Apples Baked with Muscat and Saffron

Ingredients
1/3 cup (90 g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (120g) plus 6 T sugar
1 ½ tsp grated orange zest
6 large apples
juice of 1 lemon
pinch of saffron
¾ cup (190ml) muscat (such as, Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise)

You will also need:
Hand mixer or beater
Apple corer or knife
Baking dish

Instructions
Preheat oven to 325^oF (165^oC).  Cream together the butter, ½ cup of the sugar and the lemon zest.  Core the apples.  Peel the top third of each apple and dip the peeled surfaces into the lemon juice.  Stuff the apples with the butter mixture, spreading some on the peeled surfaces, as well. 

Stand the apples up, side by side, in a baking dish.  Sprinkle a little saffron over the peeled surfaces and pour the wine into the bottom of the dish. 

Bake until tender when pierced, basting several times with the pan juices, about 45 minutes.  (Keep adding the butter mixture to the core areas as the filling empties out from the apples.)

Sprinkle the surfaces of the apples with the remaining sugar, raise the oven temperature to 450^oF (230^oC) and watch the apples closely.  As soon as the sugar caramelizes, remove them from the oven.  Serve with a nice glass of muscat. 

Serves 6.