Apple Crisp Parfait

Name: Apple Crisp Parfait
Yield: serves 10 or more
Ingredients: 4 pounds firm, tart apples for baking (see headnote); Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated; Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons), freshly squeezed and strained; 1 1/2 cups sugar; 1/2 cup water; 3 cups heavy cream, for whipping; 2 to 3 cups Brown Sugar Crisp Crumbles (recipe follows); A large saucepan, 5- or 6-quart capacity, with a cover; Parfait glasses (can be anything you have in the house, from parfait glasses and wine glasses, balloon-shaped or standard, to tumblers or even conic beer glasses; size should be appropriate for a portion, and you want the layering of fruit, crumble, and cream to be visible); 3/4 cup all-purpose flour; 1/2 cup sugar; 2 tablespoons dark-brown sugar; 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/8 teaspoon salt; 4 ounces (1 stick) cold butter, in 1/2-inch pieces; 3 tablespoons cold water; (4 to 5 cups of crumbled-up crisp); A food processor or a hand-held pastry cutter; A rimmed baking sheet; Parchment paper

December 14, 2011

A parfait is a great party dessert—elegant-looking but essentially quite simple. This one is really fun to put together, and I have the kids help me: they love to crack and crumble up into hundreds of pieces the big brown sugar crisp I’ve baked, then layer them in the parfait glasses (and pop lots of crumbles into their mouths too, I’ve noticed). Like the crisp, the poached apple cubes are delicious all by themselves. You want to use flavorful, tart-tasting apples that will keep their shape when cooked but soften up nicely and remain moist too. Good varieties are Greening, Granny Smith, Northern Spy, and Golden Delicious. Some of the heirloom cooking apples that orchards are growing again would be fine too—we can never have too many varieties of apples to enjoy.

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