Pams Carmelized Ginger Apple Butter Food

GINGER & CARAMEL APPLE PUDDINGS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Lightly butter and flour 6 x 8cm deep ramekins, tapping out excess flour. Heat the butter in a pan until foaming, add the apple and cook for 1 min on a medium heat. Toss in the sugar and cook until dissolved. Divide between the ramekins.
• For the puddings, beat the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk until fully combined. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, buttermilk, chopped ginger and ginger syrup, then stir this into the butter mixture. Fold in the flour, ground ginger, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt. Divide between the ramekins so they are filled to 1cm below the top. Place them on a baking tray and bake for 20 mins, until golden and risen.
• Serve warm, dusted with icing sugar. Accompany with cream or custard.

SPICED GINGER-APPLE BUTTER

Steps:

• Bring first 4 ingredients to boil in saucepan, stirring. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until apples fall apart, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. Purée in processor in batches with ginger. Return to pan.
• Partially cover apple butter; simmer over medium heat (sauce tends to splatter) until reduced to 2 1/2 cups, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Cool completely. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

PAM'S CARMELIZED GINGER APPLE BUTTER

Steps:

• 1. Core and cut up apples, leaving unpeeled. Place in a 6 qt Dutch oven with 1/4 c water to keep from burning and cook over medium high heat until very soft, stirring occasionally.
• 2. Put the cooked apples through a food mill or press through a strainer to separate the pulp from the skins.
• 3. For each 4 c of pulp, add lemon, cinnamon, cloves and ginger juice (start with the smaller amount of ginger juice and add more if you want more ginger taste.) Hold in a mixing bowl until needed.
• 4. Rinse the Dutch oven and dry. For each 4 c of pulp, place 1 c of sugar in the pan over medium heat and carmelize it, stirring constantly, to medium/dark golden. (Watch carefully to make sure you do not burn the sugar especially if you have the heat higher.)
• 5. Add the apple pulp mixture to the Dutch oven, stir well. (Be careful, as the carmelized sugar is very hot and the apple mixture will harden it around the edges. You may (probably will) find large lumps of sugar in the pulp, but they will dissolve during the cooking/ reducing process.
• 6. It may "Pop" bubbles to the surface which can burn you.) Cover and cook on low heat until the sugar has completely re-disolved into the apple. Stir occasionally. Turn to Medium low and cook until reduced and thickened to your preference. To test the thickness, just take a small spoonful out and let it cool. It should mound up on the spoon somewhat. This will give you an idea of the texture of the finished apple butter.
• 7. Freeze in small freezer containers or can in half pint to pint jars and process as per current instructions for apple butter. (See the Ball Canning book for water bath timing)

GINGER APPLE-PEAR CRISP

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°. In a large bowl, toss the first 7 ingredients. Transfer to a greased 2-1/2-qt. baking dish., In another bowl, mix the first 6 topping ingredients; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over fruit., Bake until golden brown and fruit is tender, 40-45 minutes. Serve warm.

CARAMELIZED GINGER AND GINGERED CARAMEL

Steps:

