I made a tasty apple pie this week with some fruit from one of my parents’ trees – Katy apples, I think. Apple, with lumps of butter and sprinkles of brown sugar topped with a home-made sweet pastry. Delicious and with a hint of tarte tatin from the caramelisation of the butter and sugar around the fruit.

However, I did use a bit more electricity than I needed to. I switched the oven on before I started processing the apples but it came to temperature much quicker than I got through peeling, coring and slicing the fruit. Thinking back, it really wouldn’t have mattered if the apples had gone a bit brown as they weren’t going to be presented fresh. Next time, I’ll prep the fruit and then turn the oven on before I role out the pastry.