Applesauce dessert

Applesauce dessert

1 h
In autumn, many gardens and most shops are overflowing with beautiful, ripe apples just waiting to be enjoyed in some form or other. Why not use some of them to make a wonderful applesauce dessert? You can even keep the applesauce in the freezer, so you can make this dessert whenever you feel like it. This recipe is an old-fashioned applesauce dessert but with a twist – the applesauce is spiced with zingy ginger and served with a refreshing lemon cream on top, making a delicious and fancy apple parfait.
https://arlauk.cmsstage.com/recipes/applesauce-dessert/

Instructions

Lemon cream:
  • Scrape seeds from vanilla pod and mix them well with cane sugar.
  • Add lemon zest and juice as well as cream and mix well. Place the lemon cream, covered, in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
Apple sauce:
  • Peel apples and cut them into smaller pieces.
  • Put apple pieces into a saucepan with water, sugar, and ginger. Boil them for about 8 minutes until they are almost tender.
  • Allow applesauce to cool.
How to serve:
  • Place applesauce in glasses and serve with lemon cream and dark chocolate shavings on top.
Enjoy!
Tips

An effective process for peeling, coring, and cutting the apples will make this recipe much easier to go about. If you own an apple corer, using this equipment is probably the quickest way to remove apple cores, making it easier and faster to cut out the apples in smaller pieces after peeling. You can, of course, remove the core manually with a knife. Start by peeling the apples, then slice the apples into quarters lengthwise and remove the core and seeds by slicing from top to bottom, maybe using a smaller knife for this part of the work. Remember to remove the stem. Depending on the apples you use, you might need to add a little more or less sugar. So, remember to taste the applesauce before removing from heat to see if you need to add more sugar if the apples were tart or if it is already sweet enough if you used sweet apples.

Questions about applesauce dessert

Making an applesauce dessert is both quick and easy with this recipe, so you can quickly whip something up for guests or when the sweet craving hits. Read on to learn more about applesauce desserts.

What is an applesauce dessert?
An applesauce dessert features applesauce in some way, for example arranged in glasses with lemon cream and chocolate shavings on top. Enjoy the sweet apple flavour spiced with fresh ginger, balanced by a tart and silky-smooth lemon cream and bitter chocolate shavings, making this an irresistible applesauce dessert for adults and kids alike.
Why make applesauce with ginger?
Spicing applesauce with fresh or ground ginger gives the sweet and tangy sauce a bit of heat that makes it perfect in an applesauce dessert. Fresh ginger has a warming quality, and its spicy flavour is slightly peppery in taste. It is, of course, possible to use ground ginger if you cannot get your hands on the fresh variety. Ground ginger is also quite aromatic and pungent. Whether fresh or ground, the warmth of ginger pairs nicely with sweet or tart apples and adds complexity to the applesauce dessert.
How to use applesauce for dessert?
There are many ways to make desserts with applesauce, and our apple parfait with lemon cream is one of them. Here, the soft and creamy applesauce is shown to its full advantage, only complemented by its light and fresh toppings, lemon cream and bitter chocolate shavings. It is also delicious as a topping on pancakes, waffles, or oatmeal which may be served as breakfast dishes or sweet snacks.
Can you freeze an applesauce dessert with cream?
While applesauce itself freezes very well, our applesauce dessert with lemon cream as a whole does not. The reason is that cream does not freeze well as both its taste and texture often change once thawed, making it more suitable for baking or cooking rather than eating in desserts like this one. As such, we recommend freezing only the ginger applesauce and making the lemon-flavoured cream fresh before serving the applesauce dessert. Homemade applesauce will keep for up to 3 months in the freezer.

Ingredients

Lemon cream:
Vanilla pod (seeds from it) or the equivalent quantity of vanilla paste
½
Cane sugar
1½ tbsp
Finely grated lemon zest (unsprayed)
1 tsp
Lemon juice freshly squeezed
2 tbsp
Double cream
1½ dl
Applesauce:
Apples, e.g. Belle de Boskoop
¾ kilo
Water
1 dl
Cane sugar
125 g
Finely grated ginger
1 tsp
Garnish:
Dark chocolate shavings (about 55% cocoa)

Applesauce with lemon cream on top

There are many different kinds of desserts with applesauce; it can be used in cake, muffins, pancakes, donuts, etc. But while applesauce desserts may be plentiful, this recipe is one of a kind. The classic apple purée is used to create a delicious, surprising dessert with ginger and lemon – it is a modern twist on a well-known classic. The sweet and tart applesauce packs a kick of heat from the ginger and is complemented by an ice-cold cream with big, bold, and tangy lemon flavours. To top it all off, the applesauce dessert is garnished with dark chocolate shavings for a bitter-sweet complexity.

If you are in search of more apple recipes, have a look at our apple cake, apple strudel, or apple pie, all mixing sweet pastry and tart apples to perfection.

Delicious dessert with applesauce

A wonderful thing about making apple desserts is that there are so many different apples to choose from. Depending on the apple, you can create many different flavour profiles for our applesauce dessert recipe. Choosing a tart variety like Belle de Boskoop, Honeycrisp, or Granny Smith will give you an applesauce that is on the tarter side. For a sweeter-tasting applesauce use apples like Cox's Orange Pippin, Fuji, Gala, or Golden Delicious. Soft apples like Golden Delicious and Gala are excellent for making sauce as they are quick to cook down which saves you time at the stove. More crisp apples like Granny Smith or Fuji will make for a chunkier sauce. Experiment to figure out which apple variety or mix of different apples it takes to make the perfect dessert with applesauce for you.

Spiced parfait with ginger applesauce

This dessert with applesauce is a perfect example of an apple parfait bursting with flavour from ginger and lemon. In general, apple parfaits are usually made by layering applesauce with a kind of crunchy topping like muesli and either yoghurt or a French-inspired custard-like cream. In the recipe, the apple parfait has just one layer of applesauce and a topping of soft lemon cream, making for a delicious flavour combination. Our ginger applesauce, which makes this apple parfait stand out, gets a warm, spicy, and slightly peppery taste from the aromatic fresh ginger, and makes the rather simple recipe a complex tasting experience.

Experiment with your applesauce dessert

Try experimenting with different textures by adding an element of crunch to this soft and mushy applesauce dessert. Make a quick, homemade oatmeal crunch by combining just 3 ingredients: uncooked oatmeal, brown sugar, and melted butter. Mix and bake for about 10 minutes in the oven to make a golden, crunchy topping.

You can either garnish the lemon cream on top of the applesauce dessert with this oatmeal crunch or you can mix it up the presentation by layering it, creating a more typical-looking apple parfait. Start with a layer of applesauce, then one of lemon cream, then almond crunch, and repeat this before finishing off the layers with dark chocolate shavings or a mix of chocolate and finely chopped almonds if you want to introduce an earthy, nutty flavour into the applesauce dessert as well.

For a more aromatic apple flavour in the applesauce, replace water with apple juice.