Saturday, November 05, 2005


ecco caffe & apple crumble, take ii

while i was ill, long-time bccy pal andrew b. of ecco sent more of his lovely, impeccable coffee -- to my office, alas, where i didn't retrieve it until yesterday, along with jessica's delicious batdorf dancing goat. i do want to talk about andrew's fabulous gift, but it's a tad old now. . .still, i'll try tomorrow.

sorry andrew! life happens funny sometimes!

since i'm still savoring the basic ability to see, i wandered among the local apples at the greenmarket today, and took advantage of a fancier apple crumble recipe that i ran across in the ny times. while mr. right adored the basic apple crumble recipe i made a few weeks ago, i was still itching to improve upon it, and so i thought i'd fortune-ize this times one. . .

1 tablespoon sweet french butter
3 cooking apples, mixed varieties (i used a local macoun, a local rome beauty, and a local golden delicious -- thank goodness for upstate new york!)
1 ripe quince (let's face it, a really ripe quince in nyc is impossible to find, so buy what you can get your hands on, i'll tell you how to deal with it below, but it will still smell lovely)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons water, calvados, kirsch, brandy, etc.
3 tablespoons brown sugar or 2 tablespoons splenda baking mix
2 teaspoons vanilla powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup quick-cooking oats (not instant)
2/3 cup brown sugar or 1/3 cup splenda baking mix
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
6 tablespoons french butter, melted
1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
fresh nutmeg, grated to taste
salt, a pinch

preheat oven to 350 degrees. butter an 8x8 pan with the 1 tablespoon butter. peel the apples and quince; cut into 1/8ths or 1/12ths, depending on size, and then cut again crosswise. sprinkle the apples and the quince -- if ripe -- with the lemon juice and water or calvados, the sugar or splenda, the vanilla powder and the cinnamon in the pan.

if the quince isn't quite ripe, you'll have to pre-cook it a bit. in this case, drop some more butter in a saute pan, add the quince pieces for 3-5 mins. and deglaze pan with a splash of calvados or kirsch, what have you. then all this add to the apples above and mix gently.

if you don't do this with your not-quite-ripe quince, it won't cook evenly with the apple pieces.

combine the rest of the ingredients -- the oats, sugar or splenda, whole wheat flour, spices, salt -- in a bowl and stir well with a fork. slowly drizzle the butter over while mixing well.

then press this topping over the apple-quince mixture thickly. bake for 35-45 mins., until the topping is browned and the apples feel soft when poked with a fork.

serve warm with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or plain heavy cream poured over it. yummy.

i liked this version much better than the plain-jane, depression-era version i made before my surgery, but alas mr. right didn't agree. he didn't like the oats.

so obviously my 3rd attempt will be to combine this apple-quince mix above with the more dutch-style streusel topping of the first version. . .slowly, slowly i will work this recipe out. . .

posted by fortune | 8:05 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 2 comments