This dish originates from me buying a whole bottle of rose concentrate for a workshop that needed two whole tablespoons of it. While half of the bottle has made me numerous afternoon rose milkshakes, I still have a long way to go and I hope to use some of it for recipes on my blog! I initially envisioned making an elaborate dessert, mostly as an excuse to finish it off, but I scraped that idea because I couldn’t think of anything past a rose coulis or sauce. Using so much of rose concentrate in a single dessert didn’t quite reason with my health-conscious consciousness. Instead, I decided to transform one of my favourite desserts, being apple crisp.

The base of the dessert is a rose and saffron apple crisp with a rose syrup macerated apple rose as a garnish. I mostly see desserts like these as an opportunity to try out new things! In this case it was learning how to cut an apple really thin and rolling it to form a rose. I don’t have a mandolin so I reasoned that I’d cut the slices with a knife. I got it right in my fifth attempt and suddenly saw myself with a knife and an apple for the final pictures for this post. The only problem was that I shot myself in the foot by not practicing for a whole month. This meant that my slices were too uneven and the rose broke. Instead, the final plate features a fan of apple slices, which I can totally live with but not without a mandolin which I need ASAP!

Apple crisp, with a rose-filled twist!

Apple crisp:

• 3 apples, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp. rose syrup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 6 tbsp. cold unsalted butter

Toss the apples, sugar and rose syrup in a bowl and allow to rest for about 15 minutes. Combine the brown sugar, flour and oats in a large bowl and cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Grease 6 large ramekins with butter. Arrange the rested apple slices at the bottom of each ramekin, until they reach half the depth. Fill the remaining ramekin with the oats and flour mixture. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before unmoulding.

Macerated apple slices:

• 1 large apple, cored
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 3 tbsp. rose syrup
• A pinch of salt

Combine the water, rose syrup and salt to form the maceration liquid. Cut the apple in half and cut thin slices. Soak the slices in the maceration liquid for about 10 minutes before removing onto a large plate.

Plating:

Run a knife around the edge of a cooled ramekin. Invert it onto a plate. Fan out the macerated apple slices.

If you are making an apple rose: On a flat surface, place the apple slices end to end, slightly overlapping each other. From one end, being to gently roll the slices to form a rose. Garnish the apple crisp!