Baked apple

It being the time of year when the supply of cooking apples far outstrips demand, time to put in plug for the baked apple.

Select apples without gross flaws (particularly those involving livestock), maybe 3 inches in diameter and 2 inches high. Allow one or two to the person, according to taste and appetite.

Core them, this being done most easily with one of those corers which looks a bit like an old fashioned potato peeler and which takes a half inch cylindrical plug out of the centre of the apple.

Score the peel around the equator of the apples, thus giving them expansion capability, without which they are apt to burst.

Place apples in a shallow tray, bunched up close so that they can hold each other up.

Fill the holes with dried fruit; raisins, dates or some such. Small knob of butter on top.

Add a little water to the tray.

Bake for 47 minutes at 173C, or until soft. The equators should have parted by this point. Leave in the hot oven and serve within half an hour or so.

One more fine dish which a restaurant is going to have trouble with. They don't stand too well, they take too long to cook to order and I don't think boil in the bag or microwaves are going to help with this one.

But there again, maybe I will be proved wrong one day and I will will take a baked apple in a restaurant, complete with a drizzle of hedgerow fruit coulis and topped with a squirt of cream from something which looks like a large tube of toothpaste. Served on a shiny white plate in the shape of a trapezium with gently rounded corners and slightly curled up edges. £4.50 a pop plus VAT and service.