Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (187 page)

The sauce, warmed

A warm sauce bowl

About 20 minutes before serving (or as much as an hour in advance) beat egg whites at moderate speed for a minute or two, until foamy; beat in the salt and cream of tartar, and gradually increase beating speed to fast until egg whites form stiff peaks. Stir a spoonful of them into the apple purée to lighten it; delicately fold the rest of the egg whites into the purée with the rubber spatula. Spoon the soufflé mixture into the apple shells, heaping it into a dome. (Invert a large bowl over the platter of apples if you are not baking immediately.)

Bake in middle level of preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until soufflé filling has puffed slightly—it will not puff very much—and begun to brown. Rapidly
sprinkle confectioner’s sugar over the apples and bake 2 to 3 minutes more. Serve immediately, accompanied by the sauce, a spoonful of which may be poured over part of each apple as it is served.

Other ideas

Rather than filling the apples with a soufflé mixture, you may boil down and season the apple purée as directed in Step 2, and stir in ⅓ cup dry bread crumbs sautéed in 3 to 4 tablespoons of butter; fill the apples and proceed with the recipe. You may add a handful of raisins soaked first in the rum or Cognac called for. Rather than bread crumbs, you might stir in half a cup of crumbled stale macaroons, which would give an attractive almond flavoring. Finally, having filled the apples with any of these stuffings, you could then cover them spectacularly with a meringue (beaten egg whites and sugar), sprinkle with shaved almonds, and brown in a hot oven, following the method for the
poires meringuées,
Step 4
, in the following recipe.

POIRES MERINGUÉES, AU SABAYON

[Wine-poached Pears Baked in Meringue, Wine-custard Sauce]

This is a simple fruit dessert that looks satisfyingly elegant and complicated. Pears are poached in an aromatic red-wine syrup, the syrup is turned into a sauce, and at serving time the pears are baked in a cloak of meringue sprinkled with almond flakes. Pear-poaching, sauce-making, and even the little toasts the pears sit upon while baking may be done the day before serving.

For 8 pear halves, serving 4 to 8 people

1)
Poaching the pears

1 cup sugar

1½ cups young red wine, such as Côtes-du-Rhône or Mountain Red

1½ cups water

An enameled skillet or saucepan 2½ or more inches deep and just large enough to hold pear halves

4 whole cloves

The zests (colored part of peel) of ½ orange and ½ lemon

1 tsp vanilla

4 firm, ripe, unblemished pears

A grapefruit knife

Stir the sugar into the wine and water, bring to the simmer, and when dissolved add the cloves, zests, and vanilla. Simmer for 20 minutes, then remove from heat. One at a time, peel the pears, halve lengthwise, retaining stems, and neatly remove stem lines and cores. Drop each, as done, into the wine syrup. Syrup should barely cover pears: add more liquid and sugar if necessary (⅓ cup sugar per cup of liquid). Bring almost to the simmer, and poach uncovered at just below the simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until pears are just tender when pierced with a knife. (Maintaining liquid at below the simmer prevents fruit from disintegrating.) Let pears cool in syrup for at least 20 minutes so that they will firm up as well as
absorb the sugar and flavorings. (They may remain for several days in the syrup.)

2) The sauce sabayon

2 cups of the pear-poaching syrup

A small saucepan

A 4- to 6-cup enameled or stainless saucepan and a wire whip

3 egg yolks

2 tsp cornstarch

2 Tb cool cooking syrup

A wooden spoon

2 Tb butter

3 to 4 Tb orange liqueur

Rapidly boil down the cooking syrup in a small saucepan until reduced to 1 cup. In the second saucepan beat egg yolks and cornstarch to blend smoothly, then beat in the two tablespoons of cool syrup. In a thin stream of driblets, beat in the hot, reduced syrup. Set over moderate heat; stir slowly and constantly with wooden spoon until mixture thickens enough to coat spoon—do not let it come to the simmer and scramble the egg yolks; however, sauce must thicken. Remove from heat. Beat in the butter, then the orange liqueur. Set aside, or cover and refrigerate when cool.

3)
Preparations before cooking—an hour in advance

8
canapés
(rectangles of white bread sautéed in butter,
Step 3
)

A lightly buttered baking and serving dish, large enough to hold
canapés
easily in 1 layer

Sauté the
canapés
(if done a day in advance, pack airtight and freeze); arrange in 1 layer in baking dish.

3 egg whites

A clean beating bowl and electric beater

Big pinch each of salt and cream of tartar

½ cup sugar (instant superfine if possible)

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Beat egg whites until foaming, then beat in the salt and cream of tartar, and continue beating until soft peaks are formed. Beat in the sugar by 2-spoonful sprinkles, beating ½ minute between additions. Beat in the vanilla and continue beating for several minutes at high speed until egg whites form stiff, shiny peaks. This is the meringue mixture.

A rack set over a tray

Drain pears hollow-side down on rack.