(photograph © Kiwidutch)
In my favourite second hand shop I picked up a new kitchen gadget…
Well, New to me at least.
This is a vintage appelmoes sieve and it has a wooden ball-like piece in the middle to make making your apple sauce easier.
Appelmoes is the traditional Dutch apple sauce.
It’s very simple to make and family recipes differ depending on who you ask. Everyone has their own recipe that they think is the best.
Some people make it using just the speculaaskruiden which is a mixture of ground spices, usually including nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves.
Many Appelmoes recipes contain one or more of these spices but ginger, vanilla sugar, appelstroop (apple syrup) and saffron are sometimes included in some recipes too.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced (Elstar or Jonagold are good apple varieties to use)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoons ‘speculaaskruiden’ (or pumpkin pie spices)
1 tablespoons sugar
Method:
Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan.
Heat gently for 15 minutes or until the fruit is soft and mushy.
Mash well with a wooden spoon. (don’t use a metal spoon or you will change the taste of the appelmoes)
Appelmoes is a firm favourite in many Dutch households, so much so that it’s even counted as a “vegetable” in the main meal for many families. Our little Dutch family seems to be an exception to the rule, since we hardly eat appelmoes, but then we don’t follow a “typical” Dutch eating style either.
I do however make my own home-made appelmoes from time to time because I am trying to find a good vegan cake recipe for my young niece who has many food allergies including dairy products. Vegan cakes don’t have dairy products like butter or eggs in them and Appelmoes is a good replacement for these ingredients.
Making it yourself means that other allergy problems like colourants, preservatives and “E” numbers are also illuminated and the added bonus of using appelmoes in cakes is that it has a far lower fat content, so if you are wanting to keep the weight under control, then appelmoes is a good thing to include in your recipes.
This is so very easy to make, and a very handy ingredient to have, a few apples on hand Voila! you can have your own home-made appelmoes in no time. Enjoy!
