Baked Apple

This is a twist on the usual presentation of a baked apple. I choose a large apple, then core it and slice it very thinly on a mandolin or another slicer. Be sure to keep all the apple pieces as intact as possible as you will re-assemble them so it looks like an apple, slices all stacked up, including the top slice. I then place the entire apple in a buttered ramekin dish that it can fit into (2 1/2 inch, usually), drizzle with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and bake until tender and cooked through. If you do not have the ramekin don’t despair, just wrap the apples tightly in foil. The spun sugar is a bit extravagant and you don’t have to make it. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

---

Ingredients:

1 large apple per person (Gala, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp etc.)

2 tablespoons butter per apple

2 tablespoons brown sugar per apple

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Vanilla ice cream or creme anglaise (see note below)

---

Directions:

Core apple, then slice very thinly, keeping the slices intact by stacking them on top of each other, including the top slice.

Melt butter, add sugar and cinnamon and place in a bowl.

Dip apple slices in the butter-sugar mixture to saturate them and stack in a buttered ramekin dish that is just large enough to hold the apple snuggly. Pour remaining butter sugar mixture over the apple.

Repeat with as many apples as you need.

Cover ramekins loosely with foil and bake in 350℉ oven for about an hour or until apples are cooked through. You can remove the foil in the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Let apples cool in the ramekins, then turn them over gently and transfer to a plate, right side up. Rearrange any slices that lost their place in the stack.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or crème anglaise, but here is a trick: you can serve it with vanilla ice cream that you have melted to room temperature. This is a crème anglaise, as ice cream is made of frozen crème anglaise. Pour the melted ice cream into the plate and set the apple on top. I won’t tell if you don’t.