Baked Apples

Use fresh, crisp apples for this yummy treat that you can make in the oven or crock pot. I adapted this recipe from 2 sources to make it IC friendly. From Mable Hoffman’s Crockery Cookery and freerecipenetwork.com.

Baked Apple
Makes 5 or 6 servings


For Crock Pot

Ingredients:

5 to 6 GALA or FUJI apples
½ cup raisins or chopped dates
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (if tolerated)
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (if tolerated)


Directions:

Core apples and peel each about one quarter of the way down. Arrange in a slow cooker. Fill centers with raisins or dates. In a small bowl, combine sugar, water, margarine or butter, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour over apples. Cover and cook on LOW 2 to 4 hours (depending on size and variety of apples) or until apples are tender. Serve warm or cool.



For Oven

Ingredients:

5 to 6 GALA or FUJI apples
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup walnuts, chopped
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon (if tolerated)
½ cup pear juice


Directions:

If you don’t have a crock pot, you can use a 7x11 casserole dish or stock pot. Preheat the oven to 350 F and cover the pan with aluminum foil.

In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, walnuts, margarine or butter, and cinnamon. If you don’t want to use walnuts, you could use pecans (if tolerated) or go nut-free by substituting with ¼ cup chopped raisins, prunes (if tolerated), or granola (without problem ingredients)! Another great substitution is ¼ cup of rolled quick oats moistened with a tablespoon of water before stuffing the apples.

Use a grapefruit spoon that has the sharp edges (or a melon baller or small pairing knife) and core most of the way through, I leave about ½ inch apple left at the bottom. Fill the apples with the filling and place them in pan. Pour pear juice around apples. They’ll take about 45 minutes to one hour. A glass baking dish is also an option, just be sure to lower the heat slightly 5-10 degrees since glass can cause food to burn.

If you’re making this recipe for a large crowd, you could do these in the oven in a large disposable roasting pan and just double the recipe.

*You can refrigerate these for up to 3 days, but store them in an air-tight container so they don’t pick up odors from the fridge.