

Add the sugar, the vanilla bean paste and the spices; stir well, bring back to a simmer and cook gently for about 10 minutes.

Pot up into sterilised jars while still hot. Store in the fridge once opened.

Plum Jam

I said I’d report back about the jam I made last week; I'm pleased to say we loved it…it’s very plummy if you know what I mean, i.e. it doesn’t just taste of ‘jam’ it tastes of fruit, so I think I’ll make another few jars to add to the stock of preserves already in the pantry. If we have a bad winter this year, with the snow up to the window-ledges, we’ll survive very happily on home-made bread and jam. Lovely….

We went out in the garden this afternoon and picked all the remaining fruit from our little tree; I thought we ought to get it in quickly before the birds and the wasps start to feast on it. It has yielded the magnificent sum of 6.5 kilos of fruit….and that’s a hell of a lot of plums, let me tell you! I can foresee a few busy afternoons making compote, jam and chutneys – I just hope I have enough jars!

1 kilo Victoria plums

600g preserving sugar (the one with added pectin)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Halve and stone the plums and layer in a large bowl with the sugar; sprinkle over the vanilla extract then cover tightly with clingfilm and leave overnight. Next day scoop all the fruit and sugar, which by now will be almost liquid, into a wide deep pan; bring slowly to the boil to dissolve any remaining sugar and allow to boil steadily until setting point is reached. Mine was just about right after 20 minutes and wrinkled nicely when I did the cold plate test.

Pot up into hot sterilised jars and label when cold.

Made three 12oz jars and half a large ramekin (which we ate on toast – well, we had to try it, didn’t we?)

Spiced Apple Butter

We picked quite a few apples from our small tree this year; it was here when we bought the house so I’m not quite sure what variety it is. The apples look like Cox’s and they have a similar texture and flavour; thing is, I’ve never liked Cox’s as an eating apple, which is a bit of a drawback, really, given that’s what we appear to have. I used some in chutney and mincemeat but we still had plenty sitting in the shed so I had to think of something else to do with them.  

I’d heard of Spiced Apple Butter through American blogs and recipe sites, but it doesn’t seem to be something we Brits have got to grips with; nothing ventured, nothing gained, I thought – I’ll give it a go. Despite being called ‘butter’ by the way, there’s no dairy in it; much the same as Lemon ‘Cheese’ doesn’t have cheese in it. Confusing, isn’t it?

Anyway, although I made this some weeks ago, we hadn’t actually tasted it. I was a bit wary of it, to be honest, and unsure how best to use it. The answer came in the form of some surplus scones that I’d put in the freezer; they were leftover from the batch I’d made to take with us when we popped round to see DS and DDIL (not forgetting Gorgeous Grand-daughter who, at the age of 15 months, is already partial to a cheese scone! That’s my girl...!)

I warmed a couple of apple scones** up in the microwave and gave them a hefty dollop of apple butter. “You can make this again!” said Mr Simply Veg as the scone rapidly disappeared…looks like I know what to do with those apples next year, then!

Many of the American recipes I found had apple juice or cider in them, which I didn’t fancy, so I took the general gist of their recipes and devised my own using a mix of spices and a bit of lemon and vanilla to soften the flavour a little. The slow-cooker method sounds odd but, trust me, it works. 

3kg apples, peeled, cored and chopped small

250g white sugar (maybe a bit more or less, depending on the apples)

juice and grated rind of a lemon

100ml water

1 tsp vanilla paste

2 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp grated nutmeg

½ tsp ground cloves

Turn your slow-cooker on to High to heat up. Put the apples into the crock followed by all the other ingredients and stir well. Cook on High for 2 hours then stir the apples and turn down to Low for a further 3 hours until the apples are very soft; stir the apples really vigorously with a wooden spoon, or use a stick blender, until they break down to a puree; leave the puree to cook on Low for 8-10 hours (I left mine overnight).

In the morning you will have a kitchen that smells good enough to eat and enough dark, spicy apple butter to fill 6 x 190g jars.

**Recipe to follow 

Plum, Cinnamon and Orange Compote

This is the compote I served with that gorgeous cheesecake last weekend, but it more usually gets served with my morning porridge.

Oooh, porridge...now there's a word guaranteed to bring a smile to my face; I absolutely love the stuff! I'm a woman of simple tastes; if I had to choose my last meal on Earth, I wouldn't need to think twice. Porridge! It's my everyday breakfast and I really miss it if I don't have it. It's funny really that something so simple, cheap and easy can be so enjoyable.

Sorry....I went off into a little oaty reverie there....now, where was I? Oh yes, compote - this one is an amazing colour and it's so moreish I keep trying to think of other things I can have it with; if you're not a porridge fan (do such people exist?!) I can recommend a couple of spoonfuls with some soya yoghurt and it livens up breakfast pancakes no end. The husband thinks it could be good on top of a steamed sponge pudding and has put in a request for one as soon as the weather turns a bit more autumnal; mind you, given the weather we've has this week, he could be getting that pud sooner than he thinks!

