A couple of weeks ago a neighbour gave me some of his beautiful tree ripened apples. Aside from eating, there were enough to make a batch of scrumpy cider (recipe in “A Year on the Farm”).

I didn’t get back to it for maybe longer than I should and by that time it was very fizzy (understatement – it takes at least half an hour to open a bottle without the contents rushing out). Tastes delicious though, worth the wait.

However, I figured all that volatility could be put to another use – to rise bread dough. Highly experimental, but worked like a dream.

Chopped apples were added to a light rye dough, and slices inserted on top before it went into the oven. After baking, I brushed the loaves with a honey and lemon glaze (honey was a gift from a friend at Rosegarland).

So if anyone has too-fizzy cider sitting around, I’m happy to share the recipe. Of course you could just use dried or compressed yeast as the raising agent and replace the cider with apple juice.

The loaves were delicious fresh from the oven, topped with lashings of lemon curd. It’s also very nice toasted spread with lots of butter.