An Apple A Day

Now my apples are ripe… gotta love southern California summer fruit.  Here is one of our apple trees…

And a recipe for Baked Stuffed Apples

·      1 lemon, halved

·      6 small firm baking apples (about 1 1/2 pounds), such as Empire or Cortland

·      1/3 cup (1 ounce) chopped walnuts

·      1/4 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped

·      2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger

·      1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped

·      2 tablespoons sugar

·      1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·      1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

·      1 pound coarse salt

Directions

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Squeeze lemon juice into a medium bowl filled with cold water. Using a sharp knife, remove stem from each apple. Using a melon baller, remove cores and hollow out apples until walls are about 3/4 inch thick. Place apples in water.

2. Place walnuts on a baking pan; toast until fragrant and golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Let the walnuts cool, and roughly chop.

3. Place walnuts, cranberries, ginger, apricots, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl.

4. Drain apples; spoon walnut filling into each cavity, packing fairly tightly. Place apples in a baking dish just large enough to hold them all. Add salt, being careful not to get any salt in the filling; fill until the salt covers the apples up to where the filling begins. Cover with a sheet of aluminum foil.

5. Bake until apples are tender and start to pull away from salt, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool slightly. Remove apples from salt; serve.

If the kitchen is not the place you want to spend your time try this out with all those apples…

These apple votives are a prize for everyone’s eyes, their flames a promise of warmth. Every apple will float differently, so see how they balance in water before marking their topsides with a dot. Place the tea light over the dot, and trace around its circumference with a utility knife, inserting the knife vertically as deep as the tea light is tall. Set aside the light, cut the circle into sections, and scoop them out with a spoon. Squeeze lemon juice onto the cut surface to keep the apple from turning brown, and insert a tea light.

Comments

[Rorik]

Ohhhhhhh I am so glad that I checked your blog today. My apples are ripe too. Love the recipe and the apple votive idea! Will be giving these a try! Thanks so much for sharing! Have a great day!

[Heather Kamarainen]

OK that recipe looks YUMMY!!! I'm curious about the purpose of the salt though...Oh and I love the candle idea!

[Debbi Pfau]

I love the apples with candles. Fall is one of my favorite times of the year and that is just perfect!

[Debbi]

That recipes sounds so good. If my son gets leave I think I will have to try this for him......I'm sure he will love it. TFS

[Carla]

Pattye - your recipe sounds delish...I'll have to try it when our apples get ready. I love the apple tealight idea! How fun for fall! Oh, and I love the pic of your apple tree...especially your son's front end loader! My son has one just like it and I can picture him out there scooping up apples for you!

I'm really enjoying your blog!