This "with Edmonds" gets my vote

I chose to make myself an apple coconut flan (p215) this evening. It's a recipe from the "Desserts with Edmonds" chapter, and is sort of like a fruit sponge, made with an Edmonds cake mix. Since I wouldn't expect to eat a whole dish designed to serve 8-10, I halved the recipe. There'll be another "with Edmonds" recipe I can use the remaining cake mix on.

To start with, I needed some stewed apple, so I peeled and chopped a couple of apples, and put them in a pot to stew while I cooked myself some dinner. By the time I had a meal ready the apple had softened up, so I set it aside to cool for a while.


After eating, I mixed buttercake mix with coconut, then rubbed through some butter. This, instead of creating the breadcrumb-like texture described, made for a moist mixture with a similar density to biscuit dough. Oh well, not much I could do about that.


I grated some lemon zest, stirred it into the apple, and spooned the apple into the bottom of a casserole dish. I spread the clumpy coconutty mixture over the apple, then poured a mixture of water and lemon juice over the top. That last step was a bit unusual, but that's what it says in the recipe. I wondered if it was going to result in a self-saucing style pud, but that didn't turn out to be the case.

After 55 minutes in the oven, the top of my apple coconut flan was golden brown, but wasn't as firm to the touch as the recipe seemed to indicate. Remembering that I didn't start with the described texture either, I decided the final result would probably be a bit different too.


Having now tried a bowlful of the flan, (with hokey pokey ice cream, because how could I not?) I can tell you it's delicious beyond any expectation I had from this recipe. On the surface, there's a light crunchy crust tasting of toasted coconut, topping a beautifully airy sponge. Underneath is the tangy lemony apple. I enjoyed every mouthful: just what I felt like eating tonight!