My husband, a lover of all apple-related desserts, says this is his new favourite Sunday lunch pudding. New to us, he means, because fruit cobblers have been around for years. For some reason they did not feature in my repertoire. Until now. I’ve made a couple of cobblers in recent weeks and my husband’s at the “I could eat this every week” stage. He’s even sent a photo to our youngest, who’s returning home from university for the Easter holidays soon, telling him what a treat he has in store. Who would not want to cook for someone so enthusiastic and complimentary?

When researching cobblers I started off with Delia, then found a Mary Berry example and a couple of other online recipes, and came up with this. I plan to vary it according to available ingredients; apple and blackberry would definitely work, as would rhubarb and ginger.

Ingredients

• 150g self-raising flour
• 50g cold butter, cubed
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 4 tbsp milk
• 3 or 4 large Bramley apples
• A handful or two of sultanas
• 1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon (to get a strong and fresh cinnamon flavour we buy cinnamon sticks from Cinnamon Hill and grate them as and when required)
• 75g demerara sugar

Method

• Make the cobbler first by placing the flour and butter in a large mixing bowl and rubbing the butter in until it resembles breadcrumbs. You can of course do this in a food processor, but it’s very quick by hand
• Stir in the caster sugar
• Add the egg and milk and combine until it’s like wet scone mixture
• Peel and slice the apples and place in a dish. You can grease it if you like but I don’t and it’s been fine
• Stir in the cinnamon, sultanas and Demerara sugar
• Place dollops of the cobbler mixture on top of the apples; there will be gaps
• Bake in the baking oven for 30 minutes or so until the top is golden brown and the apples are soft
• Serve warm with cream