Apple Brown Betty with Sorghum Zabaglione
I love apples. I have this recurring dream where I leave the stress of the restaurant world behind and start a cider house, making exquisite hard cider. I start at sunrise and I finish in the mid-afternoon and retire to the farmhouse to cook a dinner for Mary and the girls.
Apple brown betty is like a crisp made with bread crumbs. It's a wonderful dessert that is so simple and so rewarding in results. This is a good one for roping the kids into helping. Those apples arent going to peel themselves.
Zabaglione is also known in France as sabayon. It is a custard-based dessert, cooked with a dessert wine. I stabilize mine with whipped cream and serve it cold, whereas in Italy and France you often see them served warm. Kind of like an eggnog in heaven.
Ingredients
Serves 6
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter an 8 by 8-inch baking dish.
Step 2
In a large bowl, toss the apples with the granulated sugar, cinnamon, ginger, lemon juice, and the vanilla pod and seeds. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.
Step 3
Tear the bread up and pulse in a food processor. Spread out the bread crumbs on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven for 5 to 8 minutes, until golden. Set aside.
Step 4
While the bread crumbs are toasting, place 4 tablespoons of the butter into a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the milk solids separate from the fat and the butter begins to brown.
Step 5
In a medium bowl, mix the bread crumbs, brown sugar, and warm brown butter together. Add about one-quarter of the bread-crumb mixture to the apples. Toss to combine.
Step 6
Fill the prepared baking dish with the apple mixture. Dot with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
Step 7
Cover the top with the remaining bread-crumb mixture. Press down firmly all over the top so that the mixture is tightly packed in the dish.
Step 8
Bake on the middle rack of the oven until the apples are soft and the juices start to bubble, 25 to 35 minutes.
Step 9
Serve warm and with a 1/2-cup scoop of sorghum zabaglione on top of each portion.
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