Baked Apples

We are lucky enough to have several apple trees on our small urban lot, they do quite well in our coastal climate. Years ago we attended an apple tasting event at the local grange. There were over 100 varieties to sample, we both agreed that the Cox's Orange Pippin was our favorite. We now have two trees of this apple in our front yard, they are great to eat out of hand but also wonderful for pies, sauce and baked apples.

I was asked recently to make a dessert that included apples and caramel...baked apple came to mind. It's so easy and so very versatile.

This version is very simple, I used no sugar since I knew I would be topping it with ice cream and caramel sauce.

Baked Apples

Ingredients
a dozen baking apples
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 cup brown sugar ( optional)

1) Preheat the oven to 350 F, butter or slightly oil a glass baking dish.
2) If you have a coring tool, it will go fasted but a paring knife or carrot peeler with a sharp tip will work as well. Core the apples.

 In the recipes I looked at they tried to get  me to not come out the other end, who are they kidding. Don't worry about that.
2) Place the apple in the baking dish.

3) In a small bowl toss together the nuts, raisins and cinnamon ( and brown sugar if you are using it.)
I used golden raisins, you can use dried cranberries, cherries or current if you prefer.

4) Stuff each apple with the nut/raisin mixture.

5) Cover with foil and back for 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size and density of your apples.
I checked mine after 30 minutes and they seemed firm still. So I let them go another 10 minutes and some of them exploded.

I am not sure why that happened to s few but not all. it didn't change the taste so I wasn't too concerned.

Now these apples are perfectly delicious as is. They can be eaten with plain yogurt or hot cereal as a great breakfast...or you can make then into a decadent fall dessert by adding vanilla ice cream and warm caramel sauce.

Here's my homemade vanilla ice cream.

 

I dare you not to eat it with a spoon.

Apple Butter

Apple butter cooking in the oven is such a heavenly smell...Fall is the time of year of apple bounty so if you have never made apple butter it is worth a try.
If you have your own apple tree you are all set or find a friend or neighbor with an over abundance. Just about any variety can work, I used early Gravensteins.
Try apple butter with cream cheese on a bagel or inside your favorite cinnamon rolls !!

Apple Butter- yield 5 to 6 cups

5 pounds of apple, about 20 medium size apples peeled, cored and sliced.
1 cup apple juice or water if needed
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground allspice


Place the apples and liquid if needed in a large pot on the stove. Cook until soft. Be sure to stir them so they don't burn. They should take 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the size of your apple slices.

Preheat the oven to 325 F.
Allow the mixture to cool slightly. Then in batches puree the apples with the sugar and spices.


 

Transfer them into a large roasting or cake pan.

Stir occasionally  as the apple butter thickens, about 45 minutes.

At this point you may can the apple butter, freeze it or refrigerate ( it will last a month or so).
For canning use a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Apple season has begun !!

Last week Bob and I went to harvest early Gravenstein apples from a friend's tree.We picked about 100 pounds, the question that follows: what do you do with 100 pounds of apples.
All apples are not created equally, these early Gravensteins are not very good for eating out of hand and Bob found that they were not great for making apple wine.
They are good for making pie.

This is all that is left of the pie we made on Monday.

Gravenstein's are also good for making apple cider. Last year I discovered how easy it was to can apple cider. Basically you just heat it up to about 160 degrees F.

Strain it into hot jars.

And process it in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.
Voila, apple cider that you can store for years, if it last that long :-)

We drink it straight, make it into hot spiced cider, use it in marinades and give it as gifts.
This time we put one and half bushels ( about 70 pounds) through our old cider press.

It yielded nine quarts of juice. Bob will core, peel and slice the rest of them. They will be frozen and eventually made into apple butter or pies.