Great Chef Keegan Gerhard

Warm Apple Soup
Keegan Gerhard
The Ritz-Carlton Naples
Naples FL

Here´s a highly unusual variation on the pour-soup-over-toasted-bread theme: a warm dessert soup using apples, with cinnamon-toasted brioche taking the place of the bread.

Serves 4

Apple Soup
4 large Red Delicious apples

1/4 cup lemon juice
1 Granny Smith apple
1 Red Delicious apple
1 Golden Delicious apple
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1-1/2 cup sugar
Eight 4-inch brioche circles
1 cup clarified butter

To make the soup: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Peel and core two Red Delicious apples and cut into very small dice. Spread the apple dice in a medium ovenproof saute pan or skillet and brown in the oven, 8 to 10 minutes. Take out of the oven and put over medium-low heat. Juice two Red Delicious apples. Immediately stir the juice into the browned apple mirepoix and let it come to a simmer. Strain through a chinois or fine-meshed sieve lined with cheesecloth. Keep warm.

Place the lemon juice in a shallow bowl. Cut the remaining apples in half and core. Cut into matchstick julienne; do not peel. As each group of julienne is cut, rinse in the lemon juice, then drain on paper towels.

Heat the broiler to high. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a shallow bowl. Put the clarified butter in another shallow bowl. Dip the brioche circles in the butter, coating both sides, then into the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat. Place under a broiler until the sugar is melted; turn and melt the sugar on the other side. Remove.

Use large shallow serving bowls. Place a caramelized brioche circle in each serving bowl. Ladle warm apple soup around the base of the dessert. Sprinkle the fresh apple julienne into the soup.