Baked Apples with Dried Fruits and Pecans
“It was love at first bite. The first time I tasted Licia’s baked apples I was smitten. I think it was the combination of pecans, dried currants and apricots that she stuffed the apples with, but mostly it was the sea of apple cider (Martinelli) in which the apples baked. We were all surprised that something so healthy could be so satisfying. I make this recipe a lot at home. For guests I have been known to top the baked apples with whipped cream or sugar free ice cream.”
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 (6-oz) red apples such as Gala or Rome Beauty
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup finely chopped dried apricots
- 2 tablespoons dried currants
- 2 tablespoons chopped pecans, toasted
- 2 tablespoons Coconut sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- (1/2 tablespoon softened and 1/2 tablespoon cut into 4 pieces)
- 1/2 cup unfiltered apple cider
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Special equipment: an apple corer
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Core apples with corer. Stand apples up and make 4 evenly spaced vertical cuts starting from top of each apple and stopping halfway from bottom to keep apple intact. Brush inside of apples with lemon juice and stand apples in a 9-inch ceramic or glass pie plate. Toss together apricots, currants, pecans, coconut sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Rub softened butter into dried-fruit mixture with your fingers until combined well, then pack center of each apple with mixture. Put a piece of remaining butter on top of each apple. Pour cider and vanilla around apples and cover pie plate tightly with foil.
Bake in middle of oven, basting once, until apples are just tender when pierced with a fork, about 40 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake until apples are very tender but not falling apart, 20 to 30 minutes more.
Transfer to serving dishes and spoon sauce over and around apples.
Serve with whipped cream.