It’s apple season and here’s an Italian dessert from my World Spices cooking class at UBC: Blushing Poached Apples in Spiced Wine.

The apples were first peeled and then each apple was cored through the bottom. The apples were poached until tender in red wine and white wine along with some interesting spices such as rosemary, crushed peppercorns, cinnamon, and star anise.

Once tender, the apples were set aside and the poaching liquid continued to simmer until it had reduced by half. It would have been better if the reduced poaching liquid had been strained and the spices removed before pouring it over the apples and serving. I’m pretty sure Chef Eric said something about that but I see from my photo that we somehow missed that step in the panic of getting dessert to the table!

The cored apples were poached until soft, then removed from the spiced wine to allow continued reduction of the poaching liquid by half.

Blushing Italian poached apples served with the reduced poaching liquid. (The spices should probably have been strained out – we missed that step.)

Chef Eric posts many of his recipes on his website: http://www.911cheferic.com/