Early Spring Dessert

For being the beginning of March, our weather is downright pleasant.  Granted, we usually expect a warm-up this time of year, but having temperatures in the sixties and seventies is something worth savoring.  This morning The Bride requested the obligatory Oak Grilled Salmon so I figured that while the grill was on, I could make some sort of dessert to cap off the seasonable weekend.  One of the first recipes I opened to was the Apples Grilled In Parchment Paper on page 381, and it looked good/easy enough that I made the executive decision that this would be our dessert.

This was indeed easy, so I won't waste too much of your time going into silly details.  First, remove the cores.

Next, cut into thin slices.

Don't worry too much about the apples oxidizing; they are going to be coated in cinnamon and then turn brown as they bake.  Toss with the remaining ingredients, making sure that everything is evenly coated.

Place some of the mixture in a 12" X 15" piece of parchment paper.  

Pull the top and bottom together, and fold down a couple of times to create a seal. 

Then twist the sides together in opposite directions to complete the sealing process.

I used some scissors to trim up the long ends, because I'm funny that way.

Here they are off the grill.  Initially I was concerned that the parchment paper would burn, especially since they were grilled over direct heat.  

So which presentation is better?  On the left, I plated dinner with the apples still in the parchment paper.  On the right, I removed them from the paper and then plated.  Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

I will add a third adjective to my initial impression of the recipe: delicious.  This takes mere minutes to prep, only ten minutes to cook, and less than a minute to wolf it down in delight.  The sugar level was appropriate for the tartness of the Granny Smiths and the dried cranberries, allowing a delicate and playful balance.  The only change I would make would be to move this to indirect heat for a longer cooking time.  I had a slight charring issue (like I had anticipated) with one of the packets that I would like to have seen avoided.