Spiced Apples

I liked the way this picture came out -- nice and eery with that alien glow coming out of the jar. It looks a little like primordial ooze gone nuclear, I admit. But what you see below is the fruit of the gods.

This jar contains the end of the Thanksgiving spiced apples that Dad makes each year. It's a bit like Christmas, it only comes around once and the anticipation combined with the chemistry of the cooked apples, red hots, and sugar could destroy the table by the time we sit down to eat it. The sweetness combines so perfectly with the turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole that I found myself this year portioning each of these four elements around a center of glowing red apples on the plate a bit like a scientist's chemical formula. If everything equally touches the supernova catalyst, I caught myself thinking, we'll have perfect synthesis.

The picture below was taken a couple of Thanksgivings ago when Dad filled a 9x13 pan of the stuff for only 6 of us, and we still managed to consume it all.

So, as the leftover apples of Thanksgiving 2010 get eaten with, well, just about anything, and I start to hoard the last bits in the dark recesses of the refrigerator, here is the recipe, should any other soul be brave enough to take it on:

(Please note diabetics should stay as far away from this dish as the plague.)

10 Red Delicious Apples (the really big ones) If you only have small, make it 15

3-4 bags of Imperial Red Hots

1 pound of sugar

Peel and slice the apples into a pot of water, just full enough to cover them. Boil for 20 minutes to soften. The froth should have dissipated by that time.

Next, by 1/2 cups, add red hots and stir into boiling pot to melt. After each 1/2 cup, add a cup of sugar. You will need at least 6 cups of sugar altogether.

Pour off the extra juice as you go (into a jar -- Dad calls this the true nectar of the gods and uses it as syrup)

Mash gently with a potato masher or a wooden spoon to desired consistency.

Total time: 1 hour

Set up overnight in the fridge to chill.

When Nick had his extra credit project due in Creative Foods for "family traditions" this is what he made. I think he got a 125 out of 100. None came home to us, either.