Caramalized Apples, Meyer Lemon Crisp and Whipped Cream

A wonderful source for recipes is Williams-Sonoma's catalog. You know, the one that comes in the mail. I have made a few of their recipes and have had success with them. Tonight, I served homemade dessert to the family after dinner. Usually, it's something store bought, or raw fruit, or nothing. I used a recipe that I cut out of the W-S catalog eons ago. The full recipe is for Cinnamon Waffles with Caramelized Apples, but I only made the apples. Take a look!

Top view
Side view of David getting ready to dive in.

Close up side view of my serving.

It was yummy. The meyer lemon crisp was purchased from Trader Joe's. I whipped up that cream myself, with the addition of a bit of powdered sugar and a smidge of vanilla bean extract. Did I already say, "YUM!"?? Okay, so I need to practice making my whipped cream quenelles a bit. It's been a long time since I've attempted one of those, but I was pretty good at it back in the day.

Here's the recipe for my caramelized apples, adapted from W-S:

3 T unsalted butter

5 Cameo apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/4" slices

1/2 C unrefined sugar

1 t cornstarch

1/2 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t ground nutmeg

1/4 t ground ginger

1/4 t salt

2 t vanilla extract

In a large fry pan over medium-high heat, melt 3 T butter. Add the apples, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Stir together and cook about 18 minutes, turning down the heat as needed. Off heat, stir in the vanilla extract.

I ended up having to add about a 1/4 cup of water, as I felt the caramel was a bit too thick, and I wanted more sauce. That seemed to work well. I allowed it to cool, and then transferred it to a storage container and refrigerated it. I made this yesterday, so when I decided to serve this tonight, I made sure to bring it out of the refrigerator to come to room temp a little. I warmed it up in a small nonstick skillet on medium, but did not allow the sauce to bubble up or the apples to get too hot. We ate less than half the batch tonight, so we'll have dessert again tomorrow night! Vincent asked for more, which "makes my heart super happy," as his friend, Kai-lan would say.