Looking for something warm but easy for a quick weeknight dessert? Why not try baked apples! These little beauties can be made out of any apple and stuffed with a combination of your favourite nuts, seeds or oats. A winning recipe for the whole family.

Makes: 4 apples
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Difficulty: easy
Dish: small frypan and a baking dish

Ingredients:

4 whole apples
½ cup of mixed raw nuts roughly chopped. We used almonds, pistachios, pecans and walnuts
2 tablespoons The Sugar Breakup Dextrose (could also use our Golden Rice Malt Syrup)
1 heaped tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon mixed spices
½ teaspoon vanilla essence

To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan forced).
2. Using a small paring knife, melon baller or apple corer remove most of the core from the apples leaving a small amount at the base.
3. Place a small frypan on a medium heat, add chopped nuts to the dry pan and toss until the nuts are lightly toasted.
4. Add dextrose, butter, mixed spices and vanilla essence to the nuts in the pan. Stir until the butter has melted and nuts are lightly coated. Remove from the heat.
5. Spoon nuts into apples, patting down so they are tightly packed.
6. Place apples in a baking dish, cover with foil and bake covered for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the apples are soft to touch.
7. Remove from the oven, serve warm with cream, natural yoghurt, homemade vanilla ice cream or custard.

Hints and Tips:

You can use any combination of nuts, seeds, oats or shredded coconut inside your apples. Just combine a half cup of your favourites and you’ll have enough to fill 4 apples.

Don’t apples contain fructose? Yes they do BUT fructose derived naturally from whole fruit has a different metabolic effect on the body when compared with fructose added to the diet, due to the fibre in the fruit. When cooking with fruit such as apples and pears we always leave the skin on and include the fruit in our daily allowance of 2 pieces per day.

The apples could easily be halved and shared between 8 for a delicious and light dessert.