You wouldn’t think baked apples were controversial, but this recipe caused a lot of consternation amongst the French Fridays crowd this week. It wasn’t the long bake at 300° or the layers of melted butter and spiced sugar. It wasn’t even figuring out what to use to press down on the apples as they cooked. It was that the recipe asks you to wrap the ramekins in a layer of plastic wrap under another of foil.
I’ve long been scared away from using cling wrap in the microwave, for fear of leaching chemicals, so I was also dubious about putting some into a conventional oven. My brother (a chef) advised that there are two kinds of wrap – restaurant-grade wrap that’s oven-safe and the cling wrap most of us have at home, which isn’t. I decided to brush the leftover melted butter onto foil and leave it at that.
That seemed to work just fine. My layers of apples were reduced to about a quarter of their original height and their texture had changed, too. They’d absorbed the butter and sugar and had become dense and rich. I used homemade vanilla sugar, skipped the zest, and added ground cardamom along with the ginger. It was a nice mix of flavours.
The apples are meant to be served with whipped cream, but I decided to dust them with icing sugar instead, which promptly melted into the apples, which were still a little too warm. This (relatively) quick apple confit made a great late night snack last weekend and I’d happily make them for a dinner party (with whipped cream, of course).
I’m curious to see what choices the rest of the Doristas made when they wrapped these for the oven. You can find their links here: Long and Slow Apples.
In the meantime, this week’s recipe was published here.
One Wet Foot 
Yes buttered foil sounds like a good idea – I did both parchment and plastic (and the plastic melted). In any case, the recipe is so good, I’ll be trying it again, sans plastic.
I was daring and used the plastic wrap…at least it didn’t melt! I’m glad to know I can skip it the next time 🙂
I didn’t think of this in terms of being a “confit” – apples, onions, what’s next?
A few years ago, I took some cooking classes and we had to use commercial grade cling wrap in the oven. I remembered the chef’s lecture (I.e. “don’t use the stuff you have at home to do this”) on home use cling wrap and restaurant grade and heeded that when it came to making this week’s dish…
Smart choice, Teresa! The melted plastic wrap smelled terrible!
This recipe does lend itself to a variety of flavor combinations.
Enjoy your week!
I did use the plastic, though I know what you mean. I am not certain it was important. These were pretty yummy. Happy that you enjoyed them!
Cardamom is my favorite spice. I wish I’d thought of adding some. A reason to try again!
Good choice to skip the orange zest, Teresa. It really doesn’t need it and totally took over the apples. And I like your choice of the cardamom. The photo of your apples is so pretty.
I think I had the newer version of the book. It says to top each ramekin with a circle of parchment and then wrap in foil and cook for 4 hours at 200 degrees F.
Your apples look great!
LOL I love that this recipe spurred so much “controversy” and anxiety than some of the other, certainly more complicated recipes!
I was surprised to learn that newer versions of the book call for parchment paper and foil. It also calls for a lower oven temp. and longer cooking time. I will try that next time I make these.
Yours look so warm and delicious…
Yours looks really great. I have a newer version of the book and it says to bake for 4 hours with parchment. I am glad that I didn’t ruin them with melted plastic! Butter on foil sounds like a great idea if you don’t have parchment. And I love the idea of icing sugar. Nice!
Teresa, sorry, I am running late on my comments for the apple dessert from last week – this was a wonderful recipe and I am planning on making it again soon – you are quite right, the apples seem to reduce so much despite all that stacking but tasted quite delicious1 Whipped cream sounds very good with these too!