Apple Desserts

This time you get a two-for-one deal!
I made this fantastic dish: [http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/10/mollys-apple-tarte-tatin/] which was delicious. I've never had or made a tarte tatin, but it's now one of my top favorite desserts without question. I did have two issues, however: the crust was a little doughy (but that was likely me since I think I added too much water and tried to fix it) and I had about twice the amount of apples needed. Now maybe this was a result of my pan, but I don't think so because the dough fit on top nicely. I've had this problem several times from Smitten Kitchen where I'll end up with too much frosting or more batter, etc, etc, so who knows.

Meanwhile, I had read a recipe for a pear tarte tatin with a red wine caramel sauce that looked fabulous. I was more in the mood for apples, however, but I figured I could still incorporate the red wine caramel sauce into the above recipe. I started making the red wine syrup (red wine simmering with a cinnamon stick in it) but I soon realized that my pan was too shallow to add more liquid that I already had in it. Since the wine was already infusing, I just went ahead and tossed in some more spices and decided to make it into a sort of mulled wine so it wouldn't go to waste, heh. Once I realized I had way too many apples, I decided to chop them up a bit more and see what happened if I cooked them in the wine and spices. Well, this was one of my better ideas because they turned out fantastically. I conveniently also had a spare frozen pie crust in my freezer so I got that out to thaw. I added some sugar to the wine and turned up the heat and cooked the apples down until the wine was syrupy and the apples were soft. I then added them into the pastry and baked them

Red Wine Apple Pastries:

-3-4 peeled and cored apples—brayburn/whatever—anything you’d use in a pie

-half a cinnamon stick

-half a bottle of red wine

-a shake of ground ginger

-shake of cardamom

-shake of nutmeg

-shake of cloves

-few shakes of pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon sugar

-half a cup or so of white sugar

-tablespoon of butter

-brown sugar for end

-frozen pie crust (1 crust), thawed

-heat red wine and cinnamon stick over med. heat until bubbling and cook it for a bit to reduce it

-add all spices

-drink some to taste it (add honey when drinking it and pretend it's mulled wine)

-add apples and sugar

-cook it for a while over med high heat until the wine turns syrup-y and reduces a lot

-remove from heat

-cut pie dough into little circles

-fill will a small spoonful of apple mix plus a pinch of brown sugar

-crimp edges and cut slits in top

-bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 min