What's In Season: Apples

In Volume I of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child has a recipe for an apple tart in which a single layer of apples is baked on a bed of applesauce.  This was the first fruit tart I ever made and it's still my all-time favorite.  The pastry is a classic paté brisee -- a dough made with flour, unsalted butter, and ice cold water.  The apples are sliced thin enough to cook to tenderness but still hold their shape when arranged fan-like on top of the applesauce.

But this is no common applesauce.  Made in advance of assembling the tart, Julia instructs us to cook about 4 pounds of peeled apples along with lemon juice, sugar (but not too much), several tablespoons of apricot preserves that have been pressed through a sieve, and a quarter cup of Calvados, an apple brandy made in France's Normandy region but easy to find here.  You can find the exact instructions in Volume I's Tarte aux Pommes on page 635.

When I don't have the patience or time to make the whole tart, I just make Julia's applesauce, and rarely miss either the pastry or sliced apples that Julia meant us to have.  I love how the simple cooking of a perfect fruit -- in this case, a locally grown apple -- can become something transcendent.  The applesauce flavor is all fruit and yet the apricot preserves with the Calvados transforms the cooked apples into a complex sweet, and thus elevates the entire tart from rustic to refined. 

Locust Grove Fruit Farm

We can get so accustomed to eating and cooking with bright green Granny Smiths that it's easy to forget that there are in fact hundreds of varieties of apples.  More than 80 are grown on a fruit farm near Poughkeepsie called Locust Grove.  With nearly 100 acres and too many trees to count, fruit farmer Jim Kent, Jr. works with his dad, uncle, brother and mother to bring apples, pears, and when the season is right, a selection of grapes to Manhattan's Lincoln Square Greenmarket every Thursday and Saturday.  His mother will often make a tender zucchini bread, as well as apple jelly, and for the holidays, a special quince preserve that's quick to sell out.  Locust Grove has been a family farm for seven generations.  The vineyard was planted by Jim's great-grandfather and the family has been selling fruit at New York Greenmarkets since 1976, the year the markets began. 

While you may have your favorite neighborhood Greenmarket, some Saturday make the detour to Lincoln Square (West 67th Street/Broadway) and look for Jim's apples.  With Thanksgiving taking a usual Greenmarket day, Jim will be at Lincoln Square the day before, on Wednesday, November 21st.  If the weather is cold he'll have a pot of hot cinnamon-tinged apple cider and he'll tell you how his sister makes the chocolate chip cookies.  But the main event is the apples:  some for eating, some for baking, some for sauce, and so on. 

With Thanksgiving and pie season coming into focus, I asked Jim which apples were best for an apple pie and I loved his answer because it matched my palate.  "I like an apple pie that's eaten with a spoon.  I want my apples to cook soft and smooth, like an applesauce between the pastry.  And I like to eat my apple pie warm.  With vanilla ice cream."   I was swooning and will do as he does and make mine with McIntosh.

While Granny Smiths and a few other varieties are available year-round, this is the time of year when we can find dozens of new favorites, including heirlooms that fruit farmers have revived.  If you meet Jim Kent, he'll help you try something unfamiliar and select the perfect apple for you.  There's nothing like talking to an expert and that's certainly true when it comes to apples.

Sweet and Versatile

Apples are loved as snacks and desserts but they're also tasty when combined with vegetables like butternut squash, added to stuffings, salads and rice dishes, and served alongside meats, especially pork and game.  Visit any of the popular cooking web sites and just do a search on "apples."  You'll be amazed at the variety of ways you can cook with fruit.  Here are some of the most popular:

• Apple Pies:  Classic two-crust pies, ones with crumb toppings, the upside-down Tart Tatin, and single-pastry apple tarts like Julia's "Tarte aux Pommes."  McIntosh will cook to softness so is good for a two-crusted pie; for tarts, a Jonathan or Winesnap will also have complex flavor but will hold their shape better when cooked.
• Apple Squares:  A great dessert for a crowd -- Make enough pie dough for two double-crust pies (the equivalent of four crusts) and slice enough apples for two full-sized pies.  Using a half-sheet pan (about 12 x 18 x 1") in place of a pie plate, line the pan with dough, fill with sliced apples that have been tossed with sugar and cinnamon, and use the remaining dough to cover.  Crimp the edges and bake as you would the pie but for slightly less time to compensate for the thinner pan.  Let cool and cut into squares.  As with a pie, McIntosh is a good choice.
• Apple Crisp:  My all-time favorite dessert.  See our recipe.
• Baked Apples:  Locust Grove's Jim Kent agrees that the Rome is the best for baking.  Remove an inch of skin around the top and 90% of the core, leaving the bottom intact and filling the space with brown sugar and chopped pecans or walnuts or else a tablespoon of maple syrup and a small cinnamon stick.  If you like, top each with a teaspoon of unsalted butter.  Place the apples in an ovenproof baking dish, pour a half-inch of boiling water or warm apple juice around the apples, and bake in a 350ºF oven for about 45 minutes or until tender. Serve with a drizzle of cream.
• Applesauce:  If Julia's full recipe is too fancy for your taste, a simple combination of peeled apples, sugar (white or brown), cinnamon, and a bit of vanilla will produce a wonderful result.  Cook either on top of the stove -- stir occasionally to make sure the bottom doesn't burn -- or else bake for about an hour at 400ºF.  You can use a mix of apples, such as some Delicious for their sweetness, Newtown Pippin for their tart firmness, and Gravenstein for their complex flavor.
• Apple Cake:  Look for a coffeecake-type recipe that uses chunks of peeled apples.  Serve with a Brandy or Calvados butter sauce.  Winesnap apples have a slightly tart, spicy flavor and are firm enough to hold their shape when cooked in a cake.
• Apple Chips:  Instead of buying a vacuum bag of dried apple slices or chips at the supermarket, make your own.  You just need patience to let paper thin apple slices cook in a low, 175ºF oven for two to three hours.  Granny Smiths or Criterion are crisp and full flavored enough to be good choices.  We've added a link to a recipe by Martha Stewart for this healthy winter snack.

Remember that once you cut an apple it will begin to turn brown from being exposed to the air.  If your slices will sit a while, just toss with a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice to slow the browning. 

And the best way to eat a locally grown apple?  By hand -- juicy, raw, fragrant, and sweet. 

Advertise on TheCityCook.com