Pommesmoille or Apple Pudding

Pommesmoille or Apple Pudding

This medieval dessert is quick to make, requires very little skill and offers a superb taste of medieval life. The spices add richness to this cool refreshing pudding which is ideal for Christmas (it is already a firm favorite with our editor – who is a most discerning gentleman!

Ingredients

1lb cooking apples
½ cup sugar
¼ cup rice flour

Almond Milk

4ozs ground almonds
2 cups of water

Spices

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch salt
Pinch ground nutmeg

Optional

6-10 saffron stems

Method

Take the peeled, cored apples and chop them finely. Alternately, put them in a food processor and wiz them thoroughly.

Make almond milk with the almonds and water (see Almond Milk in the list of recipes below).

Put the almond milk, sugar and rice flour in a saucepan, stir in the chopped apple and bring the mixture to the boil over a medium heat.

Boil for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly as the mixture thickens.

Take a spoonful of the mixture from the saucepan and drop it into a cup. Add all the spices and seasonings and stir well. Return the spiced mixture to the saucepan and stir until the spices colour the whole mixture.

Return the mixture to the heat and bring back to the boil.

Cook's Note: At this point you could take the saffron stems, grind them in a pestle and mortar, add a tablespoon of boiling water to the ground stems and then add to the mixture to colour it yellow.

Remember: Coloured food was a large part of medieval life.

When thoroughly blended, pour the mixture into a serving dish, sprinkle ground nutmeg on the top to decorate and add a subtle flavour then leave to cool.

Decorate with Strawberries (our favorite) or other seasonal berries.

This dish is superb when chilled in a refrigerator but can just as well be eaten at room temperature.

Original Recipe

Nym rys & bray hem in a mortar; temper hem up with almande milke, boille hem. Nym applis & kerve hem as small as douste; cast hem in after ye boillyng, & sugur; colour hit with saffron, cast therto goud poudre, & sif it forth

Austin, Thomas, Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks; Laud 553

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