Hello everyone! Happy autumn! Today’s post is all about the joys of fall and the delicious food that can be made- particularly baked apples! I went apple picking with my family this past weekend, and decided to make my own recipe for baked apples, so I seriously just winged it and threw a bunch of ingredients together. The results were nothing short of awesome, I have to say. True to my style, this recipe is ridiculously simple but so scrumptious. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh apples (I used Macintosh, but I think any variety would work fairly well)
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves (for aromatics, not really taste)
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp cold butter, cubed
• Pinch salt (a little less than 1/8 tsp)

You will also need an 8×8″ baking dish and 1 cup of water for later.

First, core the apples, but DO NOT core them all the way through. You’ll need the bottom of the apple to remain intact or else your filling will fall out. Partial coring is a process, but once you get the hang of it, you can whip through those apples! Here’s how I did it:

First, take a paring knife and run it in a wide circle around the stem part of the core. Then, take a spoon and, using the cut circle, scoop out the top part of the core. This will require some force, but when you hear the core cracking, you’ll know it’s ready to be removed.

Once you have that top part of the core cut out, you can either use a knife for the next layer of the apple, or an apple corer. Remember, only cut down part of the way! After you’ve made another guideline circle with your knife or corer, go back in with the spoon and scoop out the rest of the core.

Your finished product should look something like this (by they way, it’s very rewarding when you finish coring those apples!):

Now it’s time to make the filling! Combine all of the listed ingredients in a mixing bowl, and mix them with a pastry cutter (a spoon works too, but I wanted to crumble the cold butter so that it would delicious and melty in every apple, instead of clumping and being stuck in just one apple). If you use a spoon, make sure that your butter becomes crumbly- this is why having cold butter is so crucial! It’s much easier to break up cold butter than room temperature butter. Your hands are a pretty fail-safe tool, too! When your filling is done, it should look like this:

Now it’s time to stuff the apples! At this point, just put the filling in and smush it down with a spoon, packing as much of the filling in as possible. Here’s why: the filling tastes like the topping on apple crisp, a.k.a. the best part of the apple crisp. So, why wouldn’t you want to get as much of that goodness into each apple as possible? You will probably have a little topping left over, depending on the size of your apples, so feel free to either make more apples or sprinkle the leftovers over your baked apples!

Place the stuffed apples in the baking dish and pour 1 cup of water around the base of the apples. This will help the apples to steam and bake, instead of roasting and drying out.

Bake the apples in a 375ºF oven for about 45 minutes, until the filling is a beautiful dark brown and the apples are starting to split. The apples’ color will have paled into a more pink color, and the skins will be wrinkled.

And now, dig in! These are absolutely delicious with vanilla ice cream (what isn’t?), or by themselves. This recipe just screams “autumn” to me, and I love it! I certainly hope you’ll give it a try. And just so you can see what a Northeast fall looks like, and why I’m so crazy about it, here are a few pictures from our excursion to the farm for apple picking!

As you can see, I’ve got it pretty good living in the Northeast! No fall season is prettier than in my area. I hope that this recipe gives a little of that autumn joy to you, and makes your day brighter. Happy baking!