, Step by step

Fruit jewel baked apple

A warming, fruity pudding.

Mark Stower, Director of Food and Service.

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 35 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

4 tsp unsalted butter
3 Bramley apples
2 tbsp honey
50g mixed dried berries
40g porridge oats
45g raisins
1 orange
1 tsp mixed spice

Method

Step 1

Pre-heat the oven to 170c.
Step 2

In a bowl mix the softened butter, berries, honey and oats together.
Step 3

Then add the zest of the orange, juice from the orange and the mixed spice.
Step 4

Cut the apple in half and take out the core. Make a small incision all the way round the apple just under the top to stop the skin splitting during cooking.
Step 5

Put the oat and fruit mix on top of the apple. Squeeze a drizzle of honey over the mixture, place carefully on a baking tray and put in the oven for 35 minutes.
Step 6

Leave to cool for 5 minutes before serving – a dollop of half fat crème fraiche will add a nice cool touch without compromising the fresh acidity of the apple.

Nutrition

Oats and porridge are synonomous with Scotland but, as this recipe shows, they are not just for breakfast.

Oats are a great source of nutrition and count as a wholegrain cereal – eating more wholegrains is important for good health.

Oats contain lots of soluble fibre which helps lower blood cholesterol levels.

A portion of dried berries counts as one of your 5 a day. The nutrients are concentrated by the drying process so the portion size for dried fruit (about 25-30g) is smaller than for fresh (about 80g) and Mark’s recipe provides about a third of a portion.

Dried berries are particularly rich in various ‘flavonoids’ – substances that provide the characteristic berry colours. They are believed to have health benefits such as reducing the risk of heart disease.

DR JULIET GRAY, COMPANY NUTRITIONIST