6 MICHELIN Chefs Share their Favorite Apple Recipes

Apple, Bacon, and Aged Cheddar Quesadilla
By TJ Steele, chef-owner, Claro

“I have an orchard upstate and this is a fast, simple, and delicious way to enjoy some of my wild apples.”

Ingredients (4 servings):

• 8 corn tortillas (about 15 cm wide and the best quality you can get your hands on)
• 2 tart, crunchy apples (bitter, acidic varieties like Granny Smith or Winesap)
• 8 slices of bacon (Benton's bacon preferred)
• 240 grams of aged cheddar, sliced no thicker than 1/4 inch
• 120 grams of watercress
• Hot honey to drizzle

Method:

Cook the bacon: Start by rendering out your bacon to your preferred doneness. I like mine medium-well, where it’s crispy but still has a bit of chew. Prepare the ingredients: While the bacon is cooking, slice your apples and cut the cheddar into 16 thin slices each (3mm thick for the apples; 8cm x 3cm x 7mm for the cheddar). Remember, these ingredients will be folded into a tortilla, so keep your knife cuts in mind—nothing too bulky. Assemble the quesadilla: Heat one side of the tortilla in a pan until it’s just warmed. Flip the tortilla, then add your sliced cheddar on top. You don’t want to fully melt the cheese, just warm it enough so it’s pliable. Add the remaining ingredients: Once the cheese is warmed, remove the tortilla from the heat. Fold in the sliced apples, cooked bacon, and a handful of watercress. Repeat for the remaining tortillas. Finish and enjoy: Drizzle with hot honey to taste, fold the tortilla, and enjoy your quesadilla immediately.

Apple Mostarda
By Chris Cipollone, chef, Francie

"Ahhh, apples. Every year I like to make a batch of apple mostarda that I use in a variety of ways including on grilled and braised meat, on pasta, vegetables, and of course with cheese. It's a super simple and tasty recipe that holds for about a month nicely."

Ingredients (for 1 quart):

• 10 pounds Golden Delicious apples
• 3 quarts white wine
• 2 cups white balsamic
• 40 percent sugar by volume
• Mustard oil to taste

Method:

Peel the apples, reserving all trimmings in a sachet to cook with the apples. Place peeled and quartered apples with the sachet in a heavy-bottomed stainless pot. Cover with the white wine and white balsamic vinegar. Cook until tender and dry; then puree in a food processor. Measure the yielded apples and add 40 percent sugar by volume. To achieve this: Multiply the total weight of the cooked apples in grams by 0.4. (For example, 200g of apples x 0.4 = 80, so you’d add 80 grams of sugar). Stir, place back on the stove, and cook slowly until a thick consistency is achieved. Finish with the mustard oil and season with salt and chili flake to taste. Mustard oil should be added drop by drop to desired strength. This recipe can also be finished with hazelnuts or candied peel of citron, orange, or grapefruit.

Apple, cooked Tatin style
By Salvatore Martone, corporate pastry chef, Le Jardinier NYC 

"Nothing is more decadent than a caramelized confit apple. I refer to it as "Tatin style" because a standard Apple Tatin is made with puff pastry, but I prefer to make mine with Speculoos Biscuit instead."

Ingredients (4 servings):

• 4 apples
• 120 grams of sugar
• 30 grams of butter
• Make a dry caramel and deglaze with butter, pour in a rectangular metal container, and let cool it down. Peel 4 apples and cut each one in 8 slices, lay them on top of the caramel. Cover with aluminum foil very tight and place in the oven at 300°F for one hour. Increase the temperature to 350°F and bake for one more hour. Take off the foil and bake between 30 minutes to one hour more depending on the amount of water left in the container. Let it cool and unmold on a speculoos biscuit.

To make the Speculoos biscuit:

• 250 grams butter
• 160 grams brown sugar
• 60 grams white sugar
• 50 grams egg yolk
• 400 grams all-purpose flour
• 10 grams cinnamon powder
• 6 grams baking powder
• 4 grams cardamon
• 2 grams nutmeg
• 2 grams salt
• 20 grams of milk

Method:

Cream butter and sugar until light in color (about 4 minutes) in a mixer with the paddle attachment, add egg yolk and milk, and then sift dry. Roll to 1/8 of an inch, refrigerate, and cut the same size of the apple. Bake for 12 min at 325 degrees. When cool, unmold the apple on top. Tip: I always serve the dish warm with ice cream.

Hard Cider & Apple Mousse Flambeě with Whiskey & Walnuts
By Gabriel Kreuther, chef, Gabriel Kreuther 

“Apples are a big part of my heritage as this is a fruit that is highly cultivated in the Alsace region. I used to help harvest them as a kid in neighboring apple farms. In our garden we had many apple trees, and my grandfather always made his own homemade apple cider which we drank all year long for lunch and dinner. I was the child that was sent to the cellar to fill the pitcher from the wooden barrel. It’s a full circle on the apple and brings back treasured memories.”

