I thought ONION SOUP "AU GRATIN" (with gooey melted cheese on top) was a typical Quebec dish. I was wrong, but only partly…. It’s French but then again so is Québec (historically speaking) being called Nouvelle France until 1763 (including Ontario to the west, some of the Maritime provinces to the east and all the way down south to Louisiana) before being part of Canada later on. I was curious and did some research and the invention of this soup is accredited to King Louis the 14^th or 15^th of France. That’s enough history for today, but at least we all learned something else other than cooking stuff. So why did I add apples ? Simple, the first time I made this version, I had 2 peeled and cored apples sitting on the counter after I had finished making the baked apple dumplings again (see recipe here) and I thought, instead of adding some sugar to the onions to caramelize them with the butter, why not take advantage of the apple sugars to do the job, since apples go well with thyme too, which I was also planning to add anyways and the pectin in the apples would help thicken the soup too. The beef broth was not homemade, or sort of half-homemade, I used beef bouillon cubes and some vegetables and herbs but added a bone with marrow to accentuate the “almost-realness” of the broth and then scooped out the gelatinous marrow, mashed it and added it to the soup, both a good flavor enhancer and thickener. Following that was the idea of adding apple brandy instead of cognac and playing with the cheeses, not only gruyère cheese but some cheddar cheese too (also very friendly to apples) and grilled baguette as croutons. Let’s not pretend that this is a sophisticated soup, but does it need to be ? It’s a full meal, no side-dishes necessary, it hits the spot, fills the stomach and warms the heart … :)