Boiling turns apple cider into a delicious sweet-tart syrup that's great over desserts as well as sweet potatoes and sweet squash. New Englanders have used this trick for several hundred years and they know you have to start with good-tasting cider. Check out organic ciders and ones produced on farms in your area.
Ingredients
1 quart good-quality apple cider
large butternut squash
2 to 3 tablespoons butter
salt
freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Cider syrup keeps in the refrigerator for a couple of months. Boil down the cider until it's syrupy and reduced to about 1 cup.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the squash in half vertically, scoop out its seeds and cut the squash into 2-inch squares. Score the flesh side of each square by making shallow crisscross cuts with a knife.
3. Rub the flesh side of each piece with butter, sprinkle it with salt and pepper and put it on a baking sheet. Roast about an hour, or until you can easily pierce the squash with a knife.
4. Serve the squash hot or warm, drizzled with the room temperature cider syrup.
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