“In a quart of new milk boil a pound of scraped French chocolate and six ounces of white sugar; beat the yolks of six eggs and the whites of two; and when the chocolate has come to a boil, retire it from the fire, gradually add the eggs, stirring well all the time. Have ready a deep dish, at the bottom of which you have placed a good layer of pulped apples, sweetened to taste, and seasoned with powdered cinnamon; pour the chocolate gently over it, and place the dish upon a saucepan of boiling water. When the cream is set firmly it is done; sift powdered sugar over it, and glaze with a red-hot shovel, if you have nothing better. This preparation is not only very delicious, but exceedingly salutary, on account of the apples being a corrective to the great richness of the chocolate.“
Georgiana Hill, How to Cook Apples Shown in a Hundred Different Ways of Dressing That Fruit (1865)
Mrs Hill there, with a superb-sounding method for combining two of my very favourite foodstuffs, apples and chocolate. Yum.
I don’t think that this recipe, crystal-clear as it is, needs much in the way of additional explanation. Except to say that when the good lady calls for a “shovel” to be heated to red-hot in order to glaze the sugar, she probably means a small coal shovel, of the size and type used in Victorian fireplaces, rather than a garden shovel. That is, if you don’t have an appropriately-sized salamander, which I’m sure is what she was referring to as the “better” item. These days, you would probably use a chef’s blowtorch instead.
Anyhow, ‘apple chocolate’ sounds absolutely marvellous to me. If you’re of a similar opinion and fancy giving this one a go1I absolutely would make it myself, except that much chocolate would undoubtedly give my beloved a massive migraine, meaning I’d have to eat the whole thing myself, which would be a very bad idea, I’m sure… then please do let me know how you get on, either by leaving a comment below, or emailing me with your notes and photos.
Footnotes
- 1I absolutely would make it myself, except that much chocolate would undoubtedly give my beloved a massive migraine, meaning I’d have to eat the whole thing myself, which would be a very bad idea, I’m sure…