Catalonia 19: CATALAN BAKED APPLES 🌞

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CATALAN BAKED APPLES

Ingredients (for 4 people)

4 Reinette apples
1 dl (3.5fl oz) muscatel or rancio wine
4 tablespoons of sugar
powdered cinnamon

Preparation

1. Clean and core apples from the top using a spoon or the fine tip of a
knife.

2. Place on a baking tray. Sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar over each apple,
as well as a dash of rancio wine or muscatel and a pinch of cinnamon.

3. Add a cup of water to the tray and set in the oven at about
160ºC/320ºF until tender, or for about 40 minutes.

4. When removing from the oven, wet with their own juice.

Comments

Baked apples are a classic dessert in Catalonia during autumn, when
apples are ripening at home and release that floral and sweet aroma. The
Reinette is especially recommended for cooking; it’s a flattened yellow
apple of firm flesh and slightly sharp flavour. In the old days, varieties that
now have practically disappeared like the Camosa or Ciri, were also
prepared in the same manner. If the Reinette variety is not available, it can
be substituted for Golden or, well into the winter, the Verd-donzella apple,
a sweet green variety used to prepare the stuffed apples that are so
popular in the Girona region. These apples are usually filled with pork,
sweet *botifarra and cooked with sugar, cinnamon, muscatel, and chopped
almonds and biscuits.

*Note: Botifarra is a type of sausage and one of the most important dishes of
the Catalan cuisine. Botifarra is based on ancient recipes, either the Roman
sausage botulu or the lucanica, made of raw pork and spices, with variants
today in Italy and in the Portuguese and Brazilian linguiça.

From "Catalan Cuisine" by Joan Roca

Yummm Enjoy these spicy & nutty apples!