Around My French Table (75 page)

RIGHT BEFORE SERVING, MAKE THE TOPPING:
Whip the cream just until it holds soft peaks, then beat in the confectioners' sugar, ginger, and vanilla. Spread some cream over each ramekin.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

SERVING
The apples are great warm, at room temperature, or chilled, topped with a thick layer of whipped cream and served with a spoon.

STORING
Once cooled, the apples can be kept covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

BONNE IDÉE
Twenty-Hour Apples
Butter an 8-inch square nonreactive baking dish (glass or ceramic is good here), and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. You'll need 8 to 10 large apples, peeled, cut in half from blossom to stem, cored, and cut crosswise into very thin slices. As you cut, keep the shape of each half intact so that when you're done, you can press on it and fan out the slices. Place the fanned slices in the buttered pan, continuing until you've covered the base of the pan. Generously brush the layer with melted unsalted butter (you'll need 4 to 6 tablespoons total) and sprinkle evenly with a thin coating of sugar (as much as ½ cup sugar total). Toss a few strands of grated orange zest over the apples (the zest from 1 orange), and continue making layers. The apples will probably mound above the edge of the pan, and that's just fine. Double-wrap the pan with plastic wrap, covering the top and bottom, and prick the plastic in about 6 places. Top with weights (I use cans of tomatoes)—don't cover all the air holes—put the pan on the lined baking sheet, and bake for 10 hours in a 175-degree-F oven. (Don't worry—the plastic won't melt.) Let the apples cool to room temperature, still wrapped and weighted, then move the whole setup into the refrigerator and chill the apples for 10 hours. To serve, cut into squares—you'll have enough for about 10 servings—and top with whipped cream, if you like.

I
T'S SURPRISING HOW POPULAR
COMPOTE DE POMMES,
or applesauce, is in France. It's one of the first foods babies get to eat, but it's also a household standby; a small bowlful topped with a little crème fraîche or mixed with yogurt makes a dessert, as does a few spoonfuls savored with a couple of cookies. When Marie-Cécile Noblet came to live with us to be the au pair to our then ten-month-old son, one of the first things she did was make
compote de pommes
for the little one. While her chocolate rice pudding became my husband's all-time favorite dessert, the fact that the applesauce was for the kid never stopped him from dipping into the stash. As for me, I was always looking for ways to bake with it (see Bonne Idée).

Compote de pommes
can be as simple as cooking cut-up apples with a little water (to keep them from scorching) until they're soft enough to mash with a spoon or as sophisticated as cooking them until they're dark and caramelish (halfway between applesauce and apple butter), then mixing them with salted butter, to make a treat that's a specialty of both Normandy (which is just about synonymous with apples) and Brittany (where salted butter reigns).

If you decide to make the darker compote, you can double the recipe—you'll be cooking the apples for a long time (getting the texture you want can take over 30 minutes), so you might want to maximize your effort.

I like to make my applesauce with chunks of apples (peel and cores intact), and then run the sauce through a food mill, which purees and strains the fruit at the same time. If you don't have a food mill, it's easier to peel and core the apples at the start. Cut the fruit into chunks and toss them into a medium saucepan—one with a heavy bottom works best here.

Stir in ¼ cup water and the brown sugar and put the pan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring frequently—stay close, because the juices can bubble up—until the apples are soft enough to be crushed with the back of a spoon. If the pan looks too dry, add a little more water as you cook and stir. Count on about 15 to 20 minutes to get to the mashable stage.

If you want regular
compote de pommes,
remove the pan from the heat and run the compote through a food mill. If you're without a mill, push it through a strainer—or don't: chunky applesauce is great. Should the applesauce seem too thin to you, pour it back into the pan and cook, stirring constantly, for a few minutes, until the sauce is thick enough to mound on a spoon. Scoop the applesauce into a bowl. If you're making the regular compote, taste it now, and if you'd like it sweeter, add some of the granulated sugar. Now's also the time to add the vanilla, if you want it.

If you want to cook the compote down so that it's thicker and jammier, it's best to strain it first—but don't add the sugar or vanilla. Return the compote to the saucepan, put the pan over the lowest possible heat, and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan often, until you have a thick, spreadable mixture. (This can take more than 30 minutes for a single recipe and more than an hour if you've doubled it, so be patient.) Be careful: the apples will sputter, and they're very, very hot! Alternatively, you can put the pan in a 250-degree-F oven and bake the compote, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until it's thick. Let cool slightly, and when the compote is no longer burn-your-tongue hot, taste it for sugar—but cooked down like this, it will probably be sweet enough—and add the vanilla, if you'd like. Stir in the butter, if you're using it.

Whichever compote you've made, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface and chill.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

SERVING
The lighter
compote de pommes
makes a good dessert mixed with a little crème fraîche or yogurt and served with cookies, while the darker compote is great in crepes. (It's also nice spread over the base of the
tarte fine,
see Bonne Idée,
[>]
, before the apple slices are added.)

STORING
Either compote can be kept tightly covered in the refrigerator for at least 1 week.

