Apples baked with cinnamon are a delicious fall staple. Sweet, spicy and wonderfully aromatic, this treat is healthy, tasty, easy to make and will warm you up on a chilly day.
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Choosing Apples
Great baking apples do not break down in the oven and have the perfect balance of tartness and sweetness. Cortland apples are perfect for baking with lots of juice and a slightly tart flavor. The snowy white flesh does not break down quickly and can withstand the high heat of baking.
Other great baking apples include firm-textured Empires, crisp, yellow-green Mutsu apples, mellow and rich Golden Delicious apples, tart Granny Smiths, juicy Honeycrisps, tangy Ida Reds and slightly spicy Jonathans.
For a complex flavor, mix and match apple varieties. Pair Cortlands and Empires with McIntosh apples for a combination of crisp and softer textures, or mix Idareds and Northern Spies for a tangy yet sweet combination.
Easy Baked Cinnamon Apples
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and cut your favorite baking apple in half. Core it, then slice the halves very thinly. One apple yields about 40 slices.
Next, place the apple slices in the middle of a large piece of foil. The foil should be big enough to rap around the pile of apples completely. Sprinkle the apple slices with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Gather the corners of the foil and pinch them together over the apples to keep the cinnamon and brown sugar sauce from dripping onto the pan and oven. Place the foil bundles on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.
Stuffed Baked Cinnamon Apples
This recipe has even more flavor thanks to the addition of pecans and raisins and is especially delicious when served warm with vanilla ice cream.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, then wash four baking apples. Use an apple corer or sharp paring knife to carve out the cores of the apples, leaving about ½ inch of the core at the bottom. Remove the seeds with a spoon and make the hole about one inch wide.
Next, combine ¼ cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, ¼ cup of chopped raisins and ¼ cup of chopped pecans in a large bowl. Mix together well, then stuff this mixture into each one of the apples. Top each apple with a pad of butter.
Place the stuffed apples in a baking pan, then add ¾ cups of boiling water to the pan. Bake the apples for 30 minutes until they are tender. Remove the pan from the oven, then baste the apples with the juices from the pan and serve warm.
Stuffed Cinnamon Apples with Mint
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, then combine 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon with ½ cup of white sugar and ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg in a small bowl.
Core six apples without piercing the apples’ bottoms. Peel away the skin from the top ½ inch of the apples, then fill the holes with the sugar-cinnamon mixture.
Top each apple with a pad of butter, then place them in a casserole dish. Pour 1 cup of apple juice around the stuffed fruits.
Cover the dish with foil, then bake for about 1 hour. Top the baked apples with sprigs of fresh minut and serve warm.
Healthy Baked Apples with Cream Cheese
This video shows you how to make stuffed baked cinnamon apples with cream cheese and adds nutmeg for a hint of spicy flavor:
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