kitchen disasters

Apple Jellies Revisited

12.29.2012 by J. Doe // 10 Comments

I spent a lot of time wondering what went wrong after my Apple Jellies fiasco. After all, as one of my readers pointed out, Lottie and Doof didn’t have trouble with the recipe when they made it. I love that blog, and have had good luck with other recipes on it.

They wouldn’t lie to me any more than Alice Waters would.

I thought of two possibilities. First, I live in the Seattle area, and thus, a damp climate (mildew is our state flower), which could have resulted in problems getting the jellies to dry out. But that problem should have been resolved, I think, by the extensive oven drying time I added.

The second possibility was suggested by this line of the ingredient list: 8 medium apples (3 pounds).

I used eight apples, as the recipe suggested.

I did not, however, weigh them.

It’s a funny thing to have an a-ha moment in the produce section of the supermarket, and probably would have been embarrassing, too, had I not been so caught up in my moment of revelation. Three pounds of apples in my part of the world equals five apples, not eight.

I did calculate the percentages, but I’ll spare you the math; I used much too much. Of course it didn’t dry out the way it should have.

I bought five apples and re-did the recipe, making no other changes to it. It did work – the apples jelled – although they still did require an hour in the oven. They still lacked the gummy-type texture that I was – rightly or wrongly – hoping for, but I noticed that there were bits like that on the sides of the cooking pan, so I suspect if I cooked the apples down a bit further, the whole thing would work out the way I wanted it too.

There was just one other problem: I still didn’t like them very much. They were okay, to be sure, but just sort of plain. I would have preferred a bit of citrus-peel bite or some spiciness or … something. On the other hand, The Child thought they were great this time around – which seems to be just my luck with these things.

I’m pleased to have learned a few things from the experience, but will not likely make Apple Jellies again. I do like the Jellies idea, though, and will probably play around with the recipe posted at The Spiced Life, which involves pectin and sounds like it will be a bit less fuss and a bit more adaptable.

We’ll see.

This is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Why not swing by and see if the other participants had better luck?

Apple Jellies

12.15.2012 by J. Doe // 12 Comments

Alice Waters is one of my culinary heroes (I guess technically, she’s a heroine), her laurels mostly resting on her superb and simple recipe for roast chicken. I found it in the early 1990’s in a cooking magazine that was full of complex, multi-step recipes involving asterisked ingredient lists with notes about where you could mail order all the unique things you would need to be a true gourmet home cook.

Her recipe was the one thing I clipped from that magazine: so simple and to the point that I only referred to it once or twice before I had it memorized. I’ve served it dozens of times over the years, always to raves.

I love simple cooking, and being so busy this year celebrating my newfound freedom and packing what remains of The Departed’s possessions, I didn’t have tons of time to make anything elaborate for my annual cookie exchange party in any case. I found Alice Waters’ recipe for Apple Jellies at the back of The Art of Simple Food, and it seemed ideal: Three ingredients, cooked on the stove. What could go wrong?

Everything, it seems. The road to hell is paved with Apple Jellies.

I cooked down the apples together with the water, ran them through a food mill, and then cooked the resulting pink puree down for an additional hour. I checked that it held a mounded shape before I stopped cooking. I spread the resulting thickened pink mass into a baking pan lined with parchment paper.

After letting it sit overnight where the cat – who apparently likes apples – couldn’t get at it, I inverted the mass onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, to let it dry a further 24 hours. The instructions seem to indicate it should be possible to cut it into squares at this point.

It wasn’t, but the instructions helpfully tell you what to do if this happens: Stick the baking sheet into a 150-degree oven for an hour “or more” until you have a nice mass of jell that you can cut into squares that will stay that way.

I let it set in such an oven for an hour. I tested it. I inverted it onto another baking sheet so the bottom could dry, and put it back into the oven. I tested it again, I inverted it again.

I took it out of the oven when I went to bed, hoping it would be cuttable when I woke up the next day … which it wasn’t … so I started the process over again. At one point, I put the jell-that-wouldn’t in the oven, left the house to retrieve The Child from a slumber party, had a cup of coffee with the other parents, and returned home to find the jellies … still not jelled.

Five hours in the oven later, they were sorta-kinda done.

I tossed the squares in sugar and served them that day at my annual cookie party. The guests all liked them but agreed: these are not worth five hours of oven time. None of us could come up with anything that was worth five hours of oven time apart from, say, a Christmas ham.

