What, you don't have your own personal orchard? The French in the countryside would not dream of being without un verger. We have French neighbors who have only a tiny formal garden but they’ve managed to squeeze in a peach tree, grape vines, a raspberry bush, and a bed of strawberries at the base of their topiary roses Our Italian neighbors have a miniscule garden with a cherry, plum, and apple tree. At the château there is of course a proper orchard, with fruit enough to feed the village.
The French adore fruit, especially in desserts, but I think their favorite must be that symbol of love and lust, the apple. What do they do with les pommes of autumn? Well, the other day Nicole brought me a jar of her homemade gelée des pommes (apple jelly, above). “I make it because it’s so beautiful,” she said, holding the translucent golden essence of apple up to the light, and watching it sparkle. Painting by Libby Mathews.
The French also make hearty tarte tatins, of course (see this post for Nicole’s recipe), and thin, elegant, apple tarts. A standard breakfast pastry is the Chausson aux Pommes, a sort of apple turnover made from flaky croissant dough. Up north they make hard cider from apples, and also the wonderful Normandy chicken, slow simmered with apples, cider, and cream.
Chut, don’t tell my French friends, but my very favorite apple dessert is made by my English friend Dee (well, but Nicole’s tarte tatin is in a class by itself). Dee makes a caramel apple almond cake that is simply extraordinary. Don’t skip the caramel sauce for this cake; the hardest part of making the sauce will be restraining yourself from emptying the bowl with a spoon. The sauce is so good that I’ve been looking for other things to put under it—is it redundant to dip cookies in it?
Serve this cake warm, if you like, by the fire, and you too may tomber amouresuse.
RECIPE: Dee's Apple Almond Cake with Caramel Sauce
Oven: 325 F (160C). Serves 8.
For the cake:
- 200g (1 ⅔ cup) flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 200g (1 cup, scant), lightly packed light brown sugar
- 100g (1 cup) ground almonds
- Grated zest of one lemon
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 150 g (⅔ cup) butter , melted
- 350g (¾ lb) apples
- 25g (1/4 cup) sliced almonds
- 1 tablespoon honey
Grease a 20cm (8”) cake pan with removable bottom, and line bottom with parchment paper.
Core apples and cut into chunky slices. Put first five ingredients into a bowl, then add the eggs and melted butter. Mix well and beat for about 1 minute. Spread half the mixture into the pan; cover with the apples slices. Top with the remaining cake mixture. Sprinkle sliced almonds over the top.
Cook in oven for 1½ hours. To be safe, begin testing at one hour. Cake is done when a cake tester comes out clean and cake is golden and shrinking away from sides of pan. While cake is warm spread the honey over the top owith the back of a spoon, to glaze. Let cool in pan. Serve warm with ice cream and with caramel sauce (recipe below). The cake and sauce can be made ahead and warmed up.
For caramel sauce: Put 100g (½ cup) sugar in a heavy saucepan (it will burn in a thin one) and shake to distribute evenly. Heat sugar on high heat until it turns a golden brown, less than 5 minutes; watch carefully but do not stir.
Remove from heat and add 1 cup light cream, whisking constantly. Mixture will sputter and sugar may ball up; don’t panic, just keep whisking. When sugar is completely melted and mixture is smooth, sauce is ready (you may have to put it back on low heat, to melt all of the sugar). Mixture will thicken slightly as it cools. Drizzle over cake and ice cream. Store leftovers (ha!) in a jar in the frige, reheat if desired.
Favorite Reads: I don't know how I've missed this book: Olivier Magny (of O Château wine bar fame) has written Stuff Parisians Like: Discovering the Quoi in the Je Ne Sais Quoi. In which he merrily pokes fun at uptight Parisians, and gives you the latest trés cool French words to throw around. Too funny. Then Adam Gopnik has a new book, just out. His Paris to the Moon
In the Comments this week: Many thanks for all your kind words about the Poubelle kitties. Unfortunately, the cat rescue group I work with, Amicale Féline, has more abandoned kittens at any moment than we can handle (Want one? Let's talk!).
Our Readers' Blogs: Art lovers, you really must zip over to Kristin Dam's site, Snefnug Studios, to see her prize-winning watercolors–fabulous! Also in the creative department, Monica in Alaska has an unusual site at Between Two Rivers, where she blogs about writing, art, nature, and photography. And over at French Word A Day, Kristin is doing another e-book—with help from readers!
