Call me traditional, but I like to finish off every dinner with something sweet. It doesn’t have to be a full-on dessert – sometimes a square of dark chocolate will do the trick, or even a golden mylk latte. After seeing tables piled high with apples at the farmer’s market this weekend, I started craving good old Easy Baked Apples. We ate them a lot as children, smothered either is sweet vanilla custard or rich clotted cream. What I most love is that they are incredibly easy to prepare and most children love them. I’ve added some hemp seeds to health them up a bit, but leave out if you’re just cooking for kids, as they often don’t love the visual of seeds! When I make mine with seeds, my daughter meticulously picked each seed out.
EASY BAKED APPLES INGREDIENTS:
- 4 cooking apples (if you can’t find “cooking apples,” use Granny Smith’s). Make sure your apples are organic.
- 1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/4cup of hemp seeds (optional)
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 tbsp brown rice syrup
- 1/2 stick of melted unsalted, plant-based butter (such as Earth Balance)
DIRECTIONS:
- Pre-heat the oven to 355°F
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat. Add the almonds, raisins, spices and brown rice syrup to the butter, stir well, set aside.
Prepare the apples:remove the core. Using a sharp knife draw a line around the middle of each apple, although you were drawing a line around it’s waistline – This will stop it exploding and/or caving in. Stuff with the nut/spice mixture till it reaches the top of each apple.
Cook for 45 -60 minutes (depending on the size of your cooking apples), until apples are very tender when poked with a knife.
Serve immediately with plain yogurt (I use my homemade yogurt) or if you’re feeling indulgent, a little creme fraiche.
As I am reading this, I have a couple cooking in my slow cooker. Snow outside, fire in the fireplace, knitted hat completed, and baked apples for after dinner. What could be more divine!