Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Madhouse recipe : Baked Apples


When I was a kid, I used to have a board game called Tummy Ache. You had to collect a set of cards to fill your plate with a main meal, side dish, drink and dessert. Some were delicious looking foods and some were "tummy ache" cards with things like a tadpole-infested drink or a maggoty fruit. One of the "nice" cards was a baked apple but we always used to think it was a tummy ache card because of the way it looked. Well, my baked apples did look exactly the same as on the tummy ache card but they tasted lovely !


Nielsen Massey have sent me through a lovely selection of flavour extracts - Orange, Rose, Lemon and Vanilla - so I'll be looking for different ways of using them to jazz up my baking. I decided vanilla and cinnamon would go nicely with the baked apples.

Baked Apples


ingredients :

5 apples
3 tablespoons butter
150 g  sugar (preferably brown)
1 teaspoon Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
60 g raisins
70 g walnuts


Wash and core the apples.If you have a corer that cuts all the way through, you'll need to wrap foil around the bottom of the apples so that the filling doesn't come out. If digging out the inside with a spoon, don't go right through the base so that they remain sealed.


Put the sugar, butter and vanilla paste in a saucepan and melt, stirring, over a low heat.


Add the cinnamon and all spice and turn off the heat.


Stir in the raisins and walnuts (I broke them up into smallish pieces as I added them to the pan).


Use this mixture to stuff the apples.


Don't worry if it doesn't all go right inside - it's thick and gooey enough to stay in place quite well.


Put on a baking tray or in a roasting tin and put in the oven at 180° for about half an hour.

Everyone loved these and they're ideal for putting in the oven after the Sunday roast so that they can cook as you eat. I think this would be a great way of using up leftover mincemeat after Christmas too.

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Moroccan pastry recipe : Gazelle Horns

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