Mammie apples

MAMMIE apples are in season now. Also known as mammiesepote the fruit itself is quite plain-looking on the outside, light brown with a leathery skin and a thick stem, and can be quite imposing if you are unfamiliar with it. It is also not a popular fruit, but if you ever get the chance to try it, you should, because it’s delicious, sweet and satisfying.

This deep-yellow-fleshed fruit has flavours resembling mango and apricot with a hint of peach. The texture is somewhat like a non-fibrous, half-ripened mango. It can be enjoyed in its raw state or is equally delicious when incorporated into a cake or stewed and served with ice cream.

It is also used to make jam, and in the French West Indies the flowers are used to distil a digestive liqueur. The seed, bark and leaves have been used in a myriad of ways to cure parasitic ailments. Some farmers use the leaves to wrap young seedlings in order to ward off insects.

If you are buying a mammie apple, look for a large, full fruit that gives a little when pressed. It should be about six-seven inches in diameter.

The pale brown skin must be peeled away and the fruit can then be cut from the seed. Try scoring the skin and then pulling it away to reveal the deep-yellow, luscious fruit inside.

Mammie Apple Cake

1 large mammie apple

2½ cups flour

⅔ cup butter

2 eggs

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk

Peel mammie apples by scoring the skin in sections tearing off the skin without cutting into the fruit. Scrape off the thin brown skin which covers the fruit ensuring all is removed. Slice the fruit off the seed and slice into uniform pieces, set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F

Combine 1/3-cup flour with one-tbs butter and two tbs sugar, combine and set aside.

Cream the remaining butter with sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time beating well between additions.

Sift together flour, and baking powder and soda.

Combine milk with vanilla. Add the flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture. Pour batter into a greased and lined nine-inch spring form pan or pie plate.

Arrange mammie apple on top of batter, sprinkle with reserved flour sugar mixture.

Bake for about 40 minutes until a wooden pick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Makes one 9-inch cake

Stewed Mammie Apple

2 large mammie apples

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

2 tbs lemon juice

Prepare mammie apple as in previous recipe.

Boil sugar in water until dissolved, add mammie apple and continue to cook on a low heat until tender, about 15-20 minutes.

Add lemon juice and remove.

Serve as a dessert over ice cream or with yogurt, or on its own.

Mammie Apple Tatin with Cardamom and Lime

Pastry

1½ cups flour

1 beaten egg

1/4 cup cold water

6 tbs unsalted butter

Combine flour, sugar and butter, rub butter into flour until mixture resembles fine crumbs.

Add egg and bring mixture together, if needed dribble a little bit of cold water to help bring mixture together.

Form into a ball and chill for 30 mins.

For the tart:

1 large ripe mammie apple, about 2 lbs

1 cup granulated sugar

½ tsp ground cardamom

1 tbs fresh lime juice

3 tbs butter

Preheat oven to 400F

Peel and pit the mammie apple, slice into uniform pieces

Melt butter in a large oven proof skillet.

Add butter and cardamom, cook until caramel forms, about 5 minutes. Arrange mammie apple slices in a circular pattern onto caramel, drizzle with lime juice. Roll pastry to fit skillet.

Carefully cover mangoes in the skillet with pastry, taking cart to push the pastry down into the edges of the pan.

Bake for 30 minutes until golden.

Remove, run a knife around the rim of the skillet to release tart and immediately flip onto a platter. Cool.

Serves 8

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