Apple Decadence

 

Baked apples filled with salted caramel apple ice cream and covered in palm-sugar meringue are a new riff on classic caramel apples.

I’m a little late with my last apple post because, well, I dreamed a dream and it took more than one try to get it right.  Basically, I *love* caramel apples, but I don’t love how the caramel sticks to my teeth and that sugar energy rocket launch-and-crash that happens.  So, this is less of a gut bomb, but stills falls into the category of fun and over-the-top dessert.

No, this isn’t vegan, though you could bake the apple and use your favorite luscious caramelized nut gelato.  There are also vegan egg-white substitutes that can be used in lieu of egg whites–if you go that route let me know how it turned out.  Palm sugar makes your meringues brown instead of snowy white, but that seems right to me for a caramel-flavored dessert.  Also, and this is really the more important thing, palm sugar lends a caramel, almost smoky, flavor to the meringue.  That said, the meringue was, by far, the trickiest part of all of this.  The traditional meringue with extra-fine sugar is a lot quicker and easier to predict.

While this isn’t the fastest recipe, it’s not that hard.  The apples can and should be made ahead of time since you want them at room temperature.

I suppose if you wanted to be even more over-the-top, you could drizzle a little chocolate or caramel sauce over the whole thing.  Oh, and it helps to have a fork or knife as well as a spoon.

Caramel Apples Alaska

4 apples (medium to large)
2 t butter and butter for the baking dish.
cinnamon and palm sugar for sprinkling
hot water
4 egg whites, room temperature
4 T palm sugar
1/8 t. cream of tartar (baking powder can be substituted)
1 C. salted caramel ice cream or nut gelato of your choice

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Peel apples halfway and core.  Make sure to remove all the seeds, but leave the bottom intact.  Butter a baking dish.  Than, with 1/2  t.  pieces of butter, butter the peeled part of each apple and put the remainder of the butter in the center cavity of the apple.  Sprinkle well with mixture of cinnamon and palm sugar.  Place apples in baking dish and pourhot water so that it comes up about a third of the way on the apples.  Pop in oven and baste with liquid every 15 minutes or so.  Bake anywhere from 30-60 minutes, depending on the size and firmness of the apples, until they are tender.

Remove apples and let cool to room temperature.

Beat egg whites until foamy, then add cream of tartar.  It helps to warm them, if possible, over a burner, but it’s not necessary.  When the whites start to form soft peaks, add one T of the palm sugar.  Beat like mad, until peaks form again, then add another T of the sugar.  Do this twice more and then beat until nearly stiffy–the peaks just bend a little, but the mixture is still glossy.  This will seem take a ridiculous amount of time even with a KitchenAid, but it’s also easy to not pay attention and overbeat.

Stuff the cavity of each apple with a 1/4 cup of ice cream, smoothing it into the general curve of the apple on top.

At this point, you have two options.  If using a kitchen blowtorch, either pipe or spoon on the meringue so that it completely and thickly covers the unpeeled part of the apple.  Make sure there are no holes.  Then brown the meringue all over  with the torch and serve with knife and fork.

Otherwise, heat the oven to 500 F.  Cluster the ice-cream filled apples in a pie pan and completely cover the apples  as a group.  Bake for 5 to 10 minutes ’til meringue starts to brown (don’t be surprised if you have burnt bits–this takes a lot of watching).  Remove from oven, divide the apples and serve immediately,

 

Cooling down with Apples

Apple-lemon ice pops with mint and ginger. These contain no added sugar, just honey and juice. Refreshing at any time, they’re also good for sore throats.

I love ice pops (Popsicles is trademarked, so ice pops it is.).  They are one of my favorite things to make in terms of bang for the buck.  Home-made ice pops are cheaper, healthier and tastier than the store bought variety.  Really, the only negatives involve planning ahead and getting them out of the molds (best solution so far–putting the mold in a tall glass of warm water for 30 seconds.)

