METHOD
- Toss apple cheeks with the lemon juice and set aside.
- Place sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Allow it to melt without stirring, swirling gently as it liquefies. Cook to a deep amber colour. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter (careful - it will bubble vigorously). Slowly add the cream while whisking constantly.
- If there are any chunks of toffee, it will melt once the apples go in and it will cook down to thicken the caramel.
- Add the apple moons to the caramel and cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes until the caramel has thickened, becoming smooth, glossy and deep brown. The apple moons should be tender but still holding their shape. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly and stir in the flaky salt to taste. You can reheat this caramel on the stove or in the microwave if need be.
- For the chantilly, whisk the cream with the vanilla paste and sugar until stiff, then whisk in crème fraiche to finish.
Tender Blender Cinnamon Crêpes (makes about 16)
- Melt butter in a heavy-based non-stick pan (I use a 24cm crêpe pan, but 26cm is still perfect)
- To make the batter, pop ingredients into your blender in this order: eggs, milk, flour, cinnamon, salt and melted butter. Wipe the pan out with paper towel to collect the residual butter and set to the side.
- Blend the crêpe batter for 10 seconds until completely smooth. There’s no need to rest the batter if using cold milk and eggs and blended for 10 seconds only. But of course, feel free to rest it in the fridge for a while or overnight, to let the gluten relax - just give it a quick mix if it has separated.
- Heat the nonstick crêpe pan over medium heat. Swipe with buttered paper. Pour in a ¼ cup of batter, swirling immediately to coat the pan thinly.
- Cook for one or two minutes until lightly golden, flip and cook for another minute more to get the leopard speckled spots. Stack on a plate and keep covered with a saucepan lid. They will stay warm.
- Spoon the warm salted caramel apples into one quadrant of each crêpe, top with a spoonful of the crème fraiche chantilly, fold in half, then into quarters. Fill a warmed serving platter, spooning extra caramel over the top, then finishing with a flourish salt flakes.
