Stuffed Baked Apples

Although apples are often associated with northern seasonal cooking this time of year, I find that southern cuisine has some of the best raw ingredients to actualize any apple dish fully: pecans, rum, and spices (cinnamon, cayenne, or anything with a real “kick”).

Together, North and South manage to meet peacefully with a kind of alluring flavor of which the Puritans surely never dreamed in this Baked Apples recipe stuffed with sugar, nuts, and rum.

The servings are easy to dish out as each person gets their own apple, and the dish has a flavor similar to a crustless Apple Pie. 

Stuffed Baked Apples

Yield: 2 servings

Calories: 356.7 (see here for full nutritional information)

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 60 to 65 minutes

This recipe is adapted from my upcoming book The Fresh Table: Cooking in Louisiana All Year Round (LSU Press, March 2013). Here, I make the basic stuffed, baked apple without the rum sauce as a healthier variation to the cookbook’s version.

Ingredients:

*2 Granny Smith apples, washed and cored

*1/4 cup brown sugar

*1/4 cup pecans, roughly chopped

*1/2 tsp cinnamon

*1/2 tsp nutmeg

*1 tbsp butter

Optional Rum Sauce:

*1 cup dark brown sugar

*1 cup good-quality rum

*1 tsp salt

*1 tsp cinnamon

*1 tsp allspice

1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, pecans, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.

2. Core apples, using a sharp paring knife or apple corer.

3. Place apples snugly inside individually greased muffin tins and pack each core with the sugar-and-spice mixture.

4. Top each apple with half a tablespoon of butter. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour or until apples are tender and bubbly. Remove from oven and cool for at least 5 minutes before serving (they will be very hot!).

Note: Don’t have a muffin pan large enough to hold an individual apple? Place apples closely together (but not touching) in a casserole dish. Baked apple skins sometimes stick together after a slow roast and the addition of sugar can make for an even stickier situation.

For Rum Sauce:

1. Right before serving apples, prepare Rum Sauce: In a nonstick saucepan, whisk together brown sugar, rum, salt, and spices until simmering. Simmer for 3–5 minutes or until mixture has reduced by a fourth. Plate apples and drizzle with rum sauce. Makes 2 servings.

–Helana Brigman

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