Tea Room Tales & Tidbits
Table of Contents
Harvest Fruit Sauce
It was difficult to decide where to put this creation. It is thick enough to be called a filling but versatile enough to be used as a sauce. We have used this recipe for several dishes including; tart filling, ginger cake sauce, nestled in choux pastry, with white sponge cake, on top of vanilla ice cream, and served it simply in a tall stemmed dish topped with whipped cream.
Without a word of a lie; Smith's Apples out on River Road just outside of Port Elgin have, by far the best apples. Many of the Ivy Tea Room recipes contain apples from Micki and Steve's fall harvest. I think fondly of their lovely farm and will always remember the many years of picking apples from their prize-winning dwarf apple trees. We would go with our children and let them proudly fill large bags and haul the bounty off to the car. For the entire ride home there was the sound of seven eager apple pickers happily munching on the best, most fresh and crisp fall harvest apples bar none! I dare say that the munching of these tasty treats actually drowned out the roar of our engine as we drove over gravel hills taking in the sites of the countryside and fresh air around us.
- 1 recipe of Caramel Sauce
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 large Honey Crisp apple
- 1 large Jonagold apple
- 1 large Northern Spy apple
- 2 large Bartlett pears
- 1/3 cup dried apricots, cut into slivers.
- 1/3 cup dried currants
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1/2 cup Thompson raisins
- 2 tsp rum extract
- Peel, core and slice the apples and pears.
- Sauté the fruit with butter in a large soup pot on medium to low heat.
- Cook until just tender.
- Add remaining fruit and warm through.
- Pour caramel sauce into the pot and simmer for about 20 minutes.
- Ladle piping hot sauce into sterilized jars and store or use as needed.