Baked Apple with St. Agour Blue Cheese

 

    Apples.  Honeycrisp, Tango, Gala, Granny Smith, Jonagold.  No matter its name or character apples are the official fruit of Autumn.  The best type having crispy flesh that turns velvety under the tooth, with honeyed sweetness balanced out with a tart snap.   While possibly the most perfect fruit on its own there is nothing that a little cheese can't improve.  

    Let me be the first to tell you that this improvement makes your average solo apple taste like that french fry you found in your backseat last week.  I'll explain.  This Jonagold apple was cored and baked with a fluffy mixture of softened butter, light brown sugar, and...wait for it...triple creme St. Agour blue cheese.  Oh. Yeah. 

    The salty, lactic, yet gentle acidity of the cheese perfectly complements the heady sweetness of the apple.  Blending seamlessly with the toasted, buttery caramel of the brown sugar and butter.  

    As I write this I have slowly been working my way through this a fore mentioned baked fruit (yes, it's my breakfast. don't hate.).  The sheer, almost physically palpable, decadence of it has left me slowly working my way to the bottom of the bowl.  Though once past the spoonable, just barely crisp apple, lies the juices left over from baking.  A caramelized, buttered pool of brown sugar, salt, and cream.  

    Now this is the way to welcome the first day of Autumn.

Baked Apple w/Blue Cheese

serves 1

1 washed and cored baking apple w/skin on

1 Tbs salted butter, softened

2 Tbs light brown sugar, packed

1 Tbs blue cheese, softened and packed

1/2 cup water

Cinnamon for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 F

Blend butter, sugar, and cheese with a spatula in a small bowl until well blend but still lumpy

Pack the mixture lightly into the cavity of the apple

The mixture should mound slightly over the top of the apple

Place into a baking dish and cover with apple lightly with tin foil

add the water to the baking dish

Bake for approx. 20 minutes

Remove tinfoil and add water if needed

Baste often with its own juices

Bake 20 more minutes or until tender under a fork

Carefully (molten sugar burns like napalm) move the apple to a ramekin or bowl 

Spoon over the juices from bottom of the baking dish

Sprinkle with cinnamon and any left over brown sugar

Spoon it into your face and enjoy!

Mascarpone

    Mascarpone. Pronounced  [mahsk^_ar-po-nay]. Not [masker-pohn].  I swear I do a mental face-palm whenever I hear someone trying to be "cultured" and totally mangling the pronunciation.  I hold no punches for the ignorant.  This is a cheese to be respected.  Especially this particular mascarpone. 

    Yet it isn't made in Northern Italy, where the style originates, instead it is actually the product of that oft mocked dairy state, Wisconsin.  Not just a land of uncomfortably electric yellow commodity cheeses and the mysterious "string cheese" (whatever that is).  Wisconsin has in recent years begun to put out a fine offering of artisanal dairy products that are quite in line with the artisan food movement sweeping the continent.  Crave Brothers is no exception. 

Continued after the jump...

Sneak Peek #3

I have some lovely autumnal offerings in the works for you. 

Some unedited footage for your satisfaction.

Breakfast. Simply.

Bonne Bouche, Palisade Peaches, Bing Cherries, Black Pepper Water Crackers

  Meet my breakfast.  It is a far cry from the cult of bacon and eggs.  It is perfection.  

A handful of heady in-season stone fruit and an earthy piquant puck of well aged Bonne Bouche are what breaking the nightly fast should be.  I often forget to slow down and savor the morning.  To turn off my various screens and let in the cool dry air.  To putter amongst the handiwork of my tiny garden.  

To just be with my Fiancee, a cup of coffee, and a leisurely meal shared.  

Taking the time to eat, truly eat, what we've set before us. 

Sweet Ravioli with Handmade Ricotta & Strawberry

 Straining excess whey from my homemade whole (cow) milk Ricotta

Mixing it with in-season strawberries, a good heaping spoon full of moist brown sugar, & a squirt of lime juice.

Wanton wrappers are my easy ravioli cheat. Someday I'll be ambitious enough to make my own pasta dough...

I feel like shapes influence texture.  These "flying geese" shapes were my favorite.

They turned out rather well (to my surprise as i made this up on the fly.  it's what happens when i have an excess of any food & no desire to plan ahead.).  They were lightly sweet and the lime brought out the headiness of  the strawberries.  The ricotta gave it further richness & a hint of unsweetened cheesecakey-ness.  In short this was an unexpected success.  I can't wait to try it again with raspberries & perhaps a little olive oil.