Heirloom apples
{Sweet, tart and meltingly tender}
Think what might have happened if Adam and Eve had tasted an apple poached in a cider- and cinnamon-flavored caramel sauce. Who knows what sins might have been committed in the name of such sensual gustatory pleasure? And what if the apple had been an heirloom variety, such as Orin which I used here, prized for its sweet/tart personality, and its softly yielding texture when cooked.
This recipe takes the humble and homey idea of a baked apple and elevates it to something much more special and elegant. Simply cook some sugar until it is a deep amber color, deglaze the pan with cider (the kind you find at an orchard, a local farmers market or a good neighborhood health food store), enrich it with some heavy cream infused with a cinnamon stick, mellow it with a bit of sweet butter and you’re ready to slow-poach the fruit in this ambrosial liquid. The toasted hazelnut-studded short dough cookie and a dollop of softly whipped cream round out the plate.
No matter what part of the country you live in, apples in season (instead of the cold storage varieties that are insipid) give pastry chefs and those in training a reason to rejoice. Scour your local sources for one of the 2500 varieties that are found in this country (100 of which are commercially grown) and taste widely to find the apple that suits your palate. Find a variety that is somewhere between tart and sweet, juicy and firm, and you’re more than halfway there to a fulfilling fall dessert that will assuredly become part of your seasonal repertoire.
