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• Several large cooking apples - see notes
• 175 g butter + extra for greasing
• 100 g light brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 200 g self-raising flour
• 1-2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Grease a large tray and preheat oven to 160 °C (fan).
2. Peel and slice apples to approx. 3-5 mm thick slices, then place them into the tray.
   
   Apple (see notes)
   
3. Beat together butter and sugar till pale and thoroughly mixed.
   
   175 g butter
   100 g brown sugar
   
4. Add eggs, one by one, and vanilla extract.
   
   4 eggs
   1-2 tsp vanilla extract
   
5. Fold in flour.
   
   200 g flour
   
6. Pour sponge batter directly over the apples in the tray.
7. Bake till the sponge is golden and the apple syrup is visibly bubbling.

• Apple amounts really don't matter all that much - they just get dumped in the tray by themselves. In a standard (9x12"?) tray, would estimate a minimum of 500 g before it'd be worth reducing the sponge amounts.
• Personal first attempt used 6 large Bramley apples which was ~850 g after peeling and slicing, and it was perfect.
• Officially uses raisins or currants. i don't like them
• Use a glass/pyrex tray if possible or move to a different container for storage. (On my first attempt, i kept the pudding in the tray for like 2 days and either it was already dying or the acidity of the apples took some of the nonstick coating off.)
• I had assumed that the name was some biblical reference, but apparently it is named after the type of apple that was traditionally used (though presumably the name of the apple is a biblical reference).

not really a variant but supposedly the first known recipe is this one, using bread and suet.

Instead of sponge, try out apple crumble or mini apple crumbles.