I used to make a mix of butter, brown sugar, ground nuts, and sultanas every Autumn, which I’d freeze in a small container. When I wanted to bake apples, I’d use my corer to get out a cylinder of the stuffing, which slid easily into the cavity of the cored apple.
I hadn’t gotten around to this yet, when I bought farmstand Cortland apples a few days ago. On a whim, I’d bought a piece of maple walnut fudge from the display at the cash register. Later, when I thought about baking an apple, the only butter I had was frozen. Rather than waiting for it to thaw before making a filling, I thought of the fudge. It was a tasty, mess-free solution - just break off a piece and stuff it into the cored apple, then bake. Maple walnut may not be widely available, but (in New England, at any rate), penuche fudge is.
That’s a creative solution…! I don’t bake a lot of apples since it seems silly to use my oven for just one (leftovers dont taste quite as good rewarmed)
I like to use a mix of quick cooking oats, (or granola if i have it) cinnamon, chopped walnuts or pecans, and a bit of brown sugar or honey, often with a little lemon juice over the apple and stuffing at the very end
So far this year i just want slices of honeycrisps with salted almond butter, seems a shame to bake those since they’re so fantastic as is
FWIW, the microwave does a decent job for baked apples. Full power tends to burst them too much. Yesty I did a medium-sized honeycrisp for 7 minutes at 50% power. Scored the skin first. Tender but intact.
Ummmm… you’re BRILLIANT!!! Never occurred to me to try it in the microwave!! Yeesh. Ok, what’s the best kind of apple to use? I’m headed to the farmers market tomorrow and will pick up a few to make this asap
Whatever apple you like to bake is fine. I’d avoid Macintosh since they turn into applesauce no matter how you heat them. I usually bake Cortlands, Empires, Galas, or Braeburns, but if you can get heirlooms like Pippins or Spies, they are good bakers too.
It’s wise to err on the short side in terms of time and power levels. Let it cool down for 10 minutes, then check tenderness. You can always zap some more.
It got weird warm here for a while…! But now the chill is back and i am a total convert to the microwave dessert apple, thank you so much!! The empire and gala seem to be my favorites-and i convinced myself that if i don’t use too much sugar and i have the apple with plain greek yogurt it’s totally a healthy dinner
My pleasure. And thank YOU for the mention of the Ritter dark chocolate marzipan bars on the Bar Chocolate thread. I found these at Ocean State Job Lot and like them.
I was fixing baked apples for dinner and found this topic. I used Jonathans from the local orchard. I baked off five in a lined pie plate. This time, I mixed cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla paste, brown sugar, grated fresh ginger and scotch in a small bowl and placed a tbsp in each cored apple. Bake at 350 until fork tender. We enjoy them room temp with a warmed maple glaze.
Finally bought a microwave and plan to test out your advice next time.