2kg dessert plums
400g white sugar
grated rind and juice of an orange
2 heaped teaspoons cinnamon
100ml water

Cut the plums in half and remove the stones, then cut each half into two pieces or four if they're very large. Put the plums, orange juice, rind and water into a deep wide pan and bring to the boil. Bubble for 15 minutes then add the sugar and cinnamon, stir until the sugar dissolves and bring back to the boil. Cook for another 15 mins until the juices are thickened and syrupy but not quite jam-like. Ladle into hot sterilised jars whilst the compote is still hot.

Because it has less sugar than jam, it's best stored in the fridge once opened.

Makes 4 medium jars

Strawberry Jam

The house has been smelling like a jam factory this last week or so, not that I'm complaining, it's been delightful; rhubarb and raspberry was first, then strawberry, then a batch of the clementine marmalade I made at the end of last year. I remember saying we don't eat much marmalade....we do now!

The strawberry jam was so good, I went back to the market this week, stocked up on more fruit and sugar and made another batch! I'm squirrelling it away in the pantry, it'll be so lovely to have a taste of summer in the cold dark days of winter. Plan ahead, that's what I say!

Having never made strawberry jam before, and having read many times that it's sometimes difficult to get a 'set', I thought it best to follow this Good Food recipe rather than winging it as I usually do.

It worked out perfectly and has had rave reviews from family members. I will definitely make it again, although I think I could be making a rod for my own back because homemade jam is soooo much better than the commercially made stuff. Obviously jam has to be boiled, but why on Earth do commercial makers boil the guts out of it so that all you get is a generic taste of 'jam' rather than the taste of the fruit itself? Beats me.

Rhubarb and Raspberry Jam

When I went to our local market on Tuesday there seemed to be so many bargains on the veg stall I didn’t quite know where to start. We’ve had such a warm dry spring so some fruits seem to be very early this year; I bought masses of strawberries and raspberries as well as all the usual everyday stuff and we were absolutely loaded down when we came away from the stall.

All the soft fruit I bought has gone into jam-making. The husband put in a special request for strawberry jam (recipe to follow) and I have been hankering after a rhubarb and raspberry jam that I have fond memories of from years ago. I was really chuffed that we finally had enough of our own rhubarb from the garden for this – it makes it seem even more homemade, somehow.

This a lovely soft-set jam that's very fresh tasting because of its short cooking time, really nice on toast or scones.

600g rhubarb, sliced into 1inch chunks

300g raspberries

75ml water**

600g jam sugar (includes pectin)

Put the rhubarb, sugar and water into a wide deep pan or a jam pan if you have one. Bring slowly to the boil to dissolve the sugar and simmer for 15 minutes; add the raspberries and boil for a further 5 minutes. Test for setting by putting a teaspoonful of jam on a cold saucer, leave for 30 seconds and if it wrinkles when you push it with your finger…bingo!! If it doesn’t wrinkle, boil for another 5 minutes and try the cold saucer test again. Pot up whilst still hot into hot sterilised jars.

**I added the water because I wanted a fairly soft-set jam but reduce it, or even leave it out, if you want a stronger set.

Makes 4 medium jars.

Clementine Marmalade

I’ve never made marmalade before because I never really thought it worth the effort; we only eat about two or three jars a year. However, when I saw this recipe it sounded so quick and easy I just had to have a go. It tastes great, very fresh and fruity and it’s a fantastic zingy colour. I can’t take any credit for the recipe, but I’d like to thank one of the members on the BBC food board (sorry, I can't remember who it was - I took a note of the recipe but not the name) for sharing it.

If you’re still thinking of something homemade and foodie to give as pressies this takes about an hour from start to finish, so if you’re up to your ears in Christmas preparations it won’t take up too much of your time.

Lovely with warm croissants and coffee on Christmas morning.


750g Clementines
juice of 2 lemons
1 litre water
750g granulated sugar

Halve the fruit and remove pips.
Chop the fruit finely in a food processor or by hand.
Put the fruit with the water & lemon juice in a saucepan and simmer till the peel is soft - 6 to 10 mins.

Add the sugar and cook at a 'rolling boil' till set point is reached. 20-30 mins.
Put into sterilised jars.

Makes 5 medium sized jam jars.

Christmas Mincemeat

I started making my own mincemeat donkey’s years ago; it’s so simple and so much nicer than shop-bought which is usually far too sweet and syrupy for me. I used to use Delia’s recipe but over the years I’ve sort of evolved my own recipe to suit our taste. I’ve found the addition of preserved ginger really peps up the flavour and I love the citrus tanginess of the extra lemon.

I used a mug for measuring all the ingredients one year because the bowl for my old-style kitchen scale was in the dishwasher; it worked out perfectly well and I’ve stuck with it ever since….if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!


4 mugs of mixed dried fruit
4 balls of preserved ginger in syrup, finely chopped
½ mug dried apricots, chopped
1 mug veggie suet
1 mug dark Muscovado sugar
1 large Bramley apple, peeled, cored and grated
1 whole nutmeg, grated
grated zest and juice of 1 orange
grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
½ mug of brandy


Mix everything except the brandy in a large ovenproof bowl. Cover with a cloth and leave to stand overnight. Next day put the uncovered bowl into the oven at 110C for an hour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, stirring occasionally so that the melted suet gets mixed in throughout the mincemeat. Once cool, add the brandy and mix really well again then pot up into sterilised jars.

If you put some dinky little covers on the jars this is nice to give to friends as Christmas gifts.