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Apple Yanssens
Neatly wipe six medium, sound, even-sized apples. Cut them into even halves, remove the seeds and stems, lightly prickle the inside with a fork and place on a deep dish; season with two ounces fine sugar, a teaspoon vanilla essence and two tablespoons rum; mix well in the seasoning and let infuse for thirty minutes, turning once in a while. Arrange on a tin, cut side upward, spread over evenly with a knife blade a half tablespoon good butter and set in the oven to bake for thirty minutes. Remove, dress on a hot dish, pour the sauce from the dish on which they were infused over them, set fire to the rum and serve.
A baked apple dish that depends almost entirely on the half-hour maceration in sugar, vanilla and rum. Everything else is straightforward, but the original leaves out the oven temperature and is vague about the butter.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. Thirty minutes suits a moderately hot oven, about 375F; the halves should be tender to a knife tip with the cut faces lightly caramelised. Firm baking apples hold their shape best here, since halves collapse faster than whole cored apples.
- Two ounces fine sugarAbout 1/4 cup of caster or superfine sugar. "Fine" means the grain, not the quality; ordinary granulated sugar will dissolve less readily into the rum during the half-hour infusion.
- Vanilla essenceModern vanilla extract, one teaspoon, is the direct equivalent. Imitation vanilla flavouring is a poorer substitute here, since the alcohol cooks off and leaves the flavouring exposed.
- The butter is underspecifiedA half tablespoon spread over twelve apple halves is barely a smear. Read it as a half tablespoon per few halves, or simply dot each cut face lightly; the point is to keep the exposed flesh from drying, not to make a rich sauce.
- "Arrange on a tin"Use a rimmed sheet pan or a shallow baking dish. A flat cookie sheet will let the rum and sugar syrup run off and scorch.
- Prickling the fleshDo not skip it. The fork holes are what let the rum and vanilla penetrate past the cut surface in thirty minutes; unpricked halves take on flavour only skin-deep.
- Flaming the rumThe marinade poured over the apples has been diluted by apple juice and may well not light. Warm a tablespoon or two of fresh rum in a small pan or ladle until it just steams, then ignite it away from the extractor fan and pour it over; cold spirit is much harder to catch.
- YieldSix apples, twelve halves, serving six as a dessert.
What the recipe really represents is the standard restaurant treatment of baked apples in the era of the chafing dish and the flambe: macerate in sugar and spirit, bake, then light the alcohol at the table for effect. The technique itself is very old kitchen economy dressed up as spectacle - a baked apple is peasant food, and the rum, vanilla and the flame are what allowed it onto a hotel menu.