I opted to go with the fancy French term for the title of this post since every time I said “Long & Slow Apples” around my husband and friends there were snickers and sexual innuendos aplenty. Really guys? I was excited to try this recipe for a multitude of reasons but the biggest one was that I finally decided to face my fear and use a mandoline. We sell tons of them at the store but I have heard so many horror stories that I have been too afraid to use one, let alone buy one. We have one in the store kitchen and for some reason today I just felt up to the task.
We also have an apple corer there which is another gadget I don’t yet own. I opted to leave the apples whole and slice them that way because it somehow seemed safer to try to cut the whole apple on the mandoline. Don’t ask me how my brain works, it’s a mystery.
Pink Ladies are my apple of choice these days so I was hoping they would be good in this (and I was right). Pink Ladies ARE the coolest ladies after all.
Stockard Channing is so totally boss as Rizzo – I really don’t see how anyone else could ever be as cool as her. But back to the apples and all that. I decided to use one of my other favorite gadgets – the Microplane – for the orange zest because I don’t see the point of finely chopping zest when I can make it light and fluffy and beautiful with a rasp much faster.
I got these ready to go and popped them in the oven while my co-worker and I went down to Madison to set up for the big bridal show this weekend. Wish me all kinds of luck because two days of bridal show is about one too many. When we got back they were ready to go and made a delicious dessert after a living room picnic dinner with our neighbors.
After reading a few posts this morning I was nervous about the whole plastic wrap issue but then I discovered that my copy of AMFT doesn’t even say to use plastic wrap. It says “Top each ramekin with a circle of parchment and then wrap in foil; use a small knife to pierce both the parchment and foil in about 4 places. Put the ramekins on the baking sheet and weight each ramekin down.” No plastic wrap mentioned at all. The Bonne Idee for Twenty-Hour Apples says to wrap them in plastic but that’s a totally different animal. Could I have a later printing of the book where they changed the recipe? Interesting. I loved this simple dessert and I definitely love that I still have all my fingertips after my first experience with a mandoline! I found the recipe online here with the same no-plastic wrap instructions for those who want to brave mandolines & snorts & innuendo from friends to give this one a try.