I once read that, although people complain about airplane food being unhealthy, when it’s time for a mile-high snack the salads go uneaten and the brownies run out. To me, baked apples are the airline food of the dessert world. I always say they sound good and feel like I should eat them, but when the time comes to cook something I inevitably want pudding or cookies, not fruit.
I decided to finally bake apples because I was looking for a way to get iron-rich foods into my daughter, a one-year-old with only two bottom teeth. I thought if I stuffed apples with nuts and raisins, I could blend them up and make a more nutritiously dense applesauce.
I’m the type of person who shies away from tactile projects like making bread or cutting butter into flour. I have little patience for decorating cupcakes or getting my presentation just right. I’m hungry! So the thought of carefully peeling the skin off the top of 12 apples, coring them and then stuffing them made my stomach turn.
My solution to this finicky problem means it takes me only about 10 minutes to prepare these apples and get them into the oven. No peeling, no paring, and no need for a melon-baller. Since it’s still 2015 and might be last chance to use the phrase before it’s over-done and ignored, I’m going to call this my Baked Apple Hack.
All you need is one of these handy apple-slicing gadgets:
Ingredients
- 12 fresh baking apples (preferably organic; I prefer Royal Gala)
- Raisins, about 3/4 cup (preferably organic)
- Crushed or chopped walnuts, about 1/2 cup
- Cinnamon, to taste
- Maple syrup or other sweetener, optional
- Water
- Thinly sliced cold butter, optional
Directions
- Use an apple slicer to slice each apple ALMOST to the bottom, taking care to stop pressing before cutting all the way through.
- Twist out the stem.
- Fold all the slices up back towards the middle and place the in one cup of a muffin tin. Repeat for remaining apples.
- Stuff each apple with a combination of raisins and walnuts.
- Drizzle maple syrup (if using) and a splash of water into the centre of each apple.
- Top the hole of each apple with a thin slice of cold butter, if using.
- Dust with cinnamon.
- Bake at 400 F for 30-45 minutes, until apples are wrinkly.
- When cool, blend into sauce, if desired.
- If making fewer than 12 apples, fill empty muffin cups with water before baking.
There you have it: baked apples that you can gussy up for dessert with a bit of real whipped cream, eat without sweetener as part of a healthy breakfast, or blend and feed to your toddler. Little P loves (loves!) her blended sauce mixed 50/50 with plain 10% fat yogurt. I always try to make too much for her so I get a few bites at the end. And that tells you that while they’re not cookies, these baked apples are irresistible in their own way.
Looks good, I will give apples a try.