Serves 10 or more
Notes
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.
Ingredients
- For Poaching the Apples
- 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
- For the Parfait
- 3 cups heavy cream, for whipping
- 2 to 3 cups Brown Sugar Crisp Crumbles (see here)
Directions
Poaching the Apples
Cut the apples in thick wedges, peel, and cut away the cores and seeds. Slice the wedges into chunks and cubes, an inch thick or larger (don’t cut them too small or they will overcook). As you work, put the apple chunks in a mixing bowl and toss with some of the lemon zest and juice, to prevent browning. When you’re finished, you should have about 10 cups of apples mixed with all the zest and juice.
Pour the sugar over the apples, and toss gently to coat the pieces. Turn all the fruit into the saucepan, slosh the bowl with the 1/2 cup water to rinse out all the sugar, and pour that into the pan too.
Set the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring the water to a boil. Stir the apples gently (so they’re all heating), cover the pan, and cook about 2 minutes. Remove the cover, and continue to boil, reducing the juices, stirring the apple chunks around a couple of times, but not mushing them up. After 5 or 6 minutes, when the apples have softened and turned translucent on the outside (they won’t be cooked all the way through), remove the pan from the heat. If the chunks have started to fall apart, turn them out of the saucepan into a bowl to stop cooking; otherwise, let the apples and the remaining liquid cool to room temperature (the chunks will reabsorb some of their juices as they sit).
The apples can be cooked a day ahead and refrigerated; let them warm up a bit before serving.
Assembling the Parfaits
Have the apples, crumbled-up crisp, and serving glasses ready.
Whip the cream until soft peaks form, by hand or in an electric mixer. (No sugar or flavoring is needed, since the apples and crisp are quite sweet.
Spoon about 1/2 cup of apple chunks into each glass, making a thick layer that fills the bottom. Scatter crisp crumbles on top- anywhere from 2 to 5 tablespoons on each parfait. Plop 1/2 cup or so of whipped cream on top of the crisp crumbles.
Now repeat the layers- apples, crumbles, cream- in each glass. These can be smaller amounts, or as ample as the bottom layers, for an impressive and generous dessert.
