Fail: Apple Confit

So, in what's become a laughingly predictable turn of events, I went thrift shopping and came home with a cookbook. I have quite a few . . .  the official count is thirty-eight, but I've only paid full price for one of them. That's how I justify myself, you see.


It can't be helped. I love that every single one of my cookbooks offers a different perspective on food and cooking. I have old cookbooks from the early 1900s, I have sophisticated cookbooks (here's looking at you, Martha), I have kitchy cookbooks (why hello there, Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook circa 1960. I wasn't even born when you arrived on the scene). I have down home cookbooks, snooty cookbooks, and cookbooks I've made myself. I also have more magazines about food than I care to admit, which probably puts my recipe count at exactly one kabillion.

In other words, I have more recipes than I will make in my lifetime, but inexplicably, this will never cause me to turn down a new cookbook. Especially when I get them practically new for two bucks. Can't be helped, I'm telling you.

But back to this most recent addition . . . it's called Bittman Takes on America's Chefs and it contains a recipe for Apple Confit by some famous chef named Jean-Georges Vongerichten. It involved a lot of coring, peeling, slicing, layering, refrigerating overnight, then baking, then refrigerating again. At the end, I got this.

Ew. 

I think we can all agree this does not look appetizing. This doesn't even look edible. Let's take a closer look.

Ick. 

It didn't taste that great, either, in case you were wondering. I also made some maple cream to go with it - I was thinking of doing a riff on apple pie and ice cream - but I don't think that was a very good idea as it made the whole runny mess situation much, um, runnier.

The confit has orange zest in it, and while the taste was light, sweet, and a touch tart, the taste wasn't as mind blowing as you would expect after working on it for almost 48 hours.  Bittman had also promised a "cake-like mass," and I got something that had the texture of gelatinous apple butter. Not terrible, but not really what I was hoping for. Miffed, my dears. I was miffed.

But I salvaged it.

It became a more than decent filling for mini apple pies; the perfect light, sweet foil for a rich buttery crust and crumb topping. I may have had one for breakfast this morning.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the biblical idea of beauty from ashes, and it's funny how this is a real-life example of that. Something awful into something lovely - even cute! I like that.

Y