Smoked Bacon-Bourbon Apple Crisp

F or years, I’ve been smoke-roasting blueberry and raspberry crumbles. I even smoked a crumble made with cactus pears on my Primal Grill TV

show taped in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Here’s the smoked version of an American classic—apple pie—and it was inspired by a restaurant in my summer stomping grounds, the Outermost Inn on Martha’s Vineyard. “I think apple pie should step on the dark side,” says its one-time chef and the recipe’s creator, Michael Winkelman. “Give me bacon. Give me whis-key. Give me smoke. Give me a dessert that means business.” I give you Winkelman’s smoked apple crisp.

Yield: Serves 8

Method: Smoke-roasting

PreP tiMe: 30 minutes

SMoking tiMe: 45 minutes

to 1 hour

Fuel: Apple wood, of course—

enough for 1 hour of smoking

(see chart on page 6)

gear: A 10-inch cast-iron

skillet

What elSe: You can cook

this crisp low and slow in a

traditional smoker, but you’ll

get a crisper topping if you

work at higher heat. This is a

good dish to smoke-roast on

a charcoal grill.

INGREDIENTSFor the Filling

2 strips artisanal bacon, like Nueske’s or the Made-from-Scratch Bacon on page 113, cut crosswise into ¼-inch slivers

3 pounds crisp, sweet apples like Honeycrisps or Galas

⅓ cup packed light or dark brown sugar, or to taste

1½ tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

3 tablespoons bourbon

For the topping

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and placed in the freezer until icy cold

½ cup crushed gingersnap cookies or granola

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup light or dark brown sugar

Pinch of salt

Smoked Ice Cream (page 240; use vanilla) or regular vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)

1. Set up your grill for indirect grilling (see page 262) and preheat to 400°F.

2. Make the filling: Fry the bacon in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat, stirring with a slotted spoon, until crisp and golden brown, 4 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a

large bowl. Pour off and reserve the bacon fat for another use. Don’t wipe out or wash the skillet.

3. Peel and core the apples and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Add them to the bacon. Stir in the sugar, flour, lemon zest, cinnamon, and salt. Stir

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in the bourbon. Taste the mixture for sweetness, adding sugar as needed. Spoon the filling into the skillet.

4. Make the topping: Place the butter, cookie crumbs, flour, white and brown sugars, and salt in a food processor. Grind to a coarse mixture, running the processor in short bursts. Don’t overprocess; the mixture should remain loose and crumbly like sand. Sprinkle the topping over the apples.

5. Place the crisp on the grill or smoker rack away from the heat. Add the wood to the coals and cover the grill. Smoke-roast the crisp until the topping is browned and bubbling, the apples are soft (they should be easy to pierce with a skewer), and the filling is thick, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

6. Serve the crisp hot off the grill or smoker. Extra points for topping it with Smoked Ice Cream.

Y ou may be surprised to not find chocolate on the long list of foods I’ve put in my smoker. The reason? Smoke gets lost in chocolate’s already

intense, bitter, earthy flavor. Here’s the exception: a smoked chocolate bread pudding from the highly inventive Alden & Harlow restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Owner-chef Michael Scelfo makes strategic use of hickory smoke to raise a great bread pudding to the stratosphere. Moral of the story? Use smoke in desserts when it makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Yield: Serves 8

Method: Hot-smoking

PreP tiMe: 30 minutes

SMoking tiMe: 30 to 45

minutes plus 40 minutes to

1½ hours, as needed

Fuel: Hickory—enough for

2¼ hours of smoking (see chart

on page 6)

gear: A large disposable

aluminum foil pan; 12-inch cast-

iron skillet

ShoP: Brioche is a French

butter- and egg-enriched

bread. You’ll want a firm,

not soft-squishy, loaf. (Stale

brioche works great here.)

You’ll also get good results

with firm country-style white

bread or challah. Use an

intense bittersweet chocolate

like Scharffen Berger.

Smoked Chocolate Bread Pudding

INGREDIENTS1 loaf (1 pound) brioche, cut into 1-inch

cubes (about 8 cups)

3 cups heavy (whipping) cream

2 cups whole milk

1½ cups sugar

Pinch of salt

1 vanilla bean (optional—for an even smokier flavor, use a smoked vanilla bean, page 205)

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (1½ teaspoons if not using the vanilla bean)

Butter, for buttering the skillet

Smoked Ice Cream (page 240; use vanilla), for serving (optional)

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