Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter

My family’s farm, Fernwood Springs, in Westampton, New Jersey, has a lovely little apple orchard. The trees go mostly untended now because it’s just my grandma and my uncle working the farm (and my grandma is 87!), but the Red Delicious apples are still…well…delicious, even without much tending. I picked a boatload the other day and decided to make apple butter with them in my shiny new-ish crockpot.

I’m filing this recipe under “Kitchen Projects” because it takes a looooong time to make. Traditionally, apple butter is cooked over an open flame for like, 4 days, but I managed to a) eliminate the open flame (not so legal in Brooklyn) and b) reduce the cooking time to about 12 hours or so. I added a couple of dried chilies to the recipe after being inspired by a friend who put up a billion jars of cayenne-spiced apple sauce this year – the chile/apple combo is a good one. It may seem a little weird to boil apple cores in a bag along with the apple/water/sugar mixture, but the cores contain a ton of pectin which will give your finished butter a nice jam-y consistency.

Ingredients:
(makes about 2 pints)

12 cups apples, chopped (I used Red Delicious, but other varieties of apples will work). Reserve 5-6 apple cores – see below
2 cups raw sugar
2 cups water
1 lemon
5-6 apple cores
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole cloves
3-4 whole cardamom pods
2-3 small dried chilies
4-5 pods star anise
1/2 vanilla bean, split

Special Equipment: Crock-pot, cheesecloth, kitchen twine, hand blender (optional)

Procedure:

1. Combine the chopped apples, sugar, 2 cups of water, and the juice of 1 lemon in a large crock pot. (Reserve the squeezed lemon.)
2. Wrap the juiced lemon, the apple cores, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom pods, chilies, star anise, and vanilla bean in cheesecloth and tie with kitchen twine. Add to the apple/sugar mixture.
3. Cook the mixture on high in the crockpot for 2 hours. If the water starts evaporating too quickly, add more, 1/4 cup at a time.
4. Reduce heat to low and cook for 10-12 hours. The mixture should turn a dark caramel brown and the apples should start to fall apart.
5. After 10-12 hours in the crockpot, check the mixture for consistency. This will depend on what variety of apple you use,  how hot your crockpot gets, and whether you added additional water to the mixture. The mixture should start looking jam-y, with little to no apple chunks in the mix.
6. If the mixture is too chunky for your liking, remove the cheesecloth bag and blend the mixture using a hand blender until the apple chunks have been incorporated. If the mixture isn’t thick enough for your liking, remove the mixture from the crockpot and add to a medium, heavy-bottomed pot. Cook over medium heat until thickened. (Keep an eye on the mixture at this point – it will splatter everywhere if left unattended. Trust me.) I both blended with a hand blender and continued to cook the mixture on top of the stove to get the consistency I wanted.
7. Once the apple butter is as thick as you’d like it, ladle into jars or another clean, glass container. Cool completely, then refrigerate. You can also can (that sounds kind of weird) the apple butter at this point, but I didn’t want to bother – the mixture will keep in the fridge for at least a couple of weeks without canning.

Honey Caramels

Honey Caramels come to you in honor of NYC’s Pollinator Week (this week!), which is coordinated by Just Food. Beekeeping is currently illegal in New York City (sign a petition to make it legal here), although there are quite a few rogue beekeepers in Brooklyn and in the rest of New York City. Read more about urban beekeeping here.

I found this recipe in the Puerto Rican Cookbook by Elizabeth B.K. Dooley, an antique cookbook that is part of my growing collection of ye olde cookbooks. It dates from the mid-40s, and is a fascinating collection of Puerto Rican food from the era of American colonization (i.e, prior to Puerto Rico becoming a Commonwealth). It’s got an entire chapter dedicated to recipes made with honey; pretty interesting coming from an island that grew a heck of a lot of sugar cane.

If you’re a novice candy maker, it really, really helps to have a candy thermometer on hand. The various stages of candy making (soft ball, firm ball, hard ball, etc.) tend to happen really, really quickly – you can take your candy from firm ball to hard ball in just seconds and then be totally screwed (mind out of the gutter, people). Without a proper candy thermometer, you will have to drop a bit of your candy into ice water to determine its stage in the candy making process. Don’t be intimidated – it’s really not that difficult, you just have to pay close attention to what’s going on in your pot.  Also – hot sugar is one of the hottest, most dangerous things you’ll come across in the kitchen. I kid you not. If you get hot caramel on your skin, it just keeps on burning and burning. (Speaking from experience here.) So be careful, OK?