15 thoughts on “Les Pommes et L’Amour”
The gelée des pommes looks so wonderful and yummy! :))
Off I go to try the apple almond cake recipe, or to find someone who’ll make it for me :).
Hi Lynn!
This recipe sounds scrumptious!! I can’t wait to try it…I love apples! Hope you are enjoying a beautiful French Autumn!!
Carol Hjort
I think I can handle this recipe! Can’t wait to try it! Thanks!
After reading your thoughts and recipes, I’m craving apples! Weather was warm here yesterday and your Mom and I chatted awhile on her sunny screened porch. Today turned cooler. Boots will be trying to come inside!! xoxo
Hello and happy day my friend,
I always enjoy your descriptions of the countryside and gardens. I am all about anything apple, having already made applesauce, apple butter, apple pie filling,fried apples, and for the first time, apple preserves which I still have to tweak a little. Can’t wait to try this recipe, which looks absolutely divine ! I can almost taste it now !
Happy eating !
Joyce
That Normandy chicken simmer sounds wonderful. Do you have a recipe source? It doesn’t appear in my Breton cookbook and somehow I’ve never managed to get a cookbook specializing in Normandy. I live in Orchard country here in Hood River, Oregon and apples are everywhere. I am drooling over this dish and I have never even seen or sniffed it. But, Apples, chicken, cider and cream, Oh, My!
J’aime les pommes! This week I made a wonderful chicken breasts with apples, cinnamon, and cider. What kind of apples do you recommend for the tart? For my applesauce and pies I use Jonathon. For the chicken dish I used Granny Smith.
You pointed out recently that I didn’t name the restaurant where we got such scrumptious country cooking. I had to look up the name of the town. The restaurant is Le Relais du Grepissot in the little hamlet of Concoeur-et-Corbin in the hills above Nuit St. Georges. It threw its doors open to the summer so that a little dog wandered in and out during the evening, looking for a handout. There is a large vegetable garden out front, but I don’t know if it services the restaurant. Nearby is a place to buy all things truffles (sorry, don’t have my notebook with name in front of me) because of the forests in the area. Signs will direct you, though. Here’s a picture of the restaurant and the garden full of greens
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt71/travelingthrough/DSC01112.jpg
Oh, and I had to come back and tell you that I made your vegetable soup with butter pesto again last night for a cold autumn day. It truly is becoming my favorite soup. And I could eat the entire dish of pesto (yes, a whole stick of butter) in one sitting.
Lynn another recipe to savor…fabulous! Yes I too would love to see the chicken and apple recipe posted when time allows. Such a gorgeous time of year in Burgundy. Here we have had snow twice already!
Thanks for the lovely posting and wonderful descriptive writing. Happy weekend…
Oh, we would gladly adopt one of the poubelle kittens if in France Lynn! Deciding if at last to adopt another cat here and hopefully bring her to France with us when we eventually find our little abode. Sounds like the laws/rules are less strict than once thought and we could do this without a quarantine at least. I hope your kittens fare well.
Two questions: 1. Are Normandy apples really better than others? 2. Do you peel the apples for this cake?
Lynn, maybe that caramel sauce would work over a southern jam cake, eliminating the need to make that caramel icing that must be cooked and stirred forever. BTW, do you have a recipe for that old-fashioned caramel icing? I’ve lost mine.
Re Favourite Reads.: have you come across “The Discovery of France” by Graham Robb? it’s a quirky history of France from the revolution to the First World War but deals with everyday life, language and customs in “La France Profonde”. Utterly readable!
Available on Amazon in both paper and Kindle format.
Lynn, I always look forward to receiving your new posts. They are superb! What a treat you give to all of us. Thank you!! I have just one recommendation. Could you publish a cookbook with all these wonderful recipes? Or have them posted somewhere on your blog where I can find them again easily. So often I’ll read the post and say ‘oh I want to make that in the next week or so or for my next party’ but I’ll be at the office, busy, etc. and will lose track of it. When I’m planning a dinner party I’ll think “I’m sure Lynn has some fabulous recipe for this or that” but I won’t remember under which post I read it. So would a book be possible? Even an online one? Or a searchable blog site? It would be so great to have all your great recipes really easy to find. Thank you again for this excellent, delicious, creative, beautiful blog!
Oh my that looks and sounds so delicious Lynn. Any kind of dessert that has apple in it happens to be my favorite. Too bad pictures don’t yet come in “Scratch and sniff”. I guess that might be too overwhelming, though!
Oh, that cake is going on my list of things to make SOON. How divine it looks. Thanks for sharing!