Recently we had green apple and goat cheese as dessert at Restaurant Jacob in Leiden. I have a few bottles of a wonderful late harvest Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre that I thought would work particularly well with that combination. And that is how I came up with this very simple but delicious dessert of green apple with raw milk goat cheese (that was only loosely inspired by Jacob’s dish). As with all simple recipes, the success of this dessert hinges on using the best raw milk goat cheese you can find and green apples that are perfect (not too tart or too ripe). The apple is flavored with honey, cardamom, and lemon juice. Raw milk goat cheese has much more flavor than cheese made from pasteurized milk. No cooking skills are required for this recipe. If you can peel an apple, you should be able to handle this. Here’s what I did…

Ingredients

As I was making this up along the way, the cardamom and lemon are missing from the ingredient shot. There are no exact measurements for this recipe. I used 2 green apples and 150 grams (0.33 lb) of goat cheese to serve 4. You will also need honey, a lemon, and ground cardamom.

Instructions

Peel the apples, cut them into quarters, remove the core, and chop finely.

Add honey…

…lemon juice…

…and cardamom to taste. I added 1/4 teaspoon cardamom for the two apples. You only need a hint of cardamom, it shouldn’t overpower.

Stir to mix. Taste to see if any more honey or lemon juice is needed. If you are going to serve this with a dessert wine, it is a good idea to try it with the wine and adjust the sweetness or acidity of the apples accordingly. That is much easier than trying to find a wine that works with how you made the apples.

Cover and allow the flavors to blend for an hour (or up to 4 hours). Refrigerate only if it is warm, and then take out of the refrigerator at least half an hour before serving.

As this is so simple, the presentation needs to add some flair. I used ring moulds in which I first arrange the apple…

…and then topped with the goat cheese. It is very important that the goat cheese has been taken out of the refrigerator at least an hour before so that it has come to room temperature. Cold cheese is tasteless. If you like you could also do alternate layers of apple and cheese.

Remove the ring mould before serving 🙂

Wine pairing

We enjoyed this with a 2005 late harvest Sancerre “Vendange de St. Luc” by Henri Bourgeois, 100% sauvignon blanc with some noble rot. Sancerre is famous for going well with goat cheese, and this was indeed a match made in heaven. Other late harvest sauvignon blanc would work as well, or a Beerenauslese from Germany or Austria.

Flashback

Veal scaloppine with balsamic is an appropriate flashback for today, as it involves less than 10 minutes of cooking but does require the best quality ingredients: good quality veal and realaceto balsamico tradizionale (aged for at least 12 years).