BONNE IDÉE
Apple Turnovers.
Chaussons aux pommes
made with puff pastry, about the size of the palm of your hand, are a morning treat throughout France. My own preference is for pastries that are more petite. To make 8 turnovers, you'll need 2 sheets of frozen puff pastry, thawed. One at a time, roll each sheet out into an 11-inch square and then, using a 4½-inch saucer as a guide, cut out 4 circles. Spoon a tablespoon or so of compote (the lighter compote is better here) into the center of each one. Paint the edges of each circle with a little beaten egg and fold the dough over to make a half-moon shape, pressing with your fingertips to seal the edges. Crimp the edges with the tines of a fork and brush the tops with egg. Sprinkle a little sugar over the turnovers and use the point of a paring knife to poke 2 holes in each pastry. Put the turnovers on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and bake in a 400-degree-F oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they're puffed and golden and a little of the applesauce is bubbling up through the steam vents. Transfer them to racks and let them cool to just warm or room temperature.

B
AKED APPLES, OR
POMMES AU FOUR
(apples in the oven), are the kind of dessert you might believe the French pop out of the womb knowing how to make. In fact, baked apples are less a recipe than a construction: you core some apples, stuff their hollows with dried fruits, nuts, honey, and butter, and then slide them into the oven. Which fruits and nuts? It's up to you. Cinnamon or no cinnamon? Again, your choice. Hot? Warm? Chilled, with heavy cream? No one will tell you definitively. I love sweets like these, and clearly the French do too, because when I bake these apples for my friends there, invariably, no matter their age, they start to tell me about how their grandmothers made them.

When I first made this dessert in Paris, I asked the apple man at the market which fruit to use. His suggestion was Canada or Boskoop, two varieties I've never seen in America, so when I returned to the U.S., I decided to use what my own grandmother had used: big old-fashioned red baking apples, like Rome Beauty or Cortland. But, like the rest of this recipe, even the apples are up for grabs. You can make these with "regular" apples, like Gala, Empire, or Jonagold. Everyday eating apples are smaller than big bakers, so they'll take less filling and need less time in the oven, but these are easy adjustments to make as you go.

A word of advice: Make a thin cut around the tummy of each apple to keep it from bursting.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have a baking dish at hand: you want a dish that can hold the apples comfortably but snugly (a 9- or 10-inch deep-dish Pyrex pie pan works well).

Core the apples, making sure not to cut through the bottoms. Peel the apples down to the halfway mark; don't toss away the peels. Make a very shallow cut around each apple at the point where the peel begins. Rub the cut parts of the apples with the slice of lemon.

In a small bowl, mix together the dried fruits, nuts, and honey; add the salt and spice, if you're using them. Cut 2 tablespoons of the butter into 8 pieces and put a piece of butter inside each apple. Divide the fruit-and-nut mixture among the apples, then top each with another piece of butter.

Arrange the apples in the baking dish and pour in the cider or water. Cut the remaining 2 tablespoons butter into bits and scatter the bits over the cider, then toss in the reserved peels (if they're very long, just cut them into manageable strips).

Slide the baking dish into the oven and bake the apples, basting them every 15 minutes, for 50 to 75 minutes, until they are tender. (I can't give you a more precise estimate of the time because it will depend on the size and type of your apples—so check early and often.) Don't go for al dente—the apples should be spoon-tender.

Transfer the apples to a serving platter or individual small bowls. If you'd like, pour the baking juices into a saucepan and boil for a few minutes to make a more concentrated sauce; set aside. Let the apples cool for about 10 minutes, or until they reach room temperature.

Serve the apples moistened with the pan sauce, and, if desired, topped with yogurt, cream, crème fraîche, or ice cream.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

SERVING
Drizzle the apples with some of the pan sauce, and then, if you like, spoon over some yogurt, heavy cream, whipped or not (there's something nice about plain cream with these apples), crème fraîche, or vanilla ice cream.

STORING
The apples are softer and more comforting served warm, but they're still very good at room temperature (covered lightly, they can stay on the counter for several hours) or even chilled. If you've got leftovers, cover them, put them in the refrigerator, and have them for breakfast the next day.

BONNE IDÉE
Pommes au Four Meringuées.
I normally do nothing more to my
pommes au four
but fill them with fruit, but my French neighbors turn this nursery sweet into dinner-party fare by topping each apple with a pouf of meringue. Bake the apples as directed, and then crown them with meringue (beat 2 large egg whites with a scant ½ cup sugar until they form firm, glossy peaks) and run them under the broiler to brown their tops; or, if you've got a blowtorch, use it to color the meringue.

C
OOKED FRUITS AND SIMMERED COMPOTES
are among the simplest of French family sweets, and the most comforting too. While they're usually served with little more than heavy cream, crème fraîche, or plain yogurt, I like to pair these holiday-spiced fruits with rice pudding (
[>]
) or French toast (
[>]
), moistening the pudding or toast with the poaching syrup and then spooning over the fruit.