Caramelized Apples & Pears

Yet another recipe from Ramsay's Fast Food. I'm done soon, I promise! This is a nice take on a simple dessert. Well, it's still simple, but it's a bit more elaborate than my usual "I need something sweet now, so let's just fry some chopped apple with butter, sugar and cinnamon and serve on ice cream". (That one's very nice though, do try it.) The spices are great here - but if you want to make sure you don't accidentally bite into a peppercorn, you better count how many you put in and fish all of them out before serving. Just saying.

You can use any sugar here - regular white, homemade vanilla sugar if you happen to have it (and you always should, since it's so simple - just stick vanilla pods in a jar of sugar, and let it sit. Forever and ever. Just keep topping it up with sugar as you use it, and maybe some more vanilla now and then.) or brown sugar - light muscovado sugar would be great. Use what you've got!

I'm off to Gothenburg for a mini vacation - have a great weekend everyone!

Caramelized Apples & Pears
Serves 2

1 apple
2 small pears
40 g sugar (see above)
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp whole cloves (count them!)
1/2 tsp whole black pepper (count them!)
2 whole star anise
10 g butter
splash of calvados or brandy (optional)
75 ml apple juice

Peel and core the apple and pears and cut them into wedges.

Sprinkle the sugar in a large frying pan and place it over high heat until the sugar starts to melt and brown. Add the spices and the butter, and don't stir - just shake then pan gently to mix the sugar and butter. And it's going to be pretty hot at this point, so be careful. Lower the heat a little, too.

Add the fruit. Fry for 5-6 minutes, turning almost constantly, until the fruit is softened and has a nice, caramelized surface. Add a splash of brandy or calvados if you've got it - watch out, it might catch on fire.

Add the apple juice and cook until it's reduced to a syrupy sauce. Remove the spices - or not - and serve it with custard or vanilla ice cream.

Recipe in Swedish:
Karamelliserade äpplen och päron