• Caramelized Ginger: Cut a ginger root to fit into a plastic bowl with a lid.
• Cover the ginger root pieces in sherry.
• Let this sit until the ginger is fully soaked through with sherry, which can take a month or more.
• The ginger will be dark tan in color and firm and somewhat stringy in texture.
• It will be almost translucent.
• Remove the ginger root from the sherry and set the sherry aside for later.
• Cut the rind off of the ginger root and cut the inner portion into pieces about the size and thickness of 1/2 a dime.
• Put the small ginger pieces into a bowl and cover completely with sugar.
• I had about 1/4 cup of ginger and I put in about 3/4 cup of fine grained white sugar.
• Add back about 2 tablespoons of the sherry.
• The resulting mixture, with the ginger pieces in it, is a thickish but runny syrup.
• Put a mound of sugar (at least a cup) on a plate or in a small bowl and set it aside where you can reach it when you are standing at the stove.
• Cook the ginger/sugar/sherry mixture on the top of the stove until it boils but not until it darkens, (i. e., remove it from the heat before the sugar starts to burn).
• Stir a couple of times while the mixture is heating.
• Use a slotted spoon and remove the ginger pieces from the boiled liquid and plop them onto the sugar mound, keeping them separate from each other as much as possible.
• Spoon more granulated sugar over the top and let this sit for about 1 minute.
• Then stir the whole thing to coat the ginger with sugar.
• Let it sit for 5 minutes, then remove the ginger pieces and set them on a piece of baking paper to air dry.
• Gingered caramel: The boiled sherry/sugar stuff that's still in the pan can be boiled up again for about 30 seconds.
• Just as it starts to brown, remove it from the heat and add two or three tablespoons of butter.
• Let it cool for a few minutes and then pour the now very thick caramel onto more baking paper.
• This is fantastic caramel!
• Notes: This recipe starts with about 2 four inch pieces of ginger root and the yield is about 1/4 cup of caramelized ginger and about 1/3 cup of gingered caramel.
• I happened to have cooking sherry on hand so that is what I used.
• I had purchased two or three small (maybe 4 inches long) pieces of ginger root and I had not used them for anything.
• I had heard that you can soak your ginger in sherry to preserve it so I had cut the roots into 2 inch pieces, give or take, and covered them in sherry in a plastic bowl with a lid.
• I forgot about the ginger and it sat on my kitchen counter for 4 or 5 months.
• Possibly it would have been ready to caramelize a lot sooner than that but it was in perfect condition for this recipe after months of sitting.

APPLE GINGERSNAP CRUMBLE

Steps:

• Make the filling: Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together brown and granulated sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Stir in apples and cranberries, sprinkle with lemon juice, and toss until combined. Taste mixture: An apple slice should be slightly sweeter than you'd like; the cranberries will seem like they need a little extra sugar. Add more sugar or lemon juice if needed.
• Scrape apple mixture into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or a shallow gratin dish, mounding them slightly in the center. (This will even out as it bakes.) Dot top with cold butter cubes. Place baking dish on a baking sheet to catch any bubbling juices that may spill over.
• Bake for 25 minutes, stirring once halfway through, while you make the topping.
• Make the topping: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, salt and lemon zest. Add butter and molasses, and use your fingers to crumble the mixture together to form 1/2-inch crumbles.
• After 25 minutes of baking, stir the apples and mound slightly again. Gently press down on them with a spoon or spatula. Scatter crumbles evenly on top of apples.
• Bake until topping is crisp and filling bubbles up around the sides of the dish, an additional 30 to 35 minutes. If the top starts to look too dark before the juices are bubbling, loosely cover top of crumble with foil. Transfer to a rack and let cool for at least 30 minutes before serving. If you made it ahead of time, you can also reheat the crumble at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Within an hour of serving, make the bourbon cream. Using an electric mixer or a whisk, beat together cream, confectioners' sugar and bourbon until soft peaks form. Chill if not serving immediately. Serve with apple crumble.

CARAMELIZED APPLES

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
• Add the apples to the pan and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.
• Sauté the apples, stirring frequently, for 6-8 minutes, until they just start to turn tender.
• Sprinkle the apples with the remaining sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest.
• Toss the mixture gently and cook over medium heat for an additional 2 minutes, until the sugar begins to caramelize and the apples are crisp-tender.
• Transfer the apples from the skillet to a serving bowl with a slotted spoon.
• Turn the heat to high and add the apple cider to the skillet, scraping up any browned bits.
• Reduce the heat slightly and allow the cider and the pan juices to simmer for 1-3 minutes, until the sauce has reduced and thickened slightly.
• If you desire a thicker sauce, dissolve the cornstarch in a teaspoon of water, stir it into the sauce, and allow it to thicken for a moment.
• Pour the finished sauce over the warm apples and serve immediately.