Pommes à la Châtelaine

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Low 1½ to 2-quart ovenproof gratin dish
• •1-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan
• •Balloon whisk
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Apple corer for the referenced apple preparation
• •Oven with a strong upper broiler

Instructions

1. 1

   Ready the apples

   Set an oven rack in the upper third and heat the oven to 475°F (245°C). Prepare the Pommes à la Bonne-Femme (No. 2590) according to their own entry, stopping when a thin knife enters the flesh easily but each apple still holds its walls. Keep them in their buttered ovenproof dish. This first gentle bake cooks the fruit; the fierce heat later cannot do that without burning the crumbs. If an apple begins to split, nestle it against the side of the dish so it remains upright.

2. 2

   Bind the salpicon

   Drain the cherries for ten minutes, then cut them into neat pieces about ¼ inch (6 mm) across. Fold them into the apricot purée until every piece is coated and the mixture holds on a spoon. If the purée runs like juice, simmer it alone for a few minutes until a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a brief trail, then cool it before adding the cherries. The salpicon should bind the filling, not flood the dish.

3. 3

   Cook the frangipane

   Reserve 1 tablespoon of the measured milk. Warm the remainder in a small saucepan until small bubbles gather at the edge. Whisk the sugar, yolk, and cornstarch in a bowl until smooth, then pour in the hot milk gradually while whisking. Return everything to the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, whisking, until the cream thickens and gives one gentle bubble; continue for one minute to cook the starch. If lumps appear, take the pan off the heat and pass the cream through a fine sieve. Ça se rattrape. Whisk in the almond flour and softened butter, then use the reserved milk as needed to make a soft cream that falls from the spoon in a thick ribbon.

4. 4

   Fill and veil

   Spoon the cherry salpicon into the hollow of each warm apple, pressing gently so the filling reaches the bottom without crushing the fruit. Cover each apple with a thin veil of frangipane, about 2 tablespoons per apple, letting it spread over the crown and just onto the shoulders. Thin matters here: a heavy cap insulates the fruit and turns pasty before the crumbs can bronze.

5. 5

   Form the gratin

   Apply Gratins (No. 268) as the rapid gratin this dish calls for. Mix the crushed plain biscuits and almond macaroons, scatter them evenly over the frangipane, and spoon the melted butter across the crumbs. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, until the cream is hot and the topping begins to color, then switch to the broiler for 30 to 90 seconds to form a deep butter-gold crust. Watch every second. If one patch darkens too quickly, rotate the dish and shield that spot with a small piece of foil. Ça se rattrape, but only while the crumbs are bronze, not black.

   The broiler is the honest home equivalent of the salamander. Preheat it properly and keep the dish close enough to color quickly, because prolonged baking will collapse the apples.
6. 6

   Settle and serve

   Let the apples settle for 8 minutes. The frangipane will firm slightly, the apricot will stop racing from the hollow, and the fruit will remain properly warm. Spoon one apple onto each plate with a little of the buttery apricot-cherry glaze from the dish. Serve without further decoration. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose firm russet apples such as Belle de Boskoop, Reinette, or a good English russet. Their dry, fragrant flesh keeps its shape under two encounters with the oven; a soft eating apple can collapse before the gratin forms.
• •Jarred morello cherries in light syrup are the honest modern equivalent of the pastry pantry's half-sugared cherries. Drain them thoroughly. Frozen sour cherries also work, but thaw them first and reduce their loose juice with the apricot purée.
• •Use dry almond macaroons, not coconut macaroons and not filled Parisian macarons. The topping needs a brittle almond biscuit that can be crushed finely and browned under butter.
• •Serve the apples warm rather than blistering hot, when the cherry remains sharp and the almond cream has found its body. A small glass of demi-sec Chenin Blanc is enough beside them.

Advance Preparation

• •The frangipane can be cooked one day ahead. Press reusable wrap directly against its surface, chill it, then whisk in a teaspoon or two of milk until it again falls in a thick ribbon.
• •The cherry salpicon can be mixed up to four hours ahead and kept chilled. Drain away any juice that separates before filling the apples.
• •The baked apples can be prepared up to two hours before serving and held at room temperature while still slightly firm. Warm them for 5 minutes before filling, then form the gratin only when the table is nearly ready.
• •Crush the biscuits and almond macaroons earlier in the day, but add the melted butter immediately before gratinating so the topping stays crisp.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 250g)