Passionfruit Butter

If you haven’t yet tasted the sheer joy that is a Honeycrisp apple, I highly recommend that you run to your nearest grocery store and pick one up. I found mine at Whole Foods so you’ll probably have luck there.

For a while, I thought an apple was an apple. I remember picking up a copy of Cook’s Illustrated that featured a recipe for apple pie, and the writer detailed an extensive search for the perfect “pie apple.” I remember thinking: pie apple? What happened to the simple days of red delicious, green delicious, and yellow delicious? Since 4th grade, my apple lexicon has expanded a bit — it now includes Fiji, gala, pink lady, Braeburn — but I still don’t think I could explicate to you the subtle nuances of firmness, juiciness, or flavor. Apples are sweet and firm enough to fill my tummy and that’s pretty much all that matters.

But today at the grocery, I happened upon the Honeycrisp and was quite honestly attracted not by its lovely two-toned color, its pleasing aroma, or its satisfying firmness. No, I was allured by its name, and I think that now, after having eaten one of the apples myself, I am at the very least qualified to say that this apple is everything its name cracks it up to be: sweet, sweet like honey and crisp, crisp, crisp. As soon as I bit into it, juice literally poured onto my lap- it’s ambrosia. According to Wikipedia, these criteria make it the ideal snack apple. Whatever, that works for me.

I’ll also take this opportunity to get in a quick word in favor of Tillamook white cheddar cheese. It’s a little too creamy and the apple’s a little too sweet for the two to be paired together, but on their own, they are both remarkable.