Apple Volcanoes
by Delaney Wofford
The beautiful Volcanic Apples taste and smell as pretty as they look!
Remember when you were a kid? Those brisk, windy afternoons when you got home from school to find a lovingly made snack waiting for you from Mom, regular as clockwork. Bring back those feelings, and do the same for your kids! This quick, easy recipe is just the thing to warm you up on a chilly day when you’ve got the munchies. They’re particularly good with ice-cream , especially if you drizzle the excess sauce over the top. And the best part? The steps are as easy as one, two, three!
Apple Volcanoes
Ingredients:
4 Medium Apples (any firm, crisp variety)
3 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
6 Tablespoons Granola (If yours doesn’t already include dried fruits, I suggest adding a handful of dried cranberries or raisins.)
1/3 Cup Walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/4 Cup Rapadura or Brown Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
4 Generous Tablespoons Honey
Water
Step 1: Prep the Apples!
First, wash the apples. No brainer, right? They just look so pretty, anyway, with the water droplets on them sparkling in the sun…
Then we want to core them, and cut a bowl in the top of the apple, like a volcano crater. It will hold more stuffing that way, and provide a nice channel for the honey to seep down into. Go ahead and make the crater a little bigger than you think you should. I had to make this recipe twice, because the first time I followed an online recipe to the letter. It came out somewhat disastrous. But after a second try, where I tinkered with my Mom’s recipe instead, the apples came out heavenly! So this is what works. The apples should look like this:
Step 2. Prep the Stuffing!
Let’s get started on the “lava” of our volcanoes! You should probably go ahead and set the oven to preheat at about 375 F. If your walnuts aren’t already chopped, go ahead and do that, too.
Combine your walnuts, melted butter, rapadura or brown sugar, and granola in a bowl. You can buy granola, or make your own healthy mix. I used granola with almonds, raisins, and I even had some cranberries in there. I thought it would add to the festiveness of the dish and fit nicely with the season.
Step 3: What else? Stuff the Apples!
Set your apples in a baking pan. I used a circular nonstick cake pan. Spoon the yummy granola stuffing you’ve prepared into the hollows of the apples. Make sure you poke it down into the hole and don’t leave empty spaces; we want it nicely packed.
Now, take a regular sized spoon and fill it generously with honey. Pour it over the top of one of the apples, and repeat for each. They should look like this.
Put two tablespoons of water into the bottom of the pan. It will keep the honey from scorching, and also help to make a lovely sauce out of the apple juices, extra honey, and stuffing essence that flows down during baking. Set the timer for five minutes, and put them in the oven! When the timer goes off, pull them out, and spoon the sauce in the bottom of the pan over the apples. Put them back in for another five minutes, and repeat the basting process. One more set of five minutes, to make for a grand total of fifteen minutes of cooking time, should do it. Pull them out of the oven, and spoon the sauce over them one more time. The honey should have made a nice glaze over the skin, and the apples should be hot and baked, but still firm.
Serve them hot, with hot cider, cold milk, or yogurt on the side. We had ice-cream, and poured the extra honey glaze over the top of it for topping. Talk about yum. The whole family enjoyed it, and we know yours can, too! So try this great use for your apples, and enjoy the Autumn while it’s here. Bon apetite!
Leave a Reply