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Apple Jellies

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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
 
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Ingredients
  • 8 medium apples (3 pounds), washed, quartered, and cored
  • 1 cup water
  • 1½ cups sugar
  • juice of one lemon
Instructions
  1. Lightly oil an 8x8 baking dish with flavorless vegetable oil. Line the dish with parchment paper and lightly oil the paper.
  2. In a large heavy pot, cook apples and water, covered, until apples are soft, about 20 minutes.
  3. Pass the mixture through a food mill.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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?

Artichoke & Lemon Cheese Spread

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I learned something important from this recipe: No matter how simple something seems, you can screw it up royally if you’re tired.

I’ve not been sleeping well for, well, a year now, so evenings are especially challenging. Typically during the holiday season, I’d be cooking well into the evening, candying and caramelizing and so on.

This year it’s all I can do to feed the dog. I will say things improved – rather quickly, you will not be surprised to hear – when I got news that my divorce was finalized.

It’s a good thing, too, because it’s quite possible I would have killed someone – or at least their taste buds – the way things were going. I ran across this recipe on the website of a local cooking school, and thought, that sounds easy and as luck would have it, I have all the ingredients on hand. It was 9:30 pm, well past my current bedtime.

Here’s a handy tip: When a recipe says add one teaspoon of lemon juice, that is not – and I mean not –  the same thing as juice of one lemon. It may look the same to sleep-deprived eyes, but your taste buds will point out your error, post-haste.

I suppose this is a mistake that is fixable, if you had enough cream cheese, artichoke hearts, and other seasonings available, and I tried valiantly. I added an extra half package of cream cheese, which cut the lemon somewhat, but not enough to really render the final spread, you know, delicious.

It was late and since I was pretty sure any additional  efforts would result in additional mistakes, I gave up. I had a potluck brunch the next day and no time to make anything else, and so, yes, I brought it.

It will make everyone else feel better about what they brought, I reasoned.

I employed several taste testers, including The Child, who tried not to hurt my feelings when she pronounced the first sample “too lemony” and the second sample “better, but …”. A couple of friends at the potluck tried it and said it wasn’t really as bad as all that, just “a bit lemony.”

One of them, though, made this suggestion: the original recipe called for thyme, but she thought it would be better with some dill. The next time I made it – in the morning, just after my coffee, thankyouverymuch – I swapped out the thyme for some dill, and the end result was perfectly delicious: Light, creamy, and not overpoweringly lemony. The garlic adds a nice – but not overwhelming – bite.

It really isn’t a hard recipe, if you’re awake. The original can be found in Carol Dearth’s Cooking Class: A Step by Step Guide to Stress Free Dinner Parties That Are Simply Elegant. Carol Dearth is one of the chefs at the Seattle-area Sizzleworks Cooking School.

Artichoke & Lemon Cheese Spread
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 small jar (6.5 ounces) marinated artichoke hearts, drained
  • freshly grated zest of 1?2 lemon
  • 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon dried dill
  • 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
  • salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Food processor method:
  1. Drop garlic through feed tube with machine running to mince. Add artichoke hearts; pulse-process to chop. Add lemon zest and juice, thyme and cream cheese. Process to blend. Correct seasonings.
By hand:
  1. Mince garlic. Chop artichoke hearts finely. Combine garlic, artichoke hearts, lemon zest and juice, thyme and cream cheese in mixing bowl. Blend well. Correct seasonings.
To serve:
  1. Spoon cheese mixture into two 6-ounce crocks or ramekins, smoothing the tops. Cover tightly and chill. Make ahead and refrigerate up to one week, or freeze for two months.
  2. Let stand at room temperature 10 to 15 minutes before serving to soften. Serve on a tray surrounded with crackers or small toasts, or with a pastry bag, pipe rosettes of the cheese spread onto crackers for a more elegant presentation. Sprinkle with freshly chopped chives.
  3. Makes two crocks, each serving four.
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Candied Orange Peel

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Every year around this time, I host a holiday cookie exchange. It was one of those things that kind of started on a lark, but then the next year people asked if I was going to host it again, so I did, and then the same thing happened the following year.

One year, I was too busy to do it and actually got phone calls asking if people had missed the evite and/or was everything okay?

It’s all rather gratifying to feel so appreciated.

Then again, you’d have to be a real Scrooge not to appreciate the event. I put all the leaves in my dining table, which groans under the weight of all the cookies. I like to bake, it’s true, but so do many of my friends. There’s not a Toll House in the bunch, and nobody has ever shamed themselves by showing up with a plastic box from Safeway.

Last year, I needed some candied orange peel for some recipe I planned to make – I don’t remember what – and I priced it out at Whole Foods (I know, I know). They wanted an egregious sum of money for orange peel, sugar, and water. But to give them the benefit of the doubt, it does take a bit of time to make candied peel – so that must be what we’re paying them for.

I’ll ignore the fact that the time is mostly spent letting them dry out. It’s the holidays, and I’m feeling generous. Tis the season and all that.

So I made the candied peel and it all disappeared from the cookie exchange table. Every last bit of it.

This year, I sent out my party invite and received several RSVP’s that inquired: Are you making that candied orange peel again?

Well, if something so simple makes my friends happy, then of course.

The recipe below works equally well with grapefruit peel. Probably lemon peel, too, but not with the lemons I bought – their peels were borderline intransigent. And one final note: when you finish cooking the peel in the sugar syrup, don’t throw out the syrup! You can store it and use it for Italian sodas and other things. It has a marvelous, intense orange flavor.

Candied Orange Peel
 
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The peel needs a couple of days to dry out, so you'll need to make these well ahead of time.
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Ingredients
  • 3 large oranges
  • 4 cups sugar, divided
  • 3 cups water
Instructions
  1. Cut top and bottom off each orange, then cut peel on each orange into 4 vertical segments. Remove each segment (including white pith) in 1 piece. Cut into ¼-inch-wide strips. Cook in large pot of boiling water 15 minutes; drain, rinse, and drain again.
  2. Bring 3 cups sugar and 3 cups water to boil in medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add peel. Return to boil. Reduce heat; simmer until peel is very soft, about 45 minutes.
  3. Use a slotted spoon to remove peel from pot; reserve the syrup for another use.
  4. Toss peel and 1 cup sugar on rimmed baking sheet, separating strips. Lift peel from sugar; transfer to racks. Let stand until coating is dry, 1 to 2 days.
Notes
The syrup that is left behind is sweet and infused with intense orange flavor. You can use it for Italian sodas, or to mix into cocktails that call for simple syrup, and probably a hundred other things. Tell me what you use it for, I can't wait for some new ideas.
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This is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Why not swing by and see what other sweet surprises await?

 

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