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup honey (mild honey works best here)
1 cup raw sugar (or granulated sugar)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Fleur de sel or other sea salt for topping

Special Equipment: 8×8 pan, candy thermometer (optional)

Procedure:

1. Line an 8×8 pan with aluminum foil, letting the edges of the foil hang over the side of the pan, and spray with cooking spray, or butter generously.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan.
3. Add the honey, sugar, and heavy cream. Stir over medium heat until the sugar has mostly dissolved.
4. Turn the heat to medium low. Clip your candy thermometer onto the side of the pan….carefully.
5. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches firm ball stage, which you can determine in one of two ways: a. the mixture reaches 248ºF (give or take a degree or two) on a candy thermometer (it will be marked with “FB” or “firm ball”) or b. Drop a bit of the mixture into a small bowl filled with ice water. It should immediately form a ball that you can squeeze together with your fingers without it dissipating.
6. Immediately remove from the heat, quickly stir in the vanilla (it will bubble slightly) and pour the mixture into your greased pan. Sprinkle with fleur de sel or other sea salt.
7. Let cool, lift out of the pan using the foil, then cut into squares and wrap in squares of parchment paper or cellophane.

Note: If you happen to accidentally take your caramels past the firm ball stage (i.e., if the caramel mixture gets a little too hard after it has cooled), remelt the candy over low heat with 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Stir until the mixture is totally combined, then do the ice water test to check the consistency of the mixture (dropping the mixture into cold water is a reliable indicator of what the texture/consistency of the caramels will be when cool). Immediately pour into a newly-foil lined and greased pan, and cool completely.

Buttermilk Shortcakes with Strawberry Sorbet and Vanilla Creme Fraiche Sauce

Whoa – two strawberry posts in a row! I should’ve planned this whole blogging thing out a little bit better. Because strawberries are so delightful and so in-season right now, I guess I don’t really care that I have two strawberry posts in a row. Really, I don’t.

This is Thomas Keller’s recipe from the French Laundry Cookbook, with some minor modifications. I find that some celebrity chefs’ cookbooks are not as fool-proof as I’d want them to be (I won’t name names), but the French Laundry Cookbook is amazing. If you don’t want to go all-out and make the shortcakes and the crème fraîche sauce, at least make the strawberry sorbet. It is truly the essence of strawberry – so delicious and such a good way to use up lots of strawberries that you may have on hand from obsessively going to the farmer’s market and buying strawberries from at least 4 different vendors. There is no way that this sorbet will be good with regular-old conventional store-bought strawberries. They simply do not have the strawberry flavor that locally-grown berries do. So really, don’t waste your time because it’s a big pain to hull 2 1/2 pounds of strawberries. I’m just sayin’.

My flour of choice for biscuits, White Lily, has sadly been bought by Smuckers and the mill shut down. I found an excellent alternative from King Arthur Flour called “Mellow Pastry Blend“, which (gasp!) I liked better than White Lily – it is unbleached and made the most delicious, tender shortcakes. Exciting!

A fun little kitchen project aside: Instead of wasting the seeds and pulp that remain from the straining process (when making the sorbet), you can make fruit leather with the remains: oil a small baking sheet with cooking spray, very thinly spread the leftover strawberry pulp onto the baking sheet using an offset spatula, and bake in a 150°F oven for about 30 minutes, or until the leather is still pliable but no longer super sticky. If you can’t get your oven as low as 150°F, set to 200°F and prop open the door a bit. Keep an eye on the temperature because you don’t want your strawberry leather to caramelize.

Ingredients:

For the Strawberry Sorbet:
(Makes 1 quart)

2 1/2 pounds fresh strawberries
1/4 cup honey
1 cup raw sugar (as fine as you can find it) or superfine sugar
1 tablespoon rum

For the Shortcakes:
(Makes 8 two-inch shortcakes)

1 1/2 cups King Arthur Mellow Pastry Blend flour or all-purpose flour, plus additional for kneading and rolling
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons raw sugar or granulated sugar
4 tablespoons butter, very cold and cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken, plus extra for brushing
1 tablespoon demerara sugar, for topping

For the Vanilla Bean Crème Fraîche Sauce:
(Makes 3/4 cup)

3/4 cup crème fraîche
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 vanilla bean, split

To Assemble:
(for 8 servings)
1 cup diced fresh, ripe strawberries

Special Equipment: blender, fine-mesh strainer, ice cream maker, 8-or 9-inch round cake pan, 2-inch biscuit cutter

Procedure:
For the Strawberry Sorbet:

1. Wash and hull the strawberries. Place strawberries in a blender and blend until smooth (you may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender). Add the honey and the sugar and blend briefly.
2. Force the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl. Stir in rum.
3. Freeze sorbet according to your ice cream maker’s instructions, then transfer to the freezer to freeze completely.

