Apple season in the Chef’s hometown in Western New York provides an abundance of apples with endless recipe options. Apples can be used in every course. Apples can be used in a healthy salad, such as an Apple Walnut Salad, or they can be used to help season and flavor a main course such as Applewood Smoked Chicken. Perhaps apples are most popular as a dessert. The apple’s ability to provide so many different textures, and lend itself to so many flavors makes it a chef’s favorite.
Baked stuffed apples aren’t the most popular dessert option and never will be as long as apple pie, apple cake, and apple cobbler exist but nonetheless, it is still a tasty option that is the most simple to make. Without having to make a pie crust, or worry about how your cake is going to turn out, or if your cobbler is going to be as good as your relatives; you can be at ease. The worst case scenario is the apple is undercooked and there is a bit too much crunch, or the apple is overcooked and comes out a bit too soft. If the apple is too crunchy just keep cooking it. If the apple seems overcooked and soft, it is still going to taste amazing.
Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Core your apples, any apple will do just pick your favorite sweet and/or tart apple. Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Pink Lady, Fuji, and Jonagold are terrific for this recipe but it’s hard to pick the wrong apple with such a flavorful stuffing.
Make your apple stuffing using softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, crushed pecans, oats, currants/raisins, and vanilla (extract works just fine here). Mix all of your ingredients in a mixing bowl using a spoon or rubber spatula. You can use a mixer if you’d like but it is probably overkill and unnecessary.
Stuff your cored apples with the mixture using a spoon, thin spatula, your fingers, or if you are feeling fancy you can use a piping bag. Place onto a baking pan or pie pan with at a 1/2″ lip, the next step has you adding a bit of water so the lip will not only help keep the water from spilling out but it will also catch any stuffing that decides to boil over.
Boil about a half of a cup of water and pour it around the apples.
Place the pan into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until they are tender without being mushy.
To serve cut the apples in half then squeeze a bit of lemon over top to break up the sweetness.
It probably goes without saying but some caramel or vanilla ice cream is a great sidekick for any apple dessert.
Baked Stuffed Apples
Ingredients
- 2 Red Apples
- 1 tbp Brown Sugar
- 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
- Pinch of Allspice
- 1 tbsp Crush Pecans
- 1 tbsp Oats
- 1 tbsp Raisin or Currants
- 1 tbsp Unsalted Butter
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla
- 1/2 cup Boiling Water
- 1 Small Lemon Wedge
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Core the apple ¾ of the way through and place into a small shallow baking pan.
- In a small bowl combine the sugar, cinnamon, allspice, pecans, currants, butter, vanilla, and oats.
- Fill the apples with the mixing bowl ingredients.
- Pour the boiling water into the baking pan and place the pan into the oven.
- Bake the apples for 30 minutes or until they are tender but not mushy.
- Before eating add a bit of lemon juice to break up the sweetness.
Notes
