Long and Slow Apples {AMFT}

November 22, 2010 at 8:00 am (Around My French Table, Dessert, Dorie Greenspan, French Fridays With Dorie, Holiday Baking)
Tags: Apples, Around My French Table, Baked apples, Citrus, Dorie Greenspan, French cooking, French food, French Fridays With Dorie, Orange, Pie weights, Ramekins

I love Autumn. I love the changing leaves, the cooling temperatures, the golden light in the late afternoon. But above all, I love the food. Squash, pumpkin, pears, grapes, root vegetables, and, most of all, apples. I love apples, both for eating out of hand and for cooking and baking.

Of course, in this day and age, you can get apples year ’round. But in the Fall, we have access to a greater variety of apples, locally grown and fresh from the trees. Throughout Autumn, you will always find apples in my house, and at any given time, I have four to six varieties to choose from.

Having recently made Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake for French Fridays with Dorie and a rustic apple tart, I hadn’t yet had my fill of apple dishes. When I got my copy of Around My French Table, one of the first recipes that caught my eye was this recipe for long and slow apples. I thought it might show up as one of our October or November FFwD recipes, and when it didn’t, I knew I had to make this dish anyway.

This is a simple dish in which time and gentle heat do most of the work. I made the apples in buttered ramekins by layering thinly sliced apples with melted butter, spiced sugar, and grated orange zest.

I wrapped the ramekins in plastic wrap (which Dorie assures us will not melt) and covered the plastic wrap with foil.

After poking through the foil and plastic wrap several times, I put custard cups filled with pie weights on top of the dishes.

I baked the apples at 300°F for two hours. The whole house smelled like Fall while the apples baked, and I couldn’t wait to try them.

As an aside, when I peeled the foil and plastic wrap off the ramekins, the plastic wrap fell apart, and some of it stuck on top of the apples. I took great care to pick it off, but I think when I make these again, I won’t use plastic wrap. Perhaps a disk of parchment would work better.

I let the apples cool and served them, still slightly warm, with fresh whipped cream. Everyone in my family loves apples like I do, and we all enjoyed this dish immensely. It reminded me of other baked apples I have tasted, but the thin slices of apple changed the texture a bit, putting me in mind of applesauce, but with a bit of tooth.

This was another delicious and easy recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s new book. If you have an interest in French cuisine, or just want to expand your culinary horizons with a great book chock full of amazing recipes, you won’t be disappointed if you add Around My French Table to your cookshelf.