Not Your Grandma’s Baked Apples

Today’s guest post comes to us from Lori of The Pizza Principle, and it’s just the right dessert to shake off those autumn chills!

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When I was a kid, I was frequently on diets. My mother would have me on diets, and then I’d go to my grandmother for the summer, where I spent weeks following whatever the latest low-calorie miracle plan happened to be. None of them were very long-lived but while they were going on, they were followed with a fervor some people reserve for religion or military service.

No matter what they were called, they all had the same basic tenets: eat less fatty stuff, eat more vegetables, and dessert is the devil.

This translated to a lot of very boring baked apples that were only minimally sweetened or flavored before being cooked to mush and pretending to be dessert when they had much more in common with baby food. I’m here to tell you, pouring a Fresca on an apple and sticking it in the microwave does not make it taste like apple pie, no matter what the little handbook says.

But now, my husband has some heart issues and diabetes. We have some directives. Eat less fatty stuff. Eat more fiber. Dessert is the devil. Sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it?

What I also have is this kid.

Clearly, he’s pretty fond of his apples. Which means we have a lot of them around our house. And despite the fact that he eats them two at a time, it’s still a challenge for him to get to every apple in a bushel (yes, a bushel) before they start to see better days.

And that means…baked apples.

I approached the idea with some horror. Obviously, I have issues. Plus, I like food, and I like it to taste good, but I am also pretty fond of my husband and I’d like to keep him around for a while. My objectives, obviously, were at war.

Baked apples it was. And luckily, I had just the thing to make this challenge a real…well…challenge.

My friends at Marx Foods asked me to guest blog for them, creating a recipe from a box of samples, kind of like “Chopped” on the Food Network. And now was the time to break it out. (I actually will be doing another post with some of the same ingredients for a classy Christmas cookie next month.)

I refused to use artificial sweeteners for the apples. The flashbacks were too awful. Instead, I went with something a little more natural, that would lend itself well to the apples as well as bringing flavor and not just sweetness to the dish. Coconut sugar fit the bill.

I made a streusel, cutting the coconut sugar with a butter/canola blend, plenty of rolled oats, and a whole, lovely vanilla bean.

Up until now, it’s just a slightly tweaked version of your typical crumble that would go on Dutch apple pie or a coffee cake or maybe a nice pumpkin muffin. (Great, now I want muffins.) But I wanted to up the ante a little. I wanted something just a little bit outside the box. Hmm. Ah ha. Chiles.

Meet the aji panca chile. Yes, I know, chiles? In a baked apple? Well, no one could ever accuse this baked apple of being flavorless and boring. The aji panca has a fruitiness that actually paired pretty well with the apples, and when partnered with a little cinnamon, gave the dish a kind of Mexican spicy-sweet flair that was really welcome. I finely chopped the dried chile, and texturally, that worked with the oatmeal, as well as allowing the chile to assert itself occasionally.

Time to address the apples. Well, my apples were monstrously huge. (Thanks, Way Fruit Farm!) I’ve never liked the typical baked-apple style of coring but only peeling a ring around the top. Instead, I didn’t peel at all. I just halved my apples, then used a melon baller to take out the cores. No peeling. Then I mounded scoops of the oatmeal streusel onto each half.

Now to address liquid. A good baked apple, a baked apple the way God intended, is kind of poached in a buttery, sugary syrup. None of the baked apples of my childhood ever met that syrup. They were usually cooked in water with a little Sweet10 and cinnamon, or the aforementioned Fresca. I wanted the flavor of the former, but the virtue of the latter. I got that with fresh apple cider. (Way’s again. My absolute favorite cider.)

What I ended up with was something fruity, spicy, hearty, with mellow heat. It was satisfying enough to make seconds unnecessary. And with its apple-cinnamon-oatmeal backbone, it also made a great autumn breakfast with a dollop of yogurt.

Sweet Heat Apples

4 large apples, halved and cored
4 T. softened butter (I used a butter-canola oil blend)
1/4 c. coconut sugar (maple, demerara or brown sugar would work well, too)
3/4 c. oatmeal
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 aji panca chile, finely chopped (Any mild, fruity dried chile would work. If that’s not available, use a little cayenne to taste.)
1 c. apple cider

Place apple halves in a large baking dish. Cut butter with sugar, oatmeal, vanilla caviar (bury your scraped bean in some sugar for a great treat, or save and refrigerate to steep in some hot milk for a fantastic alternative to hot chocolate), cinnamon and chile. Divide between apple halves, mounding on top. Pour cider into baking pan (not over apples). Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Serve drizzled with the baking liquid.

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Fruit Dessert Recipes
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Dried Chile Recipes & Techniques
Sweetener Recipes
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