Apples have never been my favourite fruit to bake with. I prefer a cold, hard, crunchy apple that I can bite into. Or, a sliced apple paired with some sort of nut butter. Perfection.
Adam however demands an apple pie for almost every holiday, even his birthday. Yesterday he was my super hero for picking up, fixing and returning my broken down car while I was at work. So I figured I owed him one.
And yes – baking an apple pie does make us even for him fixing my car in boyfriend/girlfriend world. Right? Well, I’m sure I’ll be owing him many more apple pies. But for now, he has this.
He was home before me yesterday, since he had to deal with my car he worked from home in the afternoon. And when I got home he requested an apple pie OR if that was too much effort (ha) something of equal deliciousness with apple and pastry.
I settled for the later, since an apple pie requires the dough to be made and chilled in advance. I searched online for about 5 minutes to find an equally pleasing recipe since I really didn’t have any apple recipes on hand. I found two, and decided to make both since we had a large bag of apple leftover from the Roasted Butternut Squash Carrot Apple Soup I had just made.
I really don’t know why it took me so long to make baked apples. They’re simple, they’re delicious, and if you make them my way they really aren’t all that bad for you. To be honest, you could make this for breakfast.
The thought of a baked apple just wasn’t appealing to me – I don’t like mealy, mushy, soft apples, that is, until I made them. Even without the butter and heaps of sugar it still caramelized and tasted like apple heaven.
This is definitely a Fall dessert. It’s warm and comforting for the cold dark rainy days, healthy, and apples are in season. And a perfect thanks-for-everything-you-do dessert.
I used both granny smith apples and BC Gala apples – both were delicious. I made the filling with whatever I had on hand which happened to be oats, coconut, raisins and almonds. You can really use any kind of nut like pecan or walnut too, and even use dried cranberries.
Be sure to serve them warm from the oven, and if you want a real treat maybe serve it with some banana ice cream.
- Handful of nuts, chopped (Almond, Walnut or Pecan)
- 1 teaspoon coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 2 Tbs. unsweetened coconut
- Dash of cinnamon
- Dash of nutmeg
- 1/2 cup rolled oats (not quick oats)
- 2 Tbs. oil (canola or coconut)
- 5 medium tart apples such as Granny Smith, Gala, Pink Lady, Jazz
- 1 cup apple juice or apple cider
- Preheat oven to 350°
- In a medium bowl, combine nuts, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, coconut, raisins and oats. Add oil and toss to combine.
- Peel the top third of each apple and, using a melon baller, scoop out the stem and enough of the core so that the walls of the apple are about 1/2 inch thick. Take care not to break through the bottom of the apple. Make the hole a bit wider at the top.
- Stuff each apple generously using a small spoon or your fingers; mound extra filling on top.
- Put the filled apples in a glass/ceramic baking dish. Pour apple juice/cider into the pan around the apples, cover the dish with foil, and bake for 45 minutes.
- Remove foil and bake, basting using a spoon every 15 minutes, for an additional 30 minutes, or until apples are easily pierced with a sharp knife (they may split open a bit at the bottom).
- Serve apples drizzled with the sauce from the pan.
- Store any leftover apples in the fridge, heat for one minute.
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