The beautiful blushing colour of a Pink Lady® apple, pink peppercorns to add just a touch of heat, served with a splash of sweet cranberries.
Ingredients
4 Pink Lady® apples, unpeeled
100 g currants
50 g dried cranberries
1 tbsp pink peppercorns*
50 g soft brown sugar
50 g mixed candied peel
50 ml Cointreau
100 ml white wine, apple juice or water
Yoghurt, cream or ice-cream for serving
Method
Heat the oven to 190C/Gas 5. Pour boiling water over the currants, cranberries and pink peppercorns to just cover, and leave to soak for 10 minutes. Mix the brown sugar, mixed candied peel and Cointreau. Drain the currants and add to the sugar, stirring well. Core the apples and use the tip of sharp knife to cut around the diameter of each apple to prevent the skins from bursting. Place in an ovenproof dish, and fill each one to overflowing with the fruit mixture. Add the white wine to the pan and bake for 35 minutes or until tender (test with a thin skewer). Drizzle with the sweet pan juices, making sure a few pink peppercorns are visible on top, and serve with a dollop of yoghurt, cream or ice-cream.
Tip
Pink peppercorns add a little heat but not too much, and the use of peppercorns with sweet desserts goes back to ancient Roman times!
If you don’t have pink peppercorns (available from most supermarket spice shelves), scatter a little freshly ground black pepper over the apples just before serving.
