Recipe: Happles, a Christmas breakfast with Eugene Walter

Big holiday dinners get all the hype. But don’t forget the most important meal of the day, the one that can really set the tone for a day of celebration: breakfast. Do you have a special holiday breakfast tradition? Here’s what Eugene Walter suggests in The Happy Table of Eugene Walter: Southern Spirits in Food and Drink. This is a sweet, savory, and saucy way to kick start a festive day, that’s for sure. (If you missed it: check out our Happy Table Happy Hour series for more of Walter’s “spiritous” recipes.)

We’ll be featuring holiday posts (mostly food-based, because . . . yum) all week, so be sure to keep coming back for more.

Happles

Prepare this dish for Christmas breakfast.

Jonathan or other tart, green apples
Honey
Rum, Sherry, or Bourbon
Mace
Cinnamon
Crisp-cooked ham fat

Core but don’t peel apples. Slice and put in wide, flat baking dish. Pour honey and a splash of Rum, Sherry, or Bourbon whiskey over; sprinkle with mace (a hint) and cinnamon (a bold statement), then bake until fork-able but not mushy. Sprinkle LOTS of crisp-cooked ham fat and serve alongside plain scrambled eggs and hot biscuits.

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From The Happy Table of Eugene Walter: Southern Spirits in Food and Drink, edited by Donald Goodman and Thomas Head. Copyright © 2011 by Donald Walter Goodman.