From Recipe for Murder: Frightfully Good Food Inspired by Fiction by Estérelle Payany (Flammarion, Sept.)
Snow White bites into the red half of the apple proffered by her disguised stepmother, who, in turn, bites into the white part. Eating an apple, as Eve so famously did in the Garden of Eden, means putting an end to one’s “innocence.” (The redness of the forbidden fruit symbolizes the color of blood, menstruation, and eroticism.) Left for dead and buried in a glass coffin, Snow White is finally brought back to life (and sexuality) by the prince, who dislodges the apple that remained literally stuck in her throat. To see the apple as the symbol of the young girl’s repressed desires, which she is finally able to accept as she approaches adulthood, only requires a small stretch of the (psychoanalyst’s) imagination.
2 large apples
Juice of 1 lemon
1 1/3 cups (250 g) finely granulated white sugar
A few drops of red food coloring
Equipment: melon baller, skewers
Peel the apples. Using a melon baller, scoop the flesh of the apples into balls. Sprinkle the fruit with a little of the lemon juice to prevent it from turning brown. Thread each apple ball onto a skewer.
Fill a large mixing bowl with cold water.
Prepare a dry caramel sauce: pour the sugar into a heavy, dry saucepan, and place over moderate heat. The sugar will melt and then quickly begin to caramelize. Remove the pan from the heat as soon as the caramel turns a golden brown color.
Because the pan will still be hot, the sauce will continue to cook. Add the remaining lemon juice, along with the food coloring, to stop the caramel from cooking further.
Dip each apple ball first into the caramel sauce and then into the cold water to form a hard caramel shell. To serve, insert the apple skewers into an orange or other fruit.
