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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Craving a cozy and easy-to-make dessert? These baked apples could easily become your new favourite! Stuffed with a sweet and buttery filling, they’re baked until soft and bubbling before being topped with vanilla ice cream and caramel! It’s the embodiment of fall in a dessert!
There’s just something nostalgic about the smell of apples and cinnamon baking in the house. Not only that, but this recipe is a perfect way to use up leftover apples and is tasty enough to justify buying more. Whether you’re hosting a fall gathering or you just want a cozy treat on a chilly night, these baked apples are easy to make and full of flavour.
Make your very own Easy Salted Caramel Sauce to go with this recipe. Or maybe try your hand at making a Classic Apple Pie instead?
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: Not only are these baked apples super tasty, but they’re super simple to make as well!
- Total Time: From preparation to cooking, this recipe takes approximately 45 minutes, depending on the type of apple you use.
- Variations: Instead of using walnuts for this recipe, try swapping them for pecans, which will give you a sweeter, more buttery flavour. Want to go nut-free? How about trying pumpkin seeds for a similar crunch!
- Tools for This Recipe: To make this recipe, you will need an 8×8-inch baking dish for the apples to bake in, a small bowl to mix the filling, and, optionally, some aluminum foil to cover or tent the apples to prevent overcooking.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Apples: Apples aren’t just the perfect snack fruit – they can also be used to make delicious desserts like apple crumble and apple pie. Karlynn’s Tip: I recommend using a more tart variety of apple for the recipe, such as a Granny Smith, which is typically used in cooking. They hold up better than a regular eating apple and provide a bit more acidic contrast to all the sweet ingredients in your filling.
Rolled Oats, Walnuts, Light Brown Sugar, Butter, Cinnamon: This cozy blend of ingredients makes for the perfect filling! It’s sweet, crunchy, and just the right amount of spice.
Water: Adding water to the bottom of your pan not only helps prevent the apples from sticking, but it helps to create the steam needed to help soften the apples evenly and moisture for the filling to meld together.
Salted Caramel Sauce and Ice Cream: What’s better than topping a warm, baked apple with not only caramel sauce, but also vanilla ice cream? It’s a match made in heaven.
How To Make Baked Apples
This is a quick overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients & complete step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat oven to 350ºF
- Core the apples, removing seeds and any tough bits, creating a hollow center for your filling.
- Place the apples in an 8×8-inch baking dish.
- In a small bowl, combine the rolled oats, nuts, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon. Mix well until everything is evenly coated.
- Spoon the filling into each of the apples, dividing it evenly.
- Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until the apples are tender when pierced with a fork. (Timing may vary slightly depending on the type of apple you use.)
- Remove from the oven and let cool slightly while you prepare the caramel sauce.
- Once the caramel is ready, drizzle generously over the apples.
- Plate each apple and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and an extra drizzle of caramel—for good measure that is!
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Baked Apples
- How to prevent browning too quick: Making baked apples isn’t just about picking the right variety or stuffing them perfectly; it’s also about baking them just right. You want the insides to be warm and gooey, without burning the outside. Here’s the trick: foil is your friend. Lightly tent your apples with foil while they bake to help prevent the outside from getting too dark, too fast, while also lockig in the moisture so the filling cooks evenly. Another option to try is to cover the baked apples as they rest. The trapped steam allows the centers to cook a litle longer without overcooking the outside.
Storage Instructions
I recommend serving these baked apples fresh out of the oven! Especially as storing them can cause the apples to become mushy when reheating. However, you do have the option to refrigerate or freeze them.
Refrigerator: Allow your apples to cool completely before transfering them to an airtight container. You can store them for up to 4 days this way! Just reheat them in the microwave or oven until warm.
Freezer: Yes, you can freeze them! I do recommend wrapping each cooled baked apple individually, placing them in a freezer-safe bag or container and freezing for up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge and warm in the oven at 350ºF until heated through.
More Delicious Dessert Recipes
- Apple Brown Betty is another easy, sweet option to use up your fall apples! This is the perfect fall dessert to give you that cozy, autumnal feel on a cold night.
- Daffodil Cake is a beautiful yellow and white cake that is light and fluffy with a light lemon glaze.
- Banana Pudding Cake With Cream Cheese Glaze This banana pudding cake is essentially a banana cream pie baked into a cake. Add in a creamy cheesecake glaze, and this is one over-the-top banana-lovers’ dream!
There you have it! A fall dessert that is easy-to-make but delivers in a flavourful way.
Let me know in the comments below how they turn out for you! You know I always love hearing about your baking adventures!
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
Baked Apples
Ingredients
- 4 large apples, red or Granny Smith, depending on how tart you want them
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup water
- one batch Salted Caramel sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Remove the core, seeds and all tough parts, from the apple, leaving a nice hollow that you will place the filling in.
- Place the apples in an 8×8 pan.
- Combine the rolled oats, nuts, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix well to combine.
- Spoon 1/4 of the mixture into each of the apples. Pour the water into the bottom of the pan.
- Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until apples are tender when pierced with a fork. Time will vary depending on what type of apple you used. IF the topping browns too fast, cover with aluminum foil and keep baking until the apples are tender.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool while preparing the caramel sauce.
- Prepare the caramel sauce while the apples are cooling.
- Plate each apple, then top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, then drizzle caramel sauce on top.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
S says
These sound good but because I’m keto now and not eating most carbs, I rarely eat apples. I used to make them using a banana in place of the sugar and they were wonderfully sweet and delicious when the banana got soft. I’d use 1/2 – 1 whole banana/apple depending on the size of the banana.