For the Shortcakes:

1. Lightly grease an 8-or 9-inch round cake pan or a small baking sheet. Preheat oven to 500°F.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
3. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, work quickly to cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs interspersed with small pea-size lumps of butter.
4. Stir in the buttermilk with a fork until a shaggy dough forms. If the dough seems too dry, add more buttermilk. If too wet, add just a touch of flour. (Remember: you can always add more but you can’t take it away.)
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead 2-3 times until the dough comes together. Roll out to 3/4-inch thickness and stamp out 2-inch rounds with a biscuit cutter. Take care not to twist the cutter as you stamp out the biscuits (um, I mean shortcakes).
6. Transfer shortcakes to the cake pan or baking sheet, with sides touching.
7. Brush with 1 teaspoon additional buttermilk and sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.
8. Cool on a wire rack.

For the Vanilla Bean Crème Fraîche Sauce:

1. Combine the crème fraîche and the sugar in a small saucepan. Scrape the contents of the vanilla bean into the pan.
2. Whisk over medium-low heat until the mixture just barely simmers and the sugar has dissolved.
3. Keep warm if using immediately, otherwise cool and refrigerate.

To Assemble:

1. Briefly rewarm the crème fraîche sauce and shortcakes, if necessary. Spoon a bit of the sauce onto a plate. Split a shortcake horizontally and place the bottom half on the sauce.
2. Top the shortcake bottom with chopped strawberries, a small scoop of the strawberry sorbet, and the top of the shortcake. Eat immediately.

Pink Peppercorn-Yogurt Panna Cotta with Strawberries

Pink peppercorns are fruity and floral – not at all spicy like black (or even white) peppercorns. That’s because they are actually a kind of rosehip (i.e., fruit from a type of rose bush). I’ve made this pink peppercorn ice cream a few times (it’s amazing with chocolate cake), but I thought that the delicate pink peppercorn flavor would pair well with a delicate fruit like strawberries. It does.

“Panna cotta” literally means “cooked cream” in Italian, and you’ll be happy to know that there is very little work to do in the kitchen for panna cotta except to heat up a bit of cream and pour it into ramekins. And seriously, I have no idea why I haven’t thought to make panna cotta for every single dinner party I’ve ever had. It is a) unbelievably easy to make and b) you can make it way ahead of time. Perfect party food.

A few things about ingredients. Try to find grass-fed cream and yogurt. It’s good. Seriously, trust me. Plus, supporting small dairy farmers is something to think about. I had a hard time finding organic gelatin, though. In fact, I couldn’t find any in person anywhere, but have since found a source online here. I’ve also been experimenting with different kinds of sugar, like sugar in the raw and demarara after stupidly discovering that the food co-op that I’ve belonged to for years carries all sorts of fair trade sugars in bulk. Demerara sugar is especially delicious with strawberries.

Ingredients:
For the Panna Cotta:
One 1/4 ounce envelope of gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup yogurt (I used low-fat)
2 1/2 tablespoons raw sugar (granulated sugar is OK, too)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons pink peppercorns, lightly crushed

For the Strawberries:
1 pint very fresh, local strawberries, hulled and sliced
1-2 tablespoons demerara sugar (granulated sugar is OK, too)
Splash of orange juice, rum, Grand Marnier, or other liqueur (I used Liquor 43, a Spanish vanilla-flavored liqueur)

Special Equipment: Four 3-ounce ramekins

Procedure:
For the Panna Cotta:

1. Lightly oil ramekins or spray with cooking spray.
2. Add the cold water to a medium bowl. Sprinkle gelatin on top and let stand to soften.
3. In a medium, heavy saucepan, combine the heavy cream, yogurt, sugar, and pink peppercorns.
4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove pot from heat and let steep for 20-30 minutes.
5. Return cream mixture to a boil. Using a fine-meshed strainer, quickly strain the mixture into a medium bowl.
6. Add 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture to the gelatin and whisk until gelatin is fully incorporated.
7. Add the gelatin-cream mixture to the remaining cream mixture. Stir in vanilla.
8. Divide the mixture among four ramekins. Let cool for 20-30 minutes, then refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, until set (this will take 2-3 hours).

For the Strawberries:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Using a potato masher or large spoon, very lightly crush the strawberries.
2. Let sit (at room temperature or refrigerated) until ready to serve.

To Serve:

1. To unmold panna cotta: very carefully, run a thin, flexible knife around the edge of the ramekin. Dip ramekins (one at a time) into a bowl of hot water. Invert ramekin onto the center of a serving plate and unmold. (You can also give both plate and ramekin one firm shake, holding both at an angle in front of your body. Did that make sense?)
2. Top panna cotta with strawberries and a bit of the strawberry juices.

Homemade Candied Ginger

A trifecta of ginger deliciousness! Actually, the candied ginger is a byproduct of the ginger syrup (or is ginger syrup the byproduct of candied ginger??): you can’t create one without the other.  I had a bit of a hankering for homemade ginger ale, because it’s so much spicier than store bought and I felt like something a little tingly. Oh, but I can think of so many other ways to use ginger syrup…on pancakes, in cocktails, in ice cream…and, of course, candied ginger is good in lots of baked goods (scones? cookies? muffins?) and as a sweet nibble.

