Baked apples

Name: Baked apples
Cook time: 72 min
Total time: 72 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Española
Ingredients: 40 g Butter; 30 g Walnuts; 1 u Lemon; 4 u Apple; 4 tablespoons Brown Sugar; 1 teaspoon Cinnamon; 2 tablespoons Raisins; 60 ml Brandy; 100 ml Water

Manzanas asadas

Easy

Contains allergens

LecheFrutos de cáscara

Incomplete allergen information: some ingredients have not been reviewed yet. Always check the labels before cooking.

Author: Equipo Cocinoa
Preparation time: 72 min
Servings: 4

Summary

Whole cored apples stuffed with raisins and walnuts and baked with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and a splash of brandy until tender and bathed in their own syrup. The classic Spanish autumn pudding.

Ingredients

4 servings

Add to Bring!

40 g Butter (cut into 4 pieces)
30 g Walnuts (shelled and roughly chopped) (optional)
1 u Lemon (zest only, grated) (optional)
4 u Apple (reinette or Golden Delicious, large and firm)
4 tablespoons Brown Sugar (or honey)
1 teaspoon Cinnamon (ground)
2 tablespoons Raisins (optional)
60 ml Brandy (or muscatel or another sweet wine)
100 ml Water

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Wash and dry the apples. Remove the cores with an apple corer or a small knife without going all the way through: leave a centimetre at the base so the filling cannot escape.
10 min
With the tip of a knife, score a shallow line all the way round the middle of each apple, cutting through the skin only.
2 min
Mix the sugar, cinnamon, raisins, walnuts and lemon zest in a bowl. Stand the apples snugly in an ovenproof dish, fill the hollows with the mixture, pressing it in lightly, and top each one with a piece of butter. Scatter any leftover filling around the dish.
5 min
Pour the brandy and water into the bottom of the dish, not over the apples. Bake, basting with the juices in the dish every 15 minutes, until the skins are wrinkled and golden and a knife slides into the flesh easily, but before they collapse. Golden Delicious are usually ready about 10 minutes before reinettes.
45 min
Take them out and let them rest for 10 minutes. If the syrup in the dish is very thin, pour it into a small pan and reduce it over medium heat until it coats the back of a spoon.
10 min
Serve each apple warm in a shallow bowl with its syrup spooned over, on its own or with a spoonful of Greek yoghurt, custard or cream.

Notes

The apple harvest runs from September to November, and autumn is when apples are at their crispest, most fragrant and cheapest. Reinette is the classic Spanish baking apple: its sharpness balances the sugar and in the oven its flesh collapses into a fluffy foam; look for the rough, slightly russeted skin, which is how it should look, as in the reinettes from El Bierzo, which have a protected designation of origin. Golden Delicious is sweeter and holds its shape better, so cut back a little on the sugar. Either way, choose large, firm, heavy apples with no bruises or soft patches. The cut around the skin is not decoration: it lets the apple expand in the oven without bursting. You can swap the brandy for muscatel, Pedro Ximénez or any sweet wine; for children, use apple juice or water, as most of the alcohol cooks off, but not all of it. To make them without nuts, use just the raisins or fill the hollow with only sugar and butter. They are lovely warm with their syrup and a spoonful of Greek yoghurt, custard or cream, and also cold the next day. They keep for 3 days in the fridge, covered, in their juices.