Easy baked apples
These simple baked apples make for a cosy, autumnal pudding to please the whole family. You can easily make them ahead of time and warm through before serving.
Ingredients
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú butter
- 1 orange, zest and juice
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú light brown soft sugar
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- 100g/3½oz mixed dried fruit (currants, sultanas, candied peel)
- 4 large sharp eating apples, such as Evita, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Braeburn
- crème fraîche, to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. Melt the butter in a small pan over a medium–low heat. Take the pan off the heat and add the orange zest and juice along with the sugar and spices. Stir well to combine, then add the dried fruit. Set aside.
Core the apples, pushing the corer about three-quarters of the way through the apple, to make a container for the filling.
Put the apples cored side up into a deep-sided roasting tray, into which they fit snugly. Fill the empty cores with the spiced fruit mixture. Don’t worry if the filling spills over a little: when the apple releases its juices as it bakes it’ll create a delicious spiced apple caramel in the bottom of the tray.
Bake the apples on the bottom shelf of the oven for 20 minutes, or until the apples are soft.
Serve the apples with generous spoonfuls of the roasting juices and a spoonful of crème fraîche.
Recipe Tips
The cooked apples will keep, well covered, in the fridge for up to 3 days. To serve, take them out of the fridge to come up to room temperature, or pop them back in a warm oven for 20 minutes.
For added crunch, you can bake a sheet of readymade puff pastry, sprinkled with a little extra sugar, following packet instructions. Once cooked, snap the pastry into shards and serve alongside the apples.