Last weekend my family finally got out to pick apples. It was the most spectacular day — perfectly blue sky (see picture below), cool, but not cold and all the varieties of apples were in full readiness. I came home with 20 pounds of apples; a variety of Haralson, Honey Crisp, Regent and Cortland. When I bake with apples I like to have a selection of sweet, tart, firm and some that turn to sauce. It makes for a tastier pie or crisp.
I wanted to make a dessert that would allow the apple’s delicate flavor to shine through, but was just a touch decadent. The classic caramel apple came to mind as the perfect flavor combination, but I wanted something warm and homey. I had just been to the farmer’s market the day before and met a man with a goat (yes a goat) in downtown Minneapolis. We got to talking about the merits of goat’s milk and it hit me that the perfect thing for my apples would be cajeta, the rich Mexican caramel made with goat’s milk. It is caramel, but better. The taste is rich and complex in a way that doesn’t make it cloyingly sweet. Hmmm, I’m not sure exactly how to describe that flavor? Like a great glass of wine, it is just more complex and interesting.
The tart juiciness of the apples and the cajeta are made for each other. The recipe:
Apple Crisp With Cajeta
Follow along with the instructions and get the full recipe below.
In a small bowl combine a 1/4 cup of milk, cornstarch and baking soda, stir until dissolved. Set aside. Place the 1/3 cup sugar in a heavy bottomed medium sized saucepan and heat on medium heat.
As the sugar begins to melt spread it around the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon so that it will cook evenly.
Stir occasionally to make sure it is melting.
Watch the pot carefully once the sugar starts to caramelize, it happens very quickly. Turn down the heat and allow it to come to the darkness you prefer. I like mine pretty dark, with almost a bitter flavor. it will smoke at this point, but is not yet burned. Remove from heat and
carefully add the milk, sugar, cornstarch mixture, salt and vanilla bean. When you pour the milk onto the hot caramel it will sputter, so be careful! Return to medium heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat until you have a gentle simmer and cook for about 35-45 minutes.
The cajeta will be a deep caramel brown and will have reduced from 2 cups of liquid
to 3/4 of a cup. It will be the consistency of thick grade B maple syrup when it is hot, but turn to smooth honey consistency as it cools.
Now for the apple crisp:
Here is my husband sampling an apple to make sure it is crisp and juicy. We sampled a few to make sure they were what we wanted. They were fabulous!
Apple crisp:
6 medium apples with or without the skins, thinly sliced. (I did a combination of some skins on and some off). Others varieties to use are Granny Smith, Macintosh and Braeburn.
1/4 cup of cajeta from above
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch salt
1/8 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Streusel topping by Emily Luchetti in Four-Star Desserts
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
To prepare the streusel:
In a food processor, combine the butter, sugars, flour, and cinnamon. Using quick on-off pulses, process the mixture until the butter is the size of small peas. Refrigerate until cold.
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a large baking dish or several small ramekins. Set aside.
combine the apples, cajeta, cinnamon, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
Fill a baking dish with the apples.
I used one larger baking dish, but also baked some in individual ramekins. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the apple filling.
Bake until the apples are soft when poked with a skewer and the streusel is golden brown. It took 30 minutes for the small ramekins and nearly an hour for the large baking dish. Serve warm. A scoop of ice cream and a drizzle of the cajeta is all this needs. Enjoy!
My ice cream machine died and I have yet to replace it, but if I had one I would have made a batch of vanilla icecream and swirled the cajeta right into it. Someday I will.
For those of you who have been following the progression of the fondant cake, it will be continued soon. I am just waiting on one special element to that post and then I will celebrate my blog-iversay with all of you. The build up must be killing you! 😉
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Ingredients
Cajaeta
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 ½ cups goat milk
- ½ cup whole milk
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ½ tsp cornstarch
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 1 vanilla bean
Apple Crisp
- 6 medium apples with or without skin
- ¼ cup cajeta
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- pinch salt
- ⅛ tsp finely ground black pepper
Streusel Topping
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cold
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup packed dark brow sugar
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅛ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
Cajeta
- In a small bowl combine a 1/4 cup of milk, cornstarch and baking soda, stir until dissolved. Set aside.
- Place the 1/3 cup sugar in a heavy bottomed medium sized saucepan and heat on medium heat. As the sugar begins to melt spread it around the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon so that it will cook evenly. Stir occasionally to make sure it is melting.
