My dad used to make baked apples. As the grateful recipient of my mother’s daily meal planning, dad never cooked much around the house. So I guess that’s why I remember the few times he owned the kitchen, when he wasn’t warming milk to help his little daughters sleep or making the morning coffee.
Baked apples were a mystery when I was little. Dad would hollow out an apple, fill it with sugar and butter, pop it in the microwave and out came my favorite fall snack.
There’s something uniquely seasonal about apples roasting in sugar, butter and spices. The culinary equivalent of running through leaves when the sunlight gets a warmer shade of golden, and the air takes on that distinctive tinge of falling foliage.
My baked apples don’t taste quite as magical as those of my youth, but can anything capture those tastes from our memories?
Simple Baked Apples
Ingredients:
- 4 apples, cored but not all the way through (I just used a mellon baller) and peeled around the top
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- Pinch cloves
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- Pinch salt
- 4 T unsalted butter
- Juice of 1 lemon
Preheat oven to 325. Place apples in baking dish. Combine sugar, salt and spices in a small bowl. Fill each apple cavity with spices. Top with 1 T butter. Squeeze lemon over everything and pour enough water into the pan to fill 1/2-inch up the apples. Cover with foil and bake until soft, 25-45 min (it will depend on your apple and your preference).
The apples should be soft, but not turning to applesauce.
To serve, place each apple on a plate and pour the pan juices over the apples. Great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or caramel syrup.
Enjoy, friends! xoxo
Seasoned to Taste 
I can almost smell them baking. Dad will be so proud!