Ash-Roasted Apples with Blue Cheese-Date Stuffing and Cinnamon-Orange Caramel Sauce
dessertscanada
(Jun.04.09)
This dessert – cooked in the coals while dinner is grilling – is an extreme version of baked apples, complete with a tangy-sweet stuffing and a luscious caramel sauce. If you like, you can skip the sauce; on the other hand, you can make it hours ahead of time and just stick it in the microwave (or warm it up in a saucepan over a very low heat) right before serving dessert.
Ingredients
1/4 cup pecans
4 large Golden Delicious apples (or other firm apples such as Jonathans, Braeburns, Empires or Romes)
8oz (125 g) blue cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup diced pitted dates
The Sauce
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Juice of 1/2 orange (about 1/4 cup)
3in (7.5cm) cinnamon stick
1/4 cup heavy cream
Grated zest of 1/2 orange
Pinch of salt
Directions
1. Toast the pecans in a shallow baking pan in a 350°F (180°C) oven for 5–10 minutes, or very carefully in a dry frying pan on the grill, shaking frequently to avoid burning, until golden (3–5 minutes). Chop them finely in a food processor or coffee grinder.
2. Core the apples through the top, stopping 1/2-in (1cm) from the bottom. Combine the cheese, dates, and pecans in a bowl and mix gently until evenly combined. Push a quarter of the mixture into the centre of each apple.
3. For each apple, stack up 4 sheets of heavy-duty foil, each about 2 ft (60cm) long. Place the apples in the centre of the top sheets of foil, then fold up the sheets around each apple one after the other, turning the package a quarter-turn each time and making sure that each sheet is well sealed around the apple.
4. Place the foil-wrapped apples in the coals at the periphery of the fire, where the heat is less intense. Pile the coals up around the packages and cook until the apples are tender (20–30 minutes).
5. While the apples are roasting, combine the sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan over a medium heat, stirring just until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to the boil. Add the cinnamon stick and simmer without stirring until the syrup turns deep amber– about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and immediately add the cream, orange zest, and salt – the mixture will steam and sputter, and the caramel will congeal. Continue to cook, stirring gently, until the caramel dissolves completely. Set aside.
6. When the apples are tender, remove the packages from the coals and cut open the foil. Remove the cinnamon stick from the caramel and drizzle the warm sauce over the apples.
Serves 4
Recipe excerpted from Grill It by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby. Published by DK Publishing. Copyright 2008 by Dorling Kindersley, Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Buy the book now!