For many people, fall means pumpkin spice. I understand completely, but for me, apples are the official flavour of the season. Especially if they are baked…

I know that this seems like a lot of steps for what are essentially baked apples, but did you really want me to tell you to just chuck some apples in the oven? Partially poaching the apples in red wine lets the colour (and taste!) of the wine seep in, and the hasselback slices really shows this off. Your dessert will look like fancy jewelry and be almost too pretty to eat.

Ingredients:

• Apples:
  • 2 apples
• Poaching liquid:
  • 2 cups red wine
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp cloves
• Additional for baking:
  • 2 tsp unsalted butter (melted)
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp cloves

Directions:

1. Peel the apples (2) and cut them in half, remove the cores but do your best to keep the halves intact
2. In the smallest saucepan you have that still fits the apples, bring the wine (2 cups), cinnamon (1/2 tsp) and cloves (1/4 tsp) to a simmer
3. Add the apples and simmer for 5 minutes, gently turning occasionally (the idea here is to only partly cook the apples right now, they still need to be firm enough to hold their shape for the next step)
4. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let cool to room temperature, turning the apples occasionally to make sure they are well covered in the wine
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees f
6. Place each apple cut-side down and carefully cut lines into it, following the curve of the apple and trying to go just over halfway through (try not to cut all the way through)
7. Place apples cut-side down on a baking tray
8. Stir together sugar (1 tsp), cinnamon (1/2 tsp) and cloves (1/8 tsp)
9. Brush apples with melted butter (2 tsp)
10. Sprinkle apples evenly with sugar and spice mixture
11. Bake for 25-30 minutes, depending on the size of your apples – you will know these are done when they are bubbly and the sugar is beginning to caramelize

Notes:

• This is really not the place for that special bottle of wine you have been saving for the past 10 years. Just use something that is not too sweet and that is drinkable enough that you won’t feel like you are suffering if you choose to drink the remainder of the bottle.
• Don’t throw away the poaching liquid when you are done! You can add a bit more sugar and simmer it down to create red wine syrup. Just keep in mind that apples contain something called pectin which will cause the syrup to thicken even more than usual.