Norman flambéed apples

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 people, you will need:

• 1 1 kg apple
• 2 50 g clarified butter
• 3 80 g caster sugar
• 4 4 tablespoons Calvados (apple liqueur)
• 5 300 g real custard sauce (crème anglaise)
• Total weight: 1,490 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
35 min.	7 min.	40 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Peel 1 kg apple and cut into quarters. Remove the core and cut each quarter in half again to give 8 pieces from each apple.
2	Melt 50 g clarified butter in a large fryin pan on high heat. When really hot, add the apple pieces. Fry for 1 or 2 minutes, then add 80 g caster sugar and leave to caramelise.
3	Turn the apple pieces so that they brown nicely on both sides. This cooking and carameising should be quite rapid, so that the apples don't have time to go soft.
4	At the end of cooking, pour 4 tablespoons Calvados (apple liqueur) over the apples.
5	Pull the pan slightly to the side and, if you have a gas hob, incline it towards the flame to light the Calvados (on an electric hob, of course, you'll need to use a match or lighter). Warning: the flames can be high (see the photo), so I advise you to turn off the cooker hood, if you hae one, before doing this.
6	Leave the flames to die down...
7	...the apples are now flambéed.
8	Arrange several apple pieces in a small dish for each guest.
9	Pour cold real custard (crème anglaise) over and serve immediately.

Remarks

It is important to use clarified butter for stage 2, in place of normal butter, which tends to burn and leave little black bits on the apples that are not very appetising.
You can use another alcohol instead of Calvados, if you prefer. The Normandy link might be lost, but it would still taste very good.

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