Here’s a super frugal wartime recipe made out of stale bread and fruit that’s going a little soft. As I had two of these things in my kitchen and I’m always finding ways to make ends meet, when I saw this recipe I knew it was just what I needed.

As I’m trying hard to reduce my weight and become healthier, I reduced the below ingredients by half to make a small pie that would make two generous portions (and this also ensured that if in a moment of weakness I gobbled it all up then not so much damage would be done). By the way I didn’t. I ate half with no custard. It was absolutely DELICIOUS! I really did want to eat it all though…

The cost of this dish was about £1 and calories about 800 for the whole pie ( if making the full size pie using the ingredients below it will be around 1600 kcals so about 400 cals per serving)

Plum Charlotte

1 lb (450g) fruit, weight when prepared (eg. several plums and 1 large apple)
3 oz (75g) sugar
8 oz (225g) bread
2 oz (50g) margarine.

Method

Cut apples into small slices, no need to peel. Half and stone the plums. Place fruit into a saucepan with half the sugar and a couple of spoonfuls of water and simmer for 5 minutes.

Heat margarine up in a saucepan until melted and hot. Break up the bread into coarse breadcrumbs with your fingers and add to the margarine in the saucepan and stir, add the remaining sugar and a couple of spoonfuls of milk to ensure bread is mixed and slightly damp.

Place fruit mixture into pie dish, cover with breadcrumb mix.

Place into a pre-heated oven (180C or 350F).

Cook for 30-40 minutes until top is brown and crisp.

Serves 4

PS: A BIG THANK YOU to JOY who knitted me a lovely tea cosy for my teapot. Doesn’t it look GREAT!!!