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Almond Apple
8 tart apples 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 1/2 cups water 1/2 pound almonds 1 lemon 1 tablespoon cornstarch Core, and pare the apples. Cut the lemon in half, and rub the apples with the lemon to prevent discoloration. Make a syrup of the sugar and water. Cook the apples in the syrup. Remove from the syrup when done, and place in a pudding dish. Press obliquely into them the blanched almonds split in halves. Dredge the apples and almonds with sugar, and brown in the oven. Add one cup water and one teaspoon lemon juice to the syrup. Moisten the cornstarch with a little cold water, and add to the hot syrup. Cook five minutes. Place the apples in a serving dish, and pour the syrup around them. Serve cold with whipped cream.
A poached-apple dessert dressed to look like a hedgehog, with a clear lemon-cornstarch glaze. Almost everything hinges on not overcooking the apples in the syrup.
- Poach gently, and stop earlyThe apples must hold their shape well enough to have almonds stuck into them. Simmer, never boil, and pull them at 12-20 minutes depending on variety, while a knife tip meets slight resistance at the center. A firm tart apple such as Braeburn, Granny Smith or Northern Spy holds up; McIntosh will collapse.
- Blanching the almondsHalf a pound of shelled almonds is roughly 1 1/2 cups. Cover them with boiling water for a minute, drain, and the skins slip off between finger and thumb; split each nut along its natural seam while still damp and soft. Slivered almonds from a packet are a poor substitute here, being too thin to stand upright.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no temperature and says only to brown the apples, so the aim is colour rather than further cooking. A hot oven, in the region of 425F for 8-10 minutes, or a closely watched broiler, will do it; almonds scorch very quickly under direct heat.
- The sugar dredgeGranulated sugar sprinkled over the wet poached apples will melt and brown, giving a thin glaze. Superfine sugar dissolves more evenly and is less likely to sit in gritty patches.
- Syrup and cornstarchAdding a cup of water thins the reduced poaching syrup so the starch does not set too stiff. Bring it back to a full simmer after the slurry goes in, stirring, or the starch will not lose its raw taste; five minutes is right, but do not beat it hard once thickened, which breaks the gel and thins the sauce.
- YieldEight apples, one each. The finished dish is served cold, so the syrup will thicken further as it chills; if it sets to a jelly, warm it briefly and stir before pouring.
- The lemon rubThe recipe has you rub the pared apples with the cut lemon to keep them from browning before they go into the syrup. A bowl of acidulated water does the same job and is less fiddly with eight apples in play.
Whole poached apples bristling with split almonds are an old conceit, often called hedgehog or porcupine apples, and versions turn up in English household books through the nineteenth century, sometimes built from apple pulp rather than a whole fruit.