While there are some wonderful ice pop recipes out there, I realized that I hadn’t seen one using apples.  No doubt there are some, but strawberry and lemon have nothing to worry about on the ice pop front.  As I thought about the brisk refreshing quality of a good apple, I wondered why–I suppose it’s seasonal in part.  Apples are a fall fruit and are associated with warm, baked things.  Also, apple juice and cider can be a bit cloying if not balanced–just pouring apple juice in a mold wasn’t going to work.  Something lighter was needed.

So, I went to work–focusing on flavors that emphasized the lighter fresher qualities of apples.  Instead of using juice, I made a sort of thin applesauce, flavored with lemon, mint and just a hint of ginger.  I also wanted to avoid using white sugar.  While I do use white sugar, I prefer to use natural sweeteners that have something in them besides empty calories.  I added a couple of tablespoons of honey, but a little more was still needed–this was provided by a little bit of white grape juice.

The results are good and were welcome during our Indian summer heatwave.  As an added benefit, these pops actually contain various ingredients that help sooth colds and other ailments that irritate the throat.

If you don’t have ice pop molds or want something that can be eaten with a spoon, this mixture will also make a nice granita or Italian sorbet.  While granitas do mean being around, they’re easy and don’t require any special equipment.

Apple-Lemon Ice Pops or Granita 

4 cups peeled and chopped apples (flavor matters here, texture not so much)
2 cups water
2-3 T honey
1/2 t. fresh ginger
1 lemon (about 1/4 c. juice)
1-2 T. fresh mint, chopped fine
1/4-1/2 c. white grape juice
Place apples, 1 cup of water, 2 T of the honey and the grated ginger in a saucepan.  If it’s easy to do, grate some of the lemon zest (about a teaspoon) into the mix  and bring to a boil, then lower and cook over medium low heat until apples are very soft.  Add water as needed.  (You’ll want this to be thinner than applesauce.)  When cooked, puree the apples.  An immersion mixer is easiest, but a food processor or a blender will work just fine.  Stir in the lemon juice, the mint and 1/4 c. of the grape juice.  Taste–if it seems lacking in flavor add a little more grape juice and honey.  If mixture is thick, add a little more water or grape juice.  It should pour readily, though it will be thicker than juice.

If making ice pops, pour into molds and freeze 6 hours.  Put mold in glass of warm water for 30 seconds to unmold.

If making granita (Italian ice or sorbet), pour into a wide flat pan and put in freezer.  Every 30 minutes, take pan out and stir around with a fork, making sure to mix in the ice crystals forming on the sides.  The granita will be ready in 2-3 hours.  Serve as you would a sorbet.

An Apple Every Other Day

Apples, sweet potatoes, almonds, ginger and mint come together in this vegan filo triangle.

When I first considered spending a week on apples, I didn’t think I’d invent any recipes.  Apples are ancient and well-loved–I expect a rather large and heavy volume could be comprised of apple recipes.  And there still would be more.  I looked forward to unearthing long-forgotten apple recipes and reviving them.

However, once I had the apples in my hand, ideas began to flit through my head.  Apples, in a way, are simple–a good apple has a nice mix of tart, sweet and crunch.  Its taste is distinctive, but it plays well with others.  While Americans often think of apples and cinnamon in apple pie and apple sauce; apples do well with ginger and mint and can show up during the first part of dinner as well as after.

These filo packets make a lot out of a little.  While I find working with filo a bit of a pain, once made, these triangles can be tossed in the freezer and baked as needed.  They make a good appetizer, but I also like these triangles as a mindless dinner–four triangles and a salad does it for me.  The apples and sweet potato give them an autumnal quality–so much so, that I would bring them to a Thanksgiving-themed buffet, particularly since they’re easy to carry.

I’ve used coconut oil instead of butter to make these packets vegan, but butter would certainly work as, I suppose, would margarine, but I don’t like foods, in general, that pretend to be something else, so I don’t use it.  Coconut oil, being solid at room temperature, creates the necessary flakiness for filo.  It doesn’t have a lot of taste, so I’ve found adding salt to the melted oil helps for this.

