Apples? Yes I Can!

Yesterday I did one of my favourite things. I went with my daughter to gather apples from the tree outside the Chapel at my university. It is something I have done for 20 years. -and that tree keeps producing and baking and peeling and eating those apples. So good. Let me tell you the story of why that’s so relevant…

Last week I thought it was time to do some baking and I had a few apples from a neighbour’s tree – enough to make one round of Chaussons aux Pommes – a favourite of mine from visiting the North coast of France where the apples are exquisite. I followed the recipe to a tee, and it turned out horribly. Horribly. There was so much butter and it looked like pieces of fried chicken and stank up the whole house – and worst of all, I used *all* my beloved apples. I couldn’t very well go begging to the neighbour and say – thanks for the great apples, I ruined them, so can I have some more please?

Funny how we react to a failure.

My reaction was to feel that thud in my gut as the whole batch landed as a giant globular cluster in the garbage with a shhhhunk. -sliding down with all that excess butter and sinking under the weight of all the apples. Well, there you go.

*sigh* (audibly, with shoulders dropping- because what else can you do?)

Yesterday I had an idea…

It has been really windy here, and rainy, and I was sure that at my university the apple tree by the chapel would have dropped lots of fruit. Now, I am not making any extra trips out – no non-essential travel still, becuase even though we have become pretty numb to the pandemic, I know that nothing has changed, and the same risks are there if you do catch this disease. But, it was Saturday yesterday and if I went when nobody was there, maybe I could clear up the fallen apples…

Maybe… ?

There was no maybe about it ! As you already know (because I let it slip at the very beginning) I did get apples – 34lbs of them!!!! and that only took 15 mins of clearing up the fallers!

So this morning, pre-dawn (because I’m like that) I started peeling… and thought, this time I’m going to get it right.

First change – less butter. WAY LESS! like almost none, and I know it was probably too drastic, but that’s ok. -spoiler: it worked! 😉

I was aware, as I was carving those pastry tops, that I was not going to give up, and just of what I was doing. I was sticking with it. I was willing to have a go even though it went so horribly wrong before. I was going to find a way to make it work – I adapted, found more materials, worked carefully, improved, and … as you can see from the raw pastries, these are not chef-perfect. They are all a bit wonky and unique, but they did work, and they tasted magnificent. -and in the end I could smile with confidence – and if asked I would 100% say- Chaussons aux Pommes?

Yes, I can.