The next morning, I was sorting all the extra cookies into gift boxes, and there was my plate of apple jellies, sitting in a sort of syrup, which was tasty but not exactly appealing to look at. The jellies no longer sparkled with sugar, but glistened with ooze.

I didn’t take a picture, because I like you and no one should have to look at that, unless they buy a ticket to see The Blob with a complete understanding of what they’re getting into.

I’m providing the recipe in case you’re feeling intrepid and or perhaps can see where I might have gone wrong. Maybe cameo apples were a bad idea. Maybe my climate is too moist to begin with. Or maybe … you have some idea?

Update: I tried the recipe again and found the problem.

Apple Jellies

Author: Alice Waters, from The Art of Simple Food

Ingredients

8 medium apples (3 pounds), washed, quartered, and cored
1 cup water
1½ cups sugar
juice of one lemon

Instructions

Lightly oil an 8x8 baking dish with flavorless vegetable oil. Line the dish with parchment paper and lightly oil the paper.
In a large heavy pot, cook apples and water, covered, until apples are soft, about 20 minutes.
Pass the mixture through a food mill.
Return the puree to the pot and add sugar and lemon juice. Simmer over low heat, stirring often, about an hour. As the mixture cooks and reduces, it starts to bubble and thicken. Be careful of spattering.
The puree is done when it holds a mounded shape (in theory). To be sure, briefly chill a small amount on a plate in the freezer. It should look and feel jelled.
Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared dish. Cool for several hours or overnight. When completely cooled, invert onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Remove the top layer of parchment paper. Leave to dry uncovered overnight.
The paste should be firm enough to cut. If not, put the paste into a 150 degree oven for an hour or more until firm. Maybe even five hours. Or more.
When it's done - if ever - cut the jellies into squares, toss with sugar, and admire how pretty they are, if only briefly.

Notes

When I say be careful of spattering, I'm serious. This stuff gets HOT and spatters a LOT. It's just really uncooperative, if not downright mean.

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This is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Why not swing by and see if the other participants had better luck?

Nutella Pound Cake

03.31.2012 by J. Doe // 19 Comments

One of the weird things about raising a child these days is feeding them. When I was growing up, it was: “Eat what’s on your plate or you go hungry.” If that didn’t work, I was made to feel both hungry and ungrateful because, after all, “Children are starving in China.”

Not so anymore: Every child has some dietary restriction that must be honored by everyone who comes into contact with them. Usually it’s an allergy or intolerance – gluten, or more frequently, peanuts. Sometimes it’s self-inflicted, as with The Child, who pronounced herself pescatarian at the age of 10 and never looked back.

I have no problem with most of this by itself, but try adding it all together and then figuring out what to put into a child’s lunchbox.

No PB&J (peanuts are completely banned at the school).
Tuna is OK, but only once a week (mercury, you know).
A bagel with cream cheese? Okay, but only sometimes.
And so on, et cetera.

I won’t bore you with the list of things I can’t put in the lunchbox with the sandwich. I don’t know who buys all that stuff in the snack aisle at Safeway, that’s all I’m saying.

Then we discovered the Wonder Food: Nutella.

It doesn’t violate any food rules. The Child will eat it – often. And you can add healthy things like bananas to a sandwich and they suddenly seem awesome, too.

So now our pantry is filled with giant Costco jars of Nutella, which raise the inevitable question: What else can we do with this Wonder Food?

I was thrilled when I discovered this recipe for Nutella Pound Cake on Yumsugar. Sounds like a wonderful thing to make on a Sunday afternoon, then slice up and toss into a week’s worth of lunches. If it lasts that long, because – seriously – Nutella Pound Cake? Like that’s going to last a week in our house.

So I made it. It started off well enough:

But then I put it in the oven, which it didn’t like, and tried to escape:

And after I baked it about a half hour longer than I was supposed to, due to its refusal to be done, I gave up and removed it, salvaging what I could.

It tasted kind of like brownies, but not quite. It was sort of tasty, but needed … something.

No, we didn’t love it. But yes, we did eat it. It wasn’t possible to actually slice it, so we just kind of nibbled at it for a couple of days.

I’m not sure what went wrong, but re-reading the directions, I think the pan I used was too small. I didn’t like it enough to re-try it in another pan.

We haven’t given up on Nutella, though. We’re convinced there are many joys that await us with the Wonder Food. How could there not be?

This is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Maybe someone else had a better recipe this week – why not cruise on over and find out?

Apple Jellies Revisited

Apple Jellies

Nutella Pound Cake

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