How To Make Baked Apples

We love making baked apples for a delicious breakfast, a snack, or a dessert, perfect with vanilla sauce, ice cream, or yogurt.

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Growing up in Germany, I remember having baked apples often during the Christmas season. With classic holiday spices, this is simple and easy to make. Even children can help making this dish. The best is that it will leave your home smell wonderfully like the holidays.

The ingredients

Obviously, the star in this recipe are the apples. They are easy to come by in the winter and holiday season. I prefer using a tart and firm apple and I love to find an heirloom variety that works. If you’re not sure you can always use a granny smith or braeburn apple.

Almonds give a nice crunch to this dish. I often buy almonds in bulk and peel and chop them. You can find them in a bulk food section or simply buy the packaged slivered almonds (such as these).

Raisins add some extra sweetness and a nice contrast in texture to the almonds. While I often like to keep things simple, it would be nice to soak the raisins in rum for a day or more. Most if not all of the rum will evaporate during baking, though, but the aroma will still be there. This is another item you can find in a bulk food section, locally in your grocery store, or here online.

Cinnamon brings a Christmas-sy scent and flavor this the baked apples. The best type is the true Ceylon cinnamon. I don’t ever get tired of cinnamon, do you? And what could be better than pairing apples with cinnamon. I can’t seem to say it often enough …

The last ingredient to bring all this together is butter. In our family, we always say “butter makes it better”. It is so true in this dish. We love using our own homemade butter. If we run out, we like to use a European-style butter with a higher fat content that other types of butter. You still don’t want to skimp on this decadent ingredient.

How to prepare the apples

Preheat your oven to 400˚F.

First, you need to core the apples. You can either do that with an apple corer such as this one or do it with a sharp knife. If using a knife, I try to create an opening that is wider at the top so I can put more filling in and narrower at the bottom to prevent the filling from falling out. In any event, try to remove as much of the seeds and tough parts as possible.

I always like to save the core and other apple scraps to make apple cider vinegar. Check out this post if you’re interested in learning how easy that is.

Next, we need to make the filling. In a small bowl simply combine about 2 tablespoons of raisins, 2 tablespoons of chopped or slivered almonds, and one half tablespoon of ground cinnamon. This recipe is very flexible (exactly my kind of recipe …) so feel free to use whatever you have or play with the amounts!

Set the apples in an oven-proof dish. Put the filling into the holes and slightly press down. Set a piece of butter on top of the filling of every apple.

Baking the apples

Place the apples in the dish in the hot oven and bake for about 35 to 45 minutes.

It all depends on the size of your apples. I recommend checking them for doneness with a tooth picks or sharp knife after about 30 minutes. The apples should feel soft inside. Often, I just go by when the peel starts breaking at the top.

How to serve the baked apples

We love eating the baked apples steaming hot straight out of the oven. Traditionally, they are served with a vanilla sauce. You can also serve them with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or vanilla yogurt.

Serve your apples individually in a small bowl and pour the vanilla sauce or your preferred accompaniment right on top. Enjoy!

Have you tried making baked apples? Let me know in the comments below!

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