- Watch the pot carefully once the sugar starts to caramelize, it happens very quickly. Turn down the heat and allow it to come to the darkness you prefer. I like mine pretty dark, with almost a bitter flavor. it will smoke at this point, but is not yet burned.
- Remove from heat and carefully add the milk, sugar, cornstarch mixture, salt and vanilla bean. When you pour the milk onto the hot caramel it will sputter, so be careful! Return to medium heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat until you have a gentle simmer and cook for about 35-45 minutes.
- The cajeta will be a deep caramel brown and will have reduced from 2 cups of liquid to 3/4 of a cup. It will be the consistency of thick grade B maple syrup when it is hot, but turn to smooth honey consistency as it cools.
Apple Crisp
- For the streusel topping: In a food processor, combine the butter, sugars, flour, and cinnamon. Using quick on-off pulses, process the mixture until the butter is the size of small peas. Refrigerate until cold.
- Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a large baking dish or several small ramekins. Set aside.
- Combine the apples, cajeta, cinnamon, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Fill a baking dish with the apples.
- I used one larger baking dish, but also baked some in individual ramekins. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the apple filling.
- Bake until the apples are soft when poked with a skewer and the streusel is golden brown. It took 30 minutes for the small ramekins and nearly an hour for the large baking dish. Serve warm.
Oh, this looks wonderful! I’m going to try it with dulce de leche for my dad – he’s from Buenos Aires, and he happens to be a chef, so he usually makes a batch for me ’round Christmas. 🙂
Hi Sandy,
How lucky for you!!! It will be delicious. All the sweeter that your dad makes it for you.
Enjoy, Zoë
The best part about fall is that it is now officially time for apple crisps! Yes 🙂
Yum! This looks SO delicious. I love the step-by-step photos.
How great it must be to pick apples yourselves! The crisp looks wonderful, and that caramel is so so tempting!
looks fabulous. I like to make ice cream and love the Kitchen aid ice cream attachment. Any tips on how to swirl in cajeta so it doesn’t completely mix? Do it with a spoon?
That caramel looks perfect! Caramel and apples are such a classic combo.
This looks so yummy! When we lived in Missouri we used to make a yearly trip to the orchards to get apples-I miss that.
This looks so good! The cajeta sounds like a wonderful addition!
Be still my heart! There are few things in this world better than caramel apples! This crisp could be one of them. It looks divine!
Hi everyone,
Thank you for the wonderful comments.
I hope you do try this recipe. There are those that look so simple but that are worthy of licking the plate clean, this is one of them!
Enjoy!
Zoë
Oh wow – those look amazing! I think I know what we’ll be trying soon!
HI ZOE….THE CRISP LOOKS WONDERFUL…I JUST DISCOVERED BAKING WITH MUTSU APPLES AND THEY ARE TERRIFIC ALSO…I LOVE FALL BAKING. DO YOU HAVE ANY GOOD PEAR RECIPES??
Hi Sue,
Here are a couple to try that I love. A Pear Tart Tatin http://zoebakes.com/?p=870
or Drunken Pears http://zoebakes.com/?p=254
Thanks!
Zoë
Good-looking apple crisp! Yum!
That looks spectacular!
cajeta is one of my favorite comfort foods for sure. i used towork with a mexican lady that used to make it for us all the time at work. lovely!
This looks great! I was looking for a great recipe for apples and cajeta, and I will definitely try this one.
Beautiful pics and looks so tempting.
what is the difference between brown sugar and dark brown sugar? Can I substitute? Or would it not taste as great?
Hi Angelica,
The difference is the amount of molasses in the sugar. The dark brown sugar is slightly more intense tasting. I actually prefer the dark, but sometimes you don’t want to overpower the other flavors. It will work fine in this recipe.
Thanks, Zoë
Ohhh ok thanks!:)
Also at what point do you add the goat milk?
One more question sorry; if I can’t find or afford vanilla bean what are my options?
The cajeta recipe seems incomplete 🙁 I bought everything I needed to make it, then had to look up a different recipe to actually get it done.
Zoe, this was a winner. We just learned how to make cajeta (slow cooker method – wow!) and had some apples sitting around… This was really a perfect combination, though I admit that I probably dumped twice the amount of cajeta into the apples! Thank you for posting this!