Meet the producers: Dieppe apple caramel spread

The invention of Le Caramel de Pommes Dieppois, a delicious spread in a jar, made from three Normandy ingredient (apples, sugar and butter) has breathed new life into an association which makes employment of people with disabilities a priority, and which was struggling to continue after the recession of 2008.

The idea came from a Dieppe chocolatier, Jean-Pierre Roussel who sold a chocolate with an apple and caramel filling in his shop. He helped out as a volunteer at the Ateliers d’Etran at Martin-Eglise near Dieppe which has several different activities and gives employment to around 200 handicapped people. When he saw times were hard he developed his recipe and after a year the soft apple spread with hints of caramel was ready to hit the shops.

“We started with a small copper pan and did everything by hand,” says Isabelle Lemaitre, who supervises the project. “But very quickly customers found it so hard to resist they were coming back for more and there was a crescendo. Our original 16kg capacity pan has now been replaced by one which takes 142kg. Last year we sold more than 20,000 pots and every year demand is increasing.”

When asked if Le Caramel de Pommes Dieppois is anything like Nutella, the answer is a definite no. “It is completely unique and there is nothing you can compare it with,” says Mrs Lemaitre.

“It is somewhere between a purée and a caramel. It uses local ingredients. Apples, brown sugar from local beet and butter, both salty and non-salty, combined in a secret recipe I cannot tell you about. There are three flavours on sale; natural, salted butter and cinnamon. You can eat it on bread or it is really good with brioche and you can also cook with it as it goes very well with white meat or scallops.”

A team of nine makes the spread; two supervisors and seven who have disabilities or handicaps and would have found it difficult to find work elsewhere. They are working on other recipes with apple purée as a base. For those with a sweet tooth there is candyfloss, liquorice or marshmallow and for the more sophisticated, ginger and calvados, poppy and tonka bean and carrot, cumin and coriander.
You can visit the workshop either by ringing direct or via the Normandy Tourist Office which organises monthly tours.

www.carameldepommesdieppois.fr