Ingredients

• 250 g full-fat Greek yogurt10 per cent and strained, thick enough to stand a spoon, or it slackens under the warm apple
• 2 firm eating applesBraeburn, Cox or Pink Lady; Bramley collapses to puree
• 15 g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 60 g apple crispsshop-bought, or made from the second apple below

Method

1. 01

   Dice one apple only

   Peel, core and cut one apple into 1 cm dice. Small enough to soften through in five minutes, large enough that you still meet pieces of fruit in the finished dip. Keep the second apple whole and unpeeled for now if you are making your own crisps.

2. 02

   Caramelise in a hot pan

   Melt the butter in a 20 cm frying pan over medium-high heat until it stops foaming. Add the diced apple in a single layer and leave it alone for 2 minutes before stirring. That undisturbed contact is what gives you colour rather than steam. Cook for 5-6 minutes total, turning every minute or so, until the cut faces are deep gold and the pieces have a little give but still hold their edges when pushed with a spoon.

   15 g unsalted butter

   Brown the butter two minutes furtherTo hazelnut, until it smells of toffee, then the fruit straight in. It reads as far more work than it is.

3. 03

   Build the syrup

   Take the pan off the heat. Add the maple syrup, cinnamon, lemon juice and a pinch of salt and stir for 20 seconds. The residual heat will reduce the maple to a glossy syrup that coats the apple. If it looks thin, return to low heat for 30 seconds more. Off the heat matters: maple scorches fast in a hot pan and turns acrid.

   1 tbsp maple syrup · 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon · 1 tsp lemon juice

4. 04

   Cool to barely warm

   Tip the apple and all its syrup onto a cold plate and spread it out. Leave for 10-15 minutes until it is no warmer than your hand. Warm apple stirred into cold yogurt splits it. The proteins loosen and you get watery whey pooling at the edge within minutes.

5. 05

   Ripple, don't mix

   Spoon the cold yogurt into a shallow bowl and spread it to the edges with the back of a spoon. Add most of the apple and its syrup and fold just three or four times with a spatula, lifting from the bottom. Stop while you can still see distinct ribbons of dark syrup against white yogurt. Over-stir and you get uniform beige; the whole pleasure here is hitting a pocket of caramel.

   250 g full-fat Greek yogurt

6. 06

   Make the crisps if you're making them

   Heat the oven to 100C fan / 120C conventional. Slice the second apple crossways, through the core, as thin as you can manage, 1-2 mm, ideally on a guarded mandoline. Pat both sides dry with kitchen paper, lay them on parchment-lined trays without overlapping, and bake for 90 minutes to 2 hours, turning them once at the halfway point. They will still feel slightly leathery in the oven; lift one out and let it cool for a minute to test. It crisps as it cools. If shop-bought, use of unsweetened crisps.

   60 g apple crisps

7. 07

   Finish and serve

   Spoon the reserved apple and a last thread of syrup over the top of the dip just before it goes to the table, so the surface still looks freshly made. Serve with the crisps alongside for scooping. Eat within the hour. The syrup slowly bleeds into the yogurt and the ribbons disappear.

   Serve it shallow and wideSo the caramel ribbons stay visible and every scoop gets some.