Slice your ginger into very, very thin disks if you want a more chewy candied ginger. Because I was looking for a more al dente candied ginger, like the kind you find packaged in grocery stores, I chopped my ginger into small-ish (about 1/2-inch) squares. Just note that it will take quite a bit longer to soften ginger cut into chunks than ginger sliced into thin disks. If you can find young ginger, which has a much thinner skin and is often a bit pink in color, definitely use it instead of regular (read: old) ginger. Older ginger, like the kind I used, tends to be more fibrous, so you won’t have the creamier interior consistency that you will get if you can get your hands on young ginger.

Homemade Ginger Ale

Ingredients:

For the Candied Ginger and Ginger Syrup:

1/2 pound ginger (8 oz.), about 2 large knobs, peeled
2 cups granulated sugar, plus 1/4 cup extra for coating the ginger pieces
2 cups water

For the Ginger Ale:

Seltzer or sparkling water
Ginger syrup (recipe above)
Lime slices (optional)

Procedure:

1. Slice or chop the ginger (as discussed above).
2. In a medium heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and the water over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Add the ginger pieces.
3. Simmer over medium heat for 1 hour if you’ve sliced your ginger very thin, and at least twice that if you’ve cut your ginger into larger chunks. (Check on them occasionally to make sure they aren’t drying out and that the water isn’t evaporating too quickly.)
4. Meanwhile, line a small sheet pan with wax or parchment paper, or with tinfoil. Spread the remaining 1/4 cup sugar on the lined sheet pan.
5. When the ginger is done (it will be soft), remove with a slotted spoon to the prepared sheet pan. Toss the ginger pieces in the sugar and spread them out. Let dry for several hours, or overnight. Let the ginger syrup cool, then refrigerate. If you want a thicker ginger syrup, continue to cook over medium-low heat until it reaches the consistency you want.
6. To make homemade ginger ale: add 3-4 generous tablespoons (or more, to taste) of ginger syrup to a large pint glass. Top with seltzer or other sparkling water. (I also like to add a bit of lime. Uh, and a bit of rum.) Garnish with candied ginger, if desired.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups ginger syrup and approximately a cup of candied ginger.

Unhusked Ground Cherries

Husked Ground Cherries

Which takes us to the second part of the title of this recipe: “clafoutis.” Sometimes spelled “clafouti” (and that is how it’s pronounced – the “s” is silent), it is sort of like a cross between a custard and a cake, and in the case of this recipe, a soufflé. (Am I scaring you? Don’t be afraid.) Normally clafoutis are a bit denser than the recipe I’m going to give you below, which is an adaptation from the lovely Chez Panisse Café Cookbook by the lovely Alice Waters. This recipe calls for separating the eggs, beating the sugar with the eggs first, and then folding the egg whites into the finished batter. It makes the clafoutis a little bit puffier and lighter in texture. It’s nice.

You could substitute frozen cherries for the ground cherries if they’re too hard to find. I wonder if tomatillos would work in a pinch? I made the clafoutis in five 3-inch ramekins, but you could make it in a larger soufflé or baking dish if you like.

Special equipment: a small baking dish or cake pan, five 3-inch ramekins

Serves: 5

Ingredients:

For the ground cherries:
3/4 pound ground cherries, de-husked and rinsed
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Butter for greasing the baking dish or cake pan

For the clafoutis batter:
2 eggs, separated
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup heavy cream
Pinch of salt
Butter for greasing the ramekins

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Grease a small baking pan or cake pan large enough to hold all of the ground cherries in a single layer.
3. Combine the ground cherries, 1/3 cup sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in the greased baking pan.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the ground cherries are soft and the sugar has dissolved.
5. Drain the ground cherries, reserving any syrup remaining. Turn the oven up to 375°.
6. Lightly grease the ramekins with butter. Distribute the ground cherries evenly among the ramekins.
7. Combine the egg yolks and the 3 tablespoons sugar, and whisk together until the mixture lightens in color and looks creamy.
8. Stir in the flour, vanilla, and heavy cream and whisk until just combined.
9. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or using a hand mixer), combine the egg whites and a pinch of salt. Mix on medium-high speed until the whites reach the soft peak stage (when you lift the whisk out of the egg white mixture, the whites will form a peak that sort of droops over).
10. Add a couple tablespoons (you don’t have to measure, just estimate) of the egg whites to the batter and gently fold in to lighten; then gently but thoroughly fold in the remaining egg whites.
11. Divide the batter evenly among the ramekins.
12. Put the ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes, or until the clafoutis have browned and puffed up. (They will deflate as they cool.)
13. Serve warm with a drizzle of the warm reserved syrup on top. A little powdered sugar would look nice, too.