Apple, Sweet Potato Triangles 

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped
2 medium apples, peeled and chopped
1/4 c almonds chopped
1 shallot, chopped small
2 T citrus marmalade (I used lemon, but other flavors will do)
1 T fresh mint
1 t. fresh ginger, grated
salt
pepper
lemon juice (optional)
1/2  c. coconut oil
1 package filo (app. 20 sheets)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make sure that the apples and sweet potatoes are chopped into small, fairly equal pieces.  You don’t have to be precise about this, but you want them to kick at the same rate.  Put them in a bowl and mix in almonds, shallots, mint, ginger, salt and pepper to taste.  Then stir in marmalade.  Check again–if your marmalade is sweet, add lemon juice.  This can be done ahead of time, just cover refrigerate, the marmalade will help it keep the apples from turning brown.

When ready to assmble, open the filo package.  Use a damp dishcloth to cover the unused filo while working.  Meanwhile melt the coconut oil and salt it lightly. (I usually do this in the microwave.)  Carefully lay down one sheet of filo and brush with melted coconut oil, cover with another sheet of filo, brush and repeat until you have five sheets–do *not* oil the fifth sheet.  Instead, near the long bottom of the sheet, place five teaspoons of filling equal distances apart and cut into five equal strips.  Fold the bottom corner so that it covers the filling, then fold along the triangle’s hypotoneuse so that the middle corner of the triangle  reaches the corner opposite of it.  You are folding it like a flag, continue doing this until the strip of filo is completely folded.  Continue doing this until the filo is used up.  You should have about 20 triangles.   The triangles can be baked or frozen at this point.

Place triangles on baking sheet and brush tops  with melted coconut oil.  Pop into oven and bake for 25 minutes if fresh, 45 minutes if frozen.

Serve warm.  Makes 20-24 triangles.

 

Good Morning Granola

A fresh slab of granola waiting to be broken.

While I subsist on liquid breakfasts, the other members of my family like something they can chew–aka cereal.  Turns out that my husband’s favorite granola pushed his breakfast over the daily $1.50 limit.  Well, his second-favorite granola that is.  His real favorite is the stuff he makes himself.  With a bit of planning and a few adjustments, he tweaked his personal granola recipe so that he came in under budget and was also set for two weeks of breakfasts.

Then I figured out a little something to do with the leftovers.

Rob’s Budget Granola

7  c. rolled oats
1-2 c. walnut pieces
1-2 c.  almonds
1 c. flax seeds
1/4 c. sesame seeds
2/3 c. honey
1/2 oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.   Preferably in a dutch oven, though a baking pan can also be used, toast the oats,  Stir them around a few times to keep from burning.  This won’t take too long–maybe 5-10 minutes.  Main thing is that they’ll smell toasted.  Add nuts, flax seeds and sesame seeds and toast another 5 minutes.  Add oil and warmed honey and stir throughout, lightly coating pieces.  Cook another 5 minutes.  Let cool until a firm crust has formed.  Then break up into bite-size pieces and store tightly.  Keeps several weeks if kept air-tight.

Granola is personal and should be tweaked–other grains, nuts, coconut and dried fruit all work–it’s very much your call.

However, at some point, you’ll be near the bottom of your granola container and realize that there’s a bunch of tasty granola crumbs that are too wee to be bite-size.  Don’t throw them out, instead use them and any remnants in the jam jar for Leftover Crisp.

Leftover Crisp
4 T granola crumbs
2 T leftover jam (most will work, blackberry jam works particularly well)
2 medium or 4 small apples
1 T butter (coconut oil should also work)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Peel and cut up apples into small pieces, toss with jam and place into single-serve baking dishes or custard cups.  Mix butter with granola crumbs, rubbing together quickly with fingers.  Sprinkle mixture over apples.  Bake for 25 minutes or until apples are tender.  Makes 4 half-cup servings.