So, we'll come back to Betty another time, but this week let's try Charlotte. (I am absolutely going to start inventing puddings and giving them women's names; it's apparently a thing).
I'm using the same large-ish pudding basin I used for the Christmas Pudding - whatever you use needs to be oven-proof, so if you don't have a suitable basin, use a small cake tin or something like that. (You could theoretically make little individual puddings, but it would be an awful faff).
Start with the apples - I think I used about a kilo, but basically however many it takes to fill up the basin you're using will be about right. I used a mixture of sharpish eating apples for texture (teeny Cox's that were cheap 'value' apples because they were so small), and cooking apples (which might baffle you if you aren't in the UK - we have specific apples for cooking with, generally Bramleys which are huge, very tart, and basically disintegrate into appley fluff almost as soon as you show them the heat. If you don't have them where you are, don't worry; just use whatever.)
Peel, core and chop them. (I cut the Cox's into little pieces, and the Bramleys into slightly larger ones.) Mix the pieces up with the juice of a lemon as you go, to stop them from going brown.
Put the whole lot in a pan along with 3 tablespoons of sugar and 3 tablespoons of water. Put it on a medium heat, with the lid off - you want any excess water to evaporate - and stir it around every couple of minutes to keep it from sticking, and to break up the apples. (If you aren't using cooking apples you may need to be a bit more vigorous about this).
It's done when it's starting to turn to a puree but still has some apple pieces in it. Check that it's sweet enough, and stir in a sprinkling of whatever spices you like with apples (I went with cloves, nutmeg, and mace).
Meanwhile, sort out the bread. If it isn't already sliced, then slice it (I just used plastic bread, though). White bread - or a variation on it like a brioche loaf or raisin bread or something - would work for this; I'm not sure I'd want to make it with brown. Cut off the crusts (you can always make breadcrumbs out of them). I think I used about ten slices altogether - it's a big pudding basin, and it was quite a small loaf.
Melt about 50g butter and use this to brush the bread slices.
Next, you want to arrange them, butter side out, so they line the basin. You'll need to overlap them a bit to make this work, and you might need to cut bits off or add extra bits in places. Just go with whatever works. If the bread's really dry, you may need to be a bit more heavy-handed with the butter to make it more flexible.
Dollop the apple mixture into the lined basin...
...and then top it off with a layer of bread, again with the butter facing out.
Put a piece of baking parchment on top, and sit a saucer on top of the pudding - find one that will fit neatly inside the top of the basin.
Weight it - by which I mean plonk whatever heavy things you have to hand on top of the saucer. I used a storage jar and a tin of tomatoes, and then balanced a tub of baking beans on top for good measure.
Leave it like that for half an hour or so. The point is to compact everything together and help squash all the bread against the sides of the basin so the whole lot will hold its shape.
Then remove the weights, saucer, and parchment; put a bit of foil over the top of the basin, and stick the whole thing in the oven. I put it in at about 180C for an hour or so - there's nothing in it that needs cooking, so basically what you want is to let the bread turn golden. (Remember that the sides will probably brown quicker than the layer of bread on top, because they're in direct contact with the sides of the basin and the basin will get hot.)
When it's done, turn it out onto a plate (sit the plate upside-down on top of the basin, hold the two together, and flip). Mine turned out fine (although it did slump somewhat once I took a slice out of it).
Serve it with cream, or custard, or ice-cream, or whatever you think goes best.
The verdict
I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand, it was pretty yummy. (As soon as I ate the bit I served up for the photo, I went back for seconds.) On the other hand, it was mostly yummy because stewed apples are yummy, and the effect isn't dissimilar to eating stewed apples with a side serving of toast; except that it's a lot more time consuming and faffy than making toast.
I'm not sure in what set of circumstances I'd plan to make it again - I'm trying to concoct some sort of scenario where I find myself with a houseful of guests, a desperate need for pudding (but not so desperate that I don't have two hours or so to spare before it's needed), and literally no ingredients other than bread and a sackload of apples to work with. That isn't quite so far fetched as it sounds - I do sometimes have to invent pudding from the contents of friends' kitchens - but even taking that into account I'm not sure this is what I'd make. It just all seems a bit of a song and dance.
So, mixed verdict on this one - it tastes great, but I think you could get basically the same taste for a lot less effort; and although the pudding-shape is fun, it's not so spectacular as to make the extra work worthwhile.
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