Slow baked apple stacks

October 29, 2016 Published by Dina

It’s apple season and I am making apples desserts. One of my favourites is this thinly sliced honeycrisp apple, stacked in a ramekin dish and baked until soft and caramelized. I serve it with vanilla ice cream that I have melted (basically a creme anglaise) or with caramel or butterscotch sauce. The spun sugar is an extra that can looks impressive but it’s not a must. If you want to try it check my spun sugar recipe here.

Caramelized baked apple

Ingredients:

Begin by preparing the ramekins. You will need a ramekin for each apple. Butter the ramekins on the inside and sprinkle with sugar. Turn it around tapping it to spread the sugar over the entire buttered area. pour out excess sugar. Line the bottom of each dish with a round of parchment, it makes it easier to remove the apples from the dish after baking. Butter the parchment as well and sprinkle with sugar.

4 large Honeycrisp apples

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

Cinnamon

1 cup crushed caramelized nuts

Directions:

Work with one apple at a time. Core the apples but do not peel.

Using a mandolin slice each apple into very thin slices.

Place the sliced apples in a bowl keeping them together as they will be stacked inside the ramekin dish. Pour the lemon juice over the slices.

Begin placing the apple slices into the ramekins, spooning a little sugar, cinnamon over some of the slices.

Press the apple slices down and fill the ramekin to the top, even going a little over the top as the apple slices will shrink as they bake.

Top each ramekin with a pat of butter and a sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon.

Place a piece of parchment over each ramekin (see image below) and secure it with a kitchen twine.

Bake at 325℉ until the apples are cooked through, about 1/5 h.

When they are ready remove from the oven and let them cool.

Once they have cooled run a sharp knife around the apples in the ramekins, lay a plate over and turn it upside down in a smooth movement. You should have a beautiful stack of thinly sliced caramelized apple.

Butterscotch sauce

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup corn syrup

1 cup light brown sugar

2/3 cup whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine butter, corn syrup and sugar in a small pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook about 3 minutes on low heat.

Add cream and vanilla and stir to combine.

Serving suggestions:

Serve one per person, with any of the sauces mentioned above, but here they are again in case you have missed it:

Caramel or butterscotch sauce
Salted caramel sauce
Ice cream
Whipped cream
Sweetened creme fraiche
Sometime I melt vanilla häagen daaz ice cream and spoon it on the plate under the apple as a creme anglaise.