I have a very specific memory connected to this recipe, when I must have been five years old (1989!). It is still the Soviet Union, but something exciting is happening on TV at 6pm. It was the first foreign-language series shown in the USSR, the Brazilian drama called Escrava Esaura (aka Isaura: Slave Girl. Read the Wiki page on it, it’s fascinating).
An hour before each episode began, my granny Vera would mix some curd cheese with sugar, vanilla and raisins. She would hollow out some apples, stuff them with this mixture and bake them until the skins burst, the flesh was fluffy and the cheese caramelised on top. I miss the ritual, I miss the excitement of early television, I miss her baked apples. I miss her.
