4 - 6 good size apples
150 g dried fruit - apricots, prunes, pears etc - soaked in 1 cup of boiling water
100g sugar
Topping
100g plain flour
50g butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
50g brown sugar
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
40g porridge oats
Preheat oven to 190`C Have your dried fruit soaking whilst you begin your preparation. Peel, quarter, and core all the apples. Cut into chunks about 2cm thick.
Heat a fry pan until very hot. Toss the apple with the sugar and add to the pan in a single layer. If the temperature is right the sugar should start to caramelise almost immediately. Leave for a couple of minutes, add the soaked drained fruit, then turn the apples carefully as you want the fruit to stay intact.
Continue cooking for a further 3 minutes or until the fruit starts to feel tender when pieced. Remove from the heat.
Put the flour and butter in a food processor and process briefly until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the brown sugar and whiz for a few seconds more. Grate the nutmeg straight into the mixture, add the oats and blend again briefly.
Scatter the topping over the fruit - don’t pat it down or level it! Bake the pudding for 20 minutes until the topping is nicely browned. Leave to stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Delicious with vanilla ice cream, custard or crème fraiche