With the cool weather and the apples being perfectly sweet after a freeze or two, I decided it was time to bake some wonderfully, caramelly, appley goodness. After doing a little sleuthing around on Pinterest to get my creative juices flowing, I stumbled across some ideas with stuffed apples. And here we are!
So, the trick to making these is to clear out most of the flesh in 4 of the apples, make your own homemade caramel apple filling (no, I don’t use any caramel, but if cooked right, the apple mixture will have some sticky caramel-like sauce with it), and then topping the stuffed apples with a homemade streusel topping.
I promise you. One bite of the topping and you won’t be able to quit. Don’t even try it. It’s perfect, I’m sure…. Aw, heck! Go ahead and make a little extra – You’ll want it while you’re waiting for the apples to bake!
You’ll need:
Apples:
8 apples
4 T. butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
Streusel Topping:
1/4 cup flour
1/8 cup oats (I used old-fashioned)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 t. salt
1/4 t. cinnamon
4 T. butter
Now this all starts with going out and picking 8 of the prettiest apples you can find. (Not really, but if you want to, you can!)
Wash them up gently. (Notice I used two different varieties of apples. One from our Granny Smith tree and the other from an orchard in Missouri.)
Dry them on a towel…
And now it’s time to make the streusel – Literally one of my favorite parts!
In a bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and cinnamon together.
Mix together well.
Then add your butter…
And using a pastry cutter, cut it into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.
(Now it’s to the good part! Although I promise you that you really shouldn’t eat this (it’s not good for you), I also promise you that if you start, you won’t be able to quit. The streusel is that good!
Unless you have lots of self-control.
Which is why I ask that you wait until after (did you catch that??) I said after the apples are stuffed.
Good luck, my friend.
With four of the washed apples, you’ll want to chop them up into small pieces. I used two Granny Smith and two of the others.
Set them in a bowl and set aside for a minute!
With the other four apples, you’ll want to slice the tops off…
Then hollow them out inside. I recommend using a grapefruit spoon and knife for this.
In a large cast iron skillet (it doesn’t have to be cast iron, but I’m biased and I like to think cast gives food good flavor!), melt the butter and stir in the cinnamon and brown sugar.
Add the chopped apples and let simmer over medium flame.
Keep an eye on these babies! You want them cooked through (soft enough you can easily bite through them) but not so soft they turn to mush.
While they simmer, the butter and brown sugar should start to create a sticky caramel.
Yummy!! These are absolutely amazing at this point – A little spoonful of apple filling with a drizzle of streusel topping… Ahh.. Heaven! (But nope, if Weight Watchers asks, you sure didn’t hear that from me!!)
Now is the fun part! (Yes, I know. I said that earlier!) Fill your hollowed out apples to the top with the sticky apple filling.
As good as these look here, we aren’t quite done!
Then top with the streusel. If you’re feeling particularly mischievous, let them bake awhile and cook down, then pull out, top with some more streusel and a nice thick pat of butter. Oh my goodness!!!
Back to the serious side of things, now you can bake these little packets at 400 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes. Mine actually cooked for closer to 20 because of adding some extra streusel and butter. (Yes, it was completely worth it. Never had a doubt about it.)
When you pull your stuffed apples out, your house will smell amazing, your family will love you, and if someone ever showed up on my doorstep with one of these with a bow around it, I can guarantee we would be best friends forever!
We’d make stuffed apples together.
Make more stuffed apples together.
And then sit and eat little wrapped caramels.
In between making stuffed apples, of course.
Perfect with a topping of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of the sauce from making the apple filling earlier! (I didn’t have any vanilla ice-cream, so we made do with a little heavy fresh cream.)
Hopefully you’ve gotten an idea of what to do with all your fresh apples! Even if you don’t have fresh apples, this would still be a great item to serve at any fall gathering.
Enjoy!
Ashleigh
{Baked} Apple-Crisp Stuffed Apples
Ingredients
Apples
- 8 apples
- 4 T. butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 t. cinnamon
Streusel Topping
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/8 cup oats I used old-fashioned
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 1/8 t. salt
- 1/4 t. cinnamon
- 4 T. butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash your apples.
- In a large bowl, make the streusel topping by combining the flour, oats, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Mix together and cut in butter until coarsely crumbled.
- Take 4 of your apples and slice the tops off. Clean out the flesh from the inside with a grapefruit spoon and knife, set aside.
- Chop the remaining 4 apples into small pieces and add to a skillet with the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
- Simmer until the apples are soft enough to easily bite through, yet not mushy, and the butter and sugar have become a "caramel-like" sauce. About 10 minutes.
- Scoop the apple filling into the hollowed out apples and top with the homemade streusel.
- Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.
- Enjoy!!
From One of Her Guinea Pigs says
Absolutely delicious!