Baked Braeburn Apples with Sun-Dried Cider-Soaked Fruits

May 31 2011  |  Recipes   |  1 Comments

This recipe was given to me by Allana Smith of Larkspur in Vail, Colorado. Allana grew up in upstate New York, where the family’s large summer garden yielded vegetables for the root cellar and fruits for Dad’s canning to soften long, harsh Buffalo winters. Her culinary skills were nurtured by her grandmother, who taught her the pleasures and treasures of the hearth, especially kuchen, cookies, and candy-making. She also benefited from her parents’ elementary-school classroom projects, making root beer and Easter chocolates from scratch.

Allana’s decision to become a chef followed a one-year stint in Barcelona that brought exposure to new cuisines (“beyond Shake ‘n Bake,” as she puts it) and the joy of simple rustic fare based on great local produce; she returned home and enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute.

After working with celebrity chefs in restaurants in Chicago, Nantucket, and the Napa Valley, Allana ultimately transitioned from line chef to pastry chef, under the tutelage of an alumna from La Varenne. Always expanding her repertoire, Allana now oversees the selection of cheeses and fruits and the preparation of preserves and candies, in addition to creating desserts that are legendary at Larkspur. Her encyclopedic knowledge of cheese, chocolate, and rare produce is only matched by her enthusiasm for food and unimagined creativity. Food talk with Allana was the highlight of the Vail recipe collection experience. 

Fruit Topping Ingredients:

• ½ cup dried cherries
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup dates, halved and sliced thin
• 1/3 cup dried apricots, diced in very small pieces
• 1/3 cup dried figs, sliced
• 4 cups cider
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• ½ vanilla bean (scrape seeds into mixture)
• 2 tablespoons honey

Directions:

1. Combine cherries, cranberries, dates, apricots, figs, 2 cups cider, brown sugar, vanilla bean seeds, and honey in small saucepan.
2. Bring to boil, and boil for 20 minutes.
3. Strain out fruit.
4. Put 2 other cups cider in pan, and boil until reduced by half.
5. Add reduced sauce back to fruit mixture; cool.

Baked apples ingredients:

Cider for baking apples:

• 3 Tazo Passion Tea bags steeped in 4 cups cider (will work with plain cider as well)
• 8 Braeburn apples
• 8 teaspoons butter
• Brown sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Cut apples in half vertically.
3. Use large end of a melon baller to scoop out core from both halves of each apple.
4. Make small slice on rounded side of each apple half so that it will sit flat later on.
5. Place core sides down in a shallow baking dish and pour about 2-3 cups Passion cider over apples.
6. Bake in oven for 15 minutes.
7. Flip each apple half and put ½ teaspoon butter in each half; sprinkle with brown sugar.
8. Bake for 10 more minutes.
9. Let cool in pan; you can reheat apples in microwave or oven when you’re ready to serve.

Makes 8 servings.
 

 

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