Spiced Pickled Apples: Part I

I'm excited about this one.  Had never heard of pickled apples before but they came up in a conversation about country foods.  My friend Blair's grandma used to make them and as she sat there drooling at the memory of pickled apples, I started thinking that this would be a great post idea.  Then I started thinking about things I could do with pickled apples, like make a rustic tart. Mm-mmm.

Step 1 in this road to rustic tart scenario is actually making the pickled apples themselves so I searched around to find some recipes and then picked and chose the parts I liked best and came up with the one below.

Figured I would start them this weekend, we'll let them pickle up during the week, then next weekend, we'll tart 'em up.

Spiced Pickled Apples

2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed)
2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. allspice berries
1 tsp. whole peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
3 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced

In a medium saucepan, simmer all ingredients except the apples until the sugars and salt dissolve.

Place the sliced apples in a non-conducive bowl and pour the liquid mixture over them. Let it sit until it cools to room temperature, then put in a jar with a sealed lid and let sit for a week until ready.

NOTES

A lot of the recipes I looked at removed the peel from the apples before pickling, but I left mine on because I like the skin. We'll see how that works out.

If you're not familiar with whole peppercorns, allspice berries, or star anise, this is what they look like (below).