And it tastes twice as good on the second day
Both Granny Smith and McIntosh apples go into the Hot Apple Soup, along with lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon and light cream.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
The finished soup had both sweet and tart components — and our tests cook admits it might have been a tad more attractive if she had taken the time to garnish it with whipped cream.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
After I ladled out seven servings of Hot Apple Soup on Christmas Day, Mark handed me a clipboard so I could look official as I wrote down everyone’s comments.
“I didn’t expect it to be so sweet,” said our guest Isabela, who had grown up in Georgia.
“What I detected was the tartness; I had to ease into it,” said our guest Will, who spent his earliest years in England.
“It’s a mix of tartness and sweetness,” Mark’s brother Jay said, sounding a bit like a diplomat.
“It’s very good,” said our neighbor Roger.
“It’s like applesauce on steroids,” Mark said.
“It was different,” my mom said. “But I enjoyed it.”
As for me, I thought it tasted pretty good.
I don’t have much experience making fruit soups — as opposed to vegetable soups or meaty stews. And I’d never made Hot Apple Soup before. But the recipe seemed to leap out at me recently as I turned the pages of “Vineyard Seasons,” a cookbook by author Susan Branch. And I thought, why not try something new for Christmas dinner?
Sure, I grew up hearing the adage that you shouldn’t try something new when you have guests; you should serve them something you’re confident will turn out well. But I figured this soup would make the meal more of an adventure. And if the soup turned out to be unpalatable, at least our guests would have other things to eat — a spiral ham and baked beans (thanks, Jay!), krautsalat/hot cabbage salad (thanks, Mom!) mashed potatoes (my other contribution) and desserts both homemade (thanks, Mark!) and store-bought (thanks, Roger!)
I did have a crazy moment during the making of the soup, when I was trying to make a batch and a half of it while almost simultaneously working on the mashed potatoes. I inadvertently poured a little too much of the fresh-squeezed lemon juice into the soup; then tried to tone down the resulting tartness by frantically pouring white grape juice into the mix in place of water.
But if you make this soup, gentle readers, no doubt you will take your time and be more careful and you won’t have that problem.
In any case, the soup tasted really good the second day — I’d go so far as to say it was twice as good as on the first day.
And even though the “Vineyard Seasons” author presented Hot Apple Soup as a recipe for autumn, I recommend it for winter.
Hot Apple Soup
4 green apples (Granny Smith)
4 McIntosh apples
2 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup light cream
Unsweetened whipped cream, for garnish
Peel, core and quarter apples. Combine all ingredients except cream in saucepan and bring to boil. Simmer 15 minutes until apples are soft. Puree, return to pan; add cream and heat through but don’t boil. Garnish each servng with adollop of unsweetened whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
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