Sunday, January 1, 2012

Granola Crisp Baked Apples


Happy New Year!  To celebrate the day I am sharing a recipe that I developed while trying to merge two delicious things, apple crisp and baked apples.  Neither were recipes that I grew up with.  My family is pretty plain jane when it comes to food and while that is fine (All my comfort foods are from family recipes!) I like to experiment and try new things.  Hence the Granola Crisp Baked Apple recipe.  My friend Sarah Beth and I made this for our Intermediate Spanish I power point recipe presentation and it received rave reviews.  (Blushing!) It made my day when I was walking through the cafeteria later and overhead a girl from my class telling her boyfriend about them.  (Really, it did.)  And, to make it even better, we both made A's on our assignment.  (Okay, okay!  The A's were more to do with Sara Beth's amazing Spanish talent, but our classmates did like the apples!)


 Ingredients
  • 6 medium Gala apples
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • Extra butter for topping filled apples
  • ¼ cup pecans, chopped
  • ½ cup granola
  • ½ cup apple cider



Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter in a small bowl.  Then stir in pecans and granola. Set aside.










Remove the core from the apples. Remove skin from 1/2-inch around top of apples at the opening. While some recipes recommend leaving in the bottom of the apple, it is not advisable for this recipe as it keeps in excess moisture and could cause the granola to turn mushy.




  
Fill each apple with the mixture. Top each apple with a teaspoon of butter. (My oldest daughter likes it with the butter best, but I like leaving this out because it makes the filling crispier.)

Place apples in baking dish and pour apple cider around them.
Bake for 40 minutes until apples are fork tender but not mushy. (Test with a fork after 30 minutes.)
Remove from heat, place on small plate, and baste with juice from pan.
Serve hot. (Baked apples are also delicious served room temperature, so they are good in a sack lunch but should be eaten within 24 hours to prevent mushiness.)





If anyone has ideas to make this healthier by replacing the butter and sugar without compromising the crisp please let me know. 

Recipe posted below in entirety without pictures for easy copy and select printing.


Granola Crisp Baked Apples
Ingredients
  • 6 medium Gala apples
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • Extra butter for topping filled apples (optional)
  • ¼ cup pecans, chopped
  • ½ cup granola
  • ½ cup apple cider
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter in a small bowl.  Then stir in pecans and granola. Set aside.  
  
Remove the core from the apples. Remove skin from 1/2-inch around top of apples at the opening. While some recipes recommend leaving in the bottom of the apple, it is not advisable for this recipe as it keeps in excess moisture and could cause the granola to turn mushy.

Fill each apple with the mixture. Top each apple with a teaspoon of butter (optional). Place apples in baking dish and pour apple cider around them. 

Bake for 40 minutes until apples are fork tender but not mushy. (Test with a fork after 30 minutes.)
Remove from heat, place on small plate, and baste with juice from pan. 

Serve hot. (Baked apples are also delicious served room temperature, so they are good in a sack lunch but should be eaten within 24 hours to prevent mushiness.)



1 comment:

  1. Looks very good, My Fiance and I are testing this out right now but we didn't have any apple cyder so we are substituting with apple sauce, and we used regular butter for making the filling, but we put a dab of honey butter on the top. We also used Honey Bunches of Oats as the Granola! It looks fantastic and we haven't even eaten them yet!! I will let you know how it turns out as soon as they come out!! thank you for this Recipe!!

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