The evil queen was a beautiful woman, but she was proud and arrogant, and she could not stand it if anyone might surpass her in beauty. She had a magic mirror. Every morning she stood before it, looked at her plate, and said:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who makes the tastiest dessert of all?

Our second course is a sweet one, inspired by Snow White by the Brothers Grimm.

As long as long as the queen was not the most beautiful woman in the entire land, her envy would give her no rest. She made a poisoned apple, and from the outside it was beautiful; white with red cheeks, and anyone who saw it would want it. But anyone who might eat a little piece of it would die.

“Are you afraid of poison?” asked the old woman. “Look, I’ll cut the apple in two. You eat the red half, and I shall eat the white half.”

Now the apple had been so artfully made that only the red half was poisoned. Snow-White longed for the beautiful apple; she barely had a bite in her mouth when she fell to the ground dead.

To make the apple, I poached a Honeycrisp in sweet white wine, and then hollowed out the core to create a shell. I froze the apples to create a lush sorbet texture, and to help the mirror glaze stick to the exterior. The mirror glaze is intended as a reference to the queen’s magic mirror. To serve the apple, I layered whipped cream and a buttery Calvados caramel on a round of puff pastry, then placed the frozen apple over the cream.
Then she summoned a huntsman and said to him, “Take Snow White out into the woods and kill her. I never want to see her again.”

The huntsman obeyed and took Snow White into the woods. He took out his hunting knife and was about to stab it into her innocent heart when she began to cry, saying, “Oh, dear huntsman, let me live. I will run into the wild woods and never come back.”

The poor child was now all alone in the great forest, and she was so afraid that she just looked at all the leaves on the trees and did not know what to do.

Joe at Measure and Stir found inspiration from the huntsman’s role in the story, and paired the apple with a drink he calls Lost in the Forest.

The Other Half of the Poison Apple

1 Apple
100g Mirror Glaze (Red)
75g Sweet White Dessert Wine (Muscato/Sauternes)
60g Puff Pastry
20g Whipped Cream
5g Freeze Dried Apple (Powder)
10g Calvados Caramel

Start by creating your Calvados caramel. I used the recipe as my bourbon caramel, just swapped the alcohols. Peel the apples and place in a bag with the sweet wine and vacuum seal, if you have a chamber vac this will help create a compressed apple. Sous vide the apple for 30 minutes at 85c, leave to cool for a 10 minutes. Cut the apple in half and scoop out the flesh as the apple is still warm. Place the cored apples on a flat tray and put in the freezer. The Apples are served frozen to get a sorbet effect. Once the apples have frozen prepare the Mirror glaze, I made mine red. Glaze the apples and place back in the freezer.

Prepare the puff pastry by cut them into 10cm discs, and baking it between two baking sheets. This will make sure they don’t puff up. I used store bought puff pastry, and you can get some awesome puff doughs that are ready to use. A recommendation is to get one with butter. Assemble by whipping up some heavy cream with the freeze dried apple powder. We want the cream to almost become butter. Better to go under than over on the whipping. Please the cream on the puff pastry disc and add the calvados caramel around. Cap the cream with the frozen apple.

See you next time. Hungry Eyes Full Heart, Can’t Lose!