Ingredients (8 servings):

To make the mousse:

• 6 eggs separated
• 100 grams sugar + 75 grams for the egg white’s meringue
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2/3 of a bottle hard cider (500 ml)
• 100 ml whiskey

For the caramelized apples:

• 5 Granny Smith Apples (peeled cored and cut in 6 each)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 120 ml Whiskey

To finish:

• 12 halves toasted walnuts (once cold crush between fingers and top the mousse)
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• Fleur de sel or Maldon salt

Method:

In a mixing bowl combine the egg yolks, 100 grams of sugar, and the corn starch, whip them together until the mixture is pale and very fluffy, it will take about 3 to 5 minutes. In a saucepan, combine the hard cider and whiskey; bring to a simmer over high heat. Add a quarter of the hot cider to the egg yolk mixture while whipping it together. Over medium-high heat, add the egg-wine mixture to the hot wine back in the pot. Bring the whole mixture to a simmer, whisking it, so that it thickens; let it cook for about 1 more minute while stirring it. Once it has thoroughly cooked, remove the pot from the heat and allow the mixture to cool quickly over some ice, stirring it occasionally to prevent the mixture from forming a skin. 

Meanwhile, whip the egg whites with the rest of the sugar (50 gr) to soft peaks. Gently fold them into the cold egg yolk mixture until they are completely incorporated and set aside in the fridge. In a frying pan, melt the butter on medium high heat and roast the apples in it until they start to present a golden color; sprinkle them with the sugar and keep frying until the sugar caramelizes. Add the whiskey into the frying pan and flame it. Once this is done, pour the apples carefully on a platter to let them cool for 5 minutes. Serve the cold cider mousse with the caramelized apples and toasted walnuts on top; finish each dish with freshly grated nutmeg and some fleur de sel. 

Apple Crumble
By Jeremiah Langhorne, chef-owner, The Dabney

“Apple crumble is rustic and seemingly simple but the difference between a good crumble and the best crumble is in the details. A great apple crumble should use flavorful apples that are well seasoned with spices, salt, and acid (if necessary). The apples should hold their texture when baked without being crunchy but without turning into apple sauce. The topping should have a mix of textures ranging from small, crumbly texture but also including crunchy marble sized chunks. The topping should be browned well to impart an intense, somewhat savory, roasty flavor without being burnt in any way.”

Ingredients (1-2 servings):
* This recipe was based around the use of a 4-5 inch shallow baking container to make individual portions. An even more rustic crumble can be achieved by baking in a larger shallow container.

• 200 grams of peeled, thin sliced apples per one dish that could serve 1-2. (tip: "Crimson Crisp" give balanced flavor and good texture)
• 533 grams white sugar
• 533 grams brown sugar
• 515 grams all purpose flour
• 42 grams cinnamon
• 605 grams butter (melted)
• 12 grams salt
• 360 grams quick cooking oats

Method: 

Make the oat crumble by mixing all ingredients listed except for the apples; store in the refrigerator and temper before using (this recipe makes 20 portions that will keep in the fridge for a week). Peel and cut apples. Season apples with cinnamon and salt (only as much as you would lightly season a savory vegetable). Place 90 grams of apple in each baking container. Roughly organize the apples so that there are no "sharp" points of the apples sticking out of the container. Depending on the type of apple, you will probably need to add 1 tbsp of water per portion to add some moisture and help cook the apples. If the apples lack sweetness and flavor, add some apple cider instead. Coat with just enough oat crumble topping to cover all the apples. In order to create the right texture, squeeze the topping in your hand and then roughly crumble it onto the apples. Dust excess topping off of the baking containers to allow for a clean presentation.

Bake in the combination oven set on Convection at 400°F (60% fan, 100% humidity) or in the bottom oven at 395°F with a low fan. Bake for 12 minutes, rotate and bake for another 8-12 minutes until the crumble is baked with dark brown peaks on the crumble chunks (not burnt!). Poke the apples with a cake tester; they should not feel crunchy, yet you should still be able to feel the layers of apple as you poke deeper. Only bake 3 half sheet trays of crumbles at a time; more than that causes uneven baking. Serve crumble with caramel sauce and ice cream; one portion of crumble is about half a cup. 

Mazamorra Morada and Panna Cotta Arroz con Leche
By Jose Luis Chavez, chef, Mission Ceviche 

“This recipe is special because it takes a classic Peruvian dish and allows me to make my own unique culinary twist to it.”

Ingredients (4 servings):

For the Panna Cotta

• 2 cups water
• 2 (3-inch long) cinnamon sticks
• 1 cup uncooked white rice
• 1 cup whole milk 1 (12-ounce can) evaporated milk
• 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk

Method:

Bring the water and cinnamon stick to a boil, then simmer. Add the rice, bring to a boil, and simmer until the water is absorbed. Stir in the milk, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk.

For the Mazamorra Morada:

• 2 pounds of Peruvian dried purple corn on the cob (maiz morada)
• 10 cups of water
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• Juice of one lemon
• 4 fresh green apples (these should be diced with the skin on)
• 8 whole cloves
• 2 star anise
• 1.5 cups of sugar

Method:

In a pot of water add the purple corn, half of the apples, cinnamon, sugar, cloves, star anise and lemon juice. Bring the mixture to a boil; once boiling, reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for about 2 to 2.5 hours. Once the mixture is done simmering, remove it from the heat. Strain the mixture. Put the liquid in a heavy saucepan and add the other half of the apples until reaching a confit texture (thick glaze). Add the confit apples on top of the panna cotta and garnish with lemon juice and cinnamon.

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