Stuffed Baked Apples - An Easy Quick Apple Dessert
Stuffed Baked Apples are healthy, and they are easy to make. It's autumn and apples are in abundance! There are chilly fall days when I want an easy apple dessert that's warm and delicious but I don't have time for complicated recipes with pie crust and such. One of the "weapons" in my dessert arsenal is Baked Apples and Stuffed Baked Apples even adds more to the deliciousness. I have a number of baked apple recipes because it is a recipe that you can get creative with. You make a little savory or you can make very, very sweet or you can make it very healthy. It really depends on what you want for the meal you will be serving it with. What I like about Stuffed Baked Apples is they have a fairly quick prep time. I can get the apples in the oven to bake while I prepare the rest of our meal and they are ready to serve at dessert time with little fuss. This Baked Stuffed Apple recipe is a real fall favorite here at the Thompson household.
Choosing The Right Apple for Making Stuffed Baked Apples
When you are going to bake an apple you need to choose from the best varieties for baking. Some apples are "eating" apples. They taste great fresh but their flesh doesn't keep its shape during the baking process and becomes a mushy, shapeless (but still very tasty) mess. Tart firm apples such as Granny Smith, Jonathans, Honey Crisp, Winesap, Braeburn, Pink Lady, Rome Beauty, and Mutsu (also referred to as Crispin) are the most often used apples for baking, making pies, cobblers, and crumbles.
Preparing Your Apple for Making Stuffed Baked Apples
The apple must have the core and the seeds removed but leave enough flesh so the apple will hold its shape during the baking process. Dependent on my baked apple "presentation" its a choice to slice enough of the top off to make a little lid or to just cut the core out with the stem. Do not cut all the way through the base of the apple. Leave enough of the very bottom to hold the stuffing in. Remove all the seeds with the core.
Preparing Stuffing for Your Stuffed Baked Apples
The recipe below gives one choice for stuffing your Stuffed Baked Apples. It's an easy recipe that stuffs the apples with raisins and walnuts but you can get creative and use other things to stuff your apples. It's very easy to make these gluten free. You can vary the fruits by switching dried cranberries or currants in place of the raisins or change the walnuts out for pecans. I have even seen one baked stuffed apple recipe that calls for chopped figs, blue cheese, walnuts, and honey. This sounds like a very interesting combination and I am going to try it as I love anything with blue cheese. Another interesting sweetener to add to flavor possibilities is maple syrup. There are stuffed baked apple recipes that add in cereals like oatmeal to make it a tasty breakfast food. You can serve the baked apple plain or add whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to make it more special.
Baked Stuffed Apple Recipe
PrintStuffed Baked Apples Dessert Recipe
An easy dessert that can bake while you prepare the rest of your meal - it'll ready just when you are ready to serve I and it'll be full of delicious fall yumminess!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 6 large baking apples
- ½ c. firmly packed brown sugar
- ½ c. golden raisins
- ¼ c. chopped walnuts
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
- ¾ c. honey
- ½ c. water
- 1 tbsp. butter
- 1 tsp. lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Wash apples and core, then pare about ¼ of the way down from the stem end so they sit flat. Stand them in a shallow baking dish.
- Mix brown sugar, raisins, walnuts, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Spoon mixture into the centers of the apples, and pack them down well.
- Combine honey, water, butter and lemon zest to boiling in a small sauce pan. Pour over the center of each apple.
- Bake in oven, basting often with syrup, for one hour or until apples are tender but still firm enough to hold their shape.
- Serve warm - alone or with whipped cream or ice cream.
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