This time of year, we remember a tiny bodega, with one forlorn window on the street. Visible in the window was an electric crock pot with a handwritten sign: Glühwein 3 Euros. Unceasingly cold and wet during our December in Berlin, we learned quickly why Germans love all things Wintermarkt, especially their national Christmas drink, Glühwein.
The Turkish woman in the shop unceremoniously dumped us 2 paper cups of hot red liquid, and we’ve never known if it was just our chilled bones and low expectations, or if it really was the best spiced wine ever made on God’s bitterly cold, ice-bound Earth.
My kitchenwytch is very fond of that famous medieval German mystic and herbalist Hildegard von Bingen. She often recreates Hildegard’s recipes, several of which combine heated wine and spices. Tonight, she couldn’t decide if she wanted baked apples or Glühwein, so she made a big pan of both, combined.
Her wine-stewed apple concoction (I daren’t say recipe) involved organic unsweetened coconut flakes, cinnamon, a hefty portion of fresh grated ginger, “at least a stick” of butter, a bottle of chardonnay that she had been saving to mull, and lots of organic walnut halves and pieces. Importantly, she grated in some dried orange peel that she had carefully preserved last year from non-fumigated Arizona citrus (coming soon to a coop near you).
Rather than whole apples, she cut them in half, but left skins on for the baked apple effect. They were nice and soft golden delicious from our own tree. Mary pre-caramelized the butter, sugar, and coconut in a saucepan, then combined everything in a glass dish and baked at 350° until she couldn’t wait any longer.
When we served them, we fought a little over the ambrosial liquid from the pan. She won.
