Guernsey Gache Melee
- SuperSavvySavers
- Sep 28
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
More apples than you can shake a branch at? At this time of year our kitchen counters are often overflowing with a bounty of apples, freshly picked from our gardens or kindly donated by neighbours, friends or a family members. Having tonnes of apples means lots of baking!
But before you reach for the same old crumble recipe... you can turn your apple abundance into something truly wonderful and absolutely delicious using just a few store cupboard ingredients. I'm taking about a traditional Guernsey Gache Melee - the Ultimate Apple Bake!
The correct spelling is actually Gâche Mélée (pronounced Gosh Mel-ar) and it's a traditional apple dish from our beautiful island of Guernsey. Gache Melee literally means 'cake mix' in Guernésiais. It's basically a delicious tray bake of 'bready apple cake'.
So if you're ready to transform your abundance of apples into an autumnal masterpiece, here's what you'll need for a traditional Guernsey Gâche Mêlée... the ultimate tray bake! 🤩
No fancy equipment is required for this recipe, just a mixing bowl, baking dish and a spoon!
Guernsey Gache Melee Recipe - The Ultimate Apple Bake
Great way to use up your surplus apples! The recipe makes one large tray bake which we cut into 16 portions. The recipe is really quick and easy and tastes delicious. One bake makes so much, you might need to freeze some! Try freezing in smaller portions and pop them into the kids school lunchboxes! 🤩
The actual traditional recipe uses suet, but who has that in their fridge these days? If you have it, by all means use it, but we've replaced the suet for butter in our recipe - we used Guernsey butter too! 💖
Makes 16 Portions (or 12 large portions)
Cost: Approx 20p per portion!
Ingredients
The thing to note about this recipe is that the ingredients are VERY flexible! Every Guernsey person seems to make their own version of Gache Melee. The main ingredients are Apples, Sugar, Flour, pinch of salt and Suet or Butter. If you have those, you're in!
Here's what we used:
About 6 or 7 apples - peeled, cored and chopped - use whatever variety of apples you have (our cored and chopped apples weighed 865g to give you an idea)
140g granulated sugar
120g butter - grated!
420g self raising flour
2 eggs (not actually required.... this is a personal preference! Just add another splash of milk if you don't have any eggs, or don't want to use any!)
Milk (about 100ml)
Shake of cinnamon (about 2 tsps)
Pinch of salt (about 1/2 tsp)
That's it! 😆
You will need -
Mixing bowl
Spoon for mixing
Deep tray / Pyrex dish / Roasting tin
Greaseproof paper
Method
Preheat oven to 160°c. Line a large baking dish with greaseproof paper.
Add the peeled, cored and chopped apples to your mixing bowl.
Add the sugar and use a small sharp knife to cut through some apple chunks to release juices.
Add the dry ingredients (flour, grated butter, salt, cinnamon). Tip - take the butter straight from the fridge and grate it like you would a block of cheese 👍
Add the beaten eggs. Give it a stir.
Add a splash of milk. If the mix looks a little dry, add another splash.
Transfer the mixture to your pre-lined baking dish.
Bake for approx. 60 minutes until golden brown on top.
When cooked, leave to cool a little before turning out and slicing into portions.
A few people have asked what size baking tray. I use a ceramic dish which measures 30cmx20cmx6cm. If you don't have anything that big, just throw it into whatever oven-proof dishes you have and cook in separate batches.
Serve with cream, ice-cream, custard or if you don't have any of that, use squirty cream like us! 😆
Ingredients costs - flour 50p, sugar about 40p, eggs 60p, butter £1.20, shake of cinnamon say 20p, splash of milk say 20p and the apples were free. Total cost £3.10.
That’s just 20p per portion!
One tray bake does make quite a lot. If it's too much, simply freeze in portions for later! Great for the kids school lunchboxes 👍
Enjoy!
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