POACHED APPLES WITH JUNIPER BERRIES & SPICES

An easy, elegant dessert that can cook slowly alongside your pozole, these poached apples with juniper berries and spices make for a simple, healthy and spicy winter dessert. We've incorporated juniper berries used hundreds of years ago by Native Americans, plus cloves, allspice, cinnamon and orange zest for a spiced glaze that will permeate through these poached apples. Valued by Native Americans, juniper berries were used medicinally for arthritis and rheumatism and for detoxification as a diuretic, with antiseptic properties. While we’re not sure about the medicinal properties, we do know that poaching these apples with juniper berries and these spices makes the room smell incredible

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

• 5  apples, we like Fuji, Pink Lady
• 2⁄3 cup sugar (or sweetener of your choice- honey, agave or stevia)
• 3  cups  fruity red wine
• 1  tablespoon lemon juice
• 2⁄3 cup water

Directions

1. Peel and core the apples and cut into quarters; set aside.
2. Combine wine, sugar,lemon juice, RawSpiceBar’s juniper berries and spices pouch, and 2 cups water in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. 3. Add apples; reduce heat to low and simmer, occasionally rotating apples, until tender when pierced with a sharp knife, 25–30 minutes. 4. Remove apples from pot, transfer to a plate and set aside.
3. Strain out the spices from the poaching liquid and discard.
4. Add the liquid back to the pot and bring to a slow simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until poaching liquid reduces by roughly 3/4, about 15-25 minutes minutes (syrup will also thicken as it cools).