Recipes

Maple Baked Apples with dried fruit and nuts

Dessert  Fruit  Snack 

• 1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 3 T roughly chopped dried cherries
• 3 T chopped dried figs
• 2 T roughly chopped toasted sliced almonds
• 2 T roughly chopped pecans
• 6 large firm baking apples, cored but not peeled
• 3 T butter cut into 6 piecess
• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 2 T maple sugar

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix dry fruit, brown sugar and nuts in a small bowl.

2. Place the apples in a baking pan or casserole and stuff the cavities with the fruit/nut mixture.

Place butter on top.

3. Pour apple cider and maple syrup into bottom of pan, and bake the apples, basting every 5 to 7 minutes, until they are tender 25 to 35 minutes.

4. When apples are tender, transfer to a serving platter and cover with foil to keep warm.

Strain pan juicess into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce heat and simmer until it becomes syrupy, about 5 to 10 minutes. Spoon over apples and serve.

When I first made this I omitted the nuts, because the kids hate nuts. I like it because it's sweet and good for kids, but not too unhealthy. Of course, I mitigated the healthy factor by adding a touch of cream to the sauce as it was cooling. Couldn't help it.

I found it took longer than 30 minutes to bake the apples. I used Galas, but Grannies, Golden D's, Jonathans, Braeburn, Pink Lady and Fuji are also recommended by Russ Parsons.

From L.A. Times, Sep't 12, 2007

Author: L.A. Times