Wassail Cup
From The Apple Source Book, a recipe by Henrietta Green for a warming apple punch.
Makes enough for 8 hearty drinkers
8 small eating apples
32 cloves
1.5litres/2½pints/6¼cups brown ale
300ml/½pint/1¼cups sweet sherry
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of ground ginger
pinch of ground nutmeg
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 slices bread, toasted
Method
Slit the skin around the centre of the apples and stud them with cloves. Put them in a baking tin with 150ml/¼pint brown ale and bake in a 200°C/400°F/gas 6 oven for about 30 minutes, basting occasionally.
Heat the remaining brown ale with the sherry, spices and lemon zest and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Cut the toast and the baked apples into small pieces, and serve the punch very hot, in a punch bowl, with the pieces floating on top.
RECIPE TIPS
Wassail comes from Old English 'wes hail' meaning 'be thou whole' A kindly thought that developed into drinking from the wassail bowl as an expression of friendship. From this apparently came the idea of a toast named after the pieces - or sippets as they were known - that floated in the wassail bowl. As you dipped your cup into the bowl, you might capture a piece and then you would drink your host's good health. Nowadays much of significance is lost but this recipe still makes an excellent, warming punch.
Check out our Little Green Book on Falling for Apples on places to buy apples
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