Baked Apples

 
Oh god. I can't even begin, can't believe my last post was two whole months ago! Thank you for all your concerned mails, they're the push I needed to come back and post. Nothing really happened for me to stop posting, but a lot has happened. I began working on the very day of my last post, and I'd been getting used to not having all the free time in the world. I was also getting over a bad breakup, so I went from having way too much time, to having absolutely none.

I've also been working hard to lose the almost 10 kgs I gained in the past year, with all the staying away from home and long traveling. So baking has been a complete can't do. But craving did strike the other day, one I couldn't ignore. Spent hours online looking up cheesecakes and chocolate cakes and pies and whatnot. Realised that none of those could be made without completely ruining the diet. Looked up some healthy stuff. Long story short, these baked apples were on the table within the hour
.


And they were quite amazing, surprisingly. I love apples baked into anything, but didn't expect to like a plain apple with some stuffing so much. This has saved me from jumping off a cliff in desperation because of the diet. It's made life quite bearable, each time craving hits, I just pop a few apples into the oven, it really is quite simple. The apples get perfectly soft, just a hair's breadth away from mushy, and the nuts provide a much needed textural complement. If you aren't on a diet, you could eat this hot, with some cold, melting ice cream scooped on top. HEAVEN♥

 



Baked Apples
Recipe from Simply Recipes


4 large good baking apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon - If you love cinnamon as much as I do, up this to 2 or 2.5 tsp
1/4 cup chopped pecans - I had walnuts on hand, used those, no biggie
1/4 cup currants or chopped raisins
1 tbsp butter
3/4 cup boiling water

 Instructions -

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C). Wash the apples well. Remove the cores, leaving about 1/2 inch on the bottoms. If you don't have an apple corer, a paring knife will do just fine. Make sure to have about an inch wide hole, so that there's enough space for the stuffing. Use a spoon to clear it out. Place the apples in a 8x8 baking pan
2. In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans/walnuts and currants/raisins. Divide this mixture evenly between all the apples. Top each apples with a dot of butter (1/4 tbsp each).
3. Pour the boiling water into the pan, around the apples. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until soft and tender, making sure to stop before it gets mushy. The skin slightly releasing from the rest of the apple is a good sign of when it's done. Test with a knife, the knife should meet no resistance. Remove from oven and baste several times with the pan juices.
4. Serve, along with some ice cream if you can afford to indulge :)