Hel-lo September!

September brings fall and fall brings apples. If you have the opportunity to pick apples at a local orchard, I suggest you take it! Apples are easy to pick and always taste the best right off of the tree. We took the family out to a local orchard recently and picked our favorite apples: Honey crisp. We have been experimenting with our apple bakers and the honey crisp apples.

What’s so great about an apple baker?

• Easy for single-serving dessert
• Easy clean up – your apple treat won’t stick to the baker!
• Lends itself to versatility – experiment with toppings quickly and easily
• Small bakers take up less space for easy storage
• Dessert presentation is appealing
• It’s not just for apples! You can even use it to bake sweet potatoes or white potatoes.

For this recipe I just made a traditional apple crisp topping. This is very simple and requires little, if any, culinary experience.

1 large apple,oats, coconut, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon

Begin by coring your apple, cutting out a cylinder from the middle of your apple. Once the core is removed, cut off the skin around the top of the apple. It works well to then cut around the hole, angling your knife toward the center of the apple. This makes a great platform to hold all of the delicious goodness you plan on cramming into your apple.

Melt your butter, combine with remaining ingredients. {Take the most flattering picture possible of your hand mixing the ingredients. You’ll say, “Wow, my hand never looked so good!” I’m sure your hand looks lovely, perhaps graceful, mixing crisp topping, but my hand looks like a giant, meaty, mangling, monster hand! } Using your hand, put mixture into center of apple. Be sure to pack it in there tightly. It won’t take long and the center will be filled and that’s when you get to pile it and pack it firmly on top of the apple.

Pour 1 teaspoon of water into the bottom of the apple baker and place in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. It’s easiest to eat it right out of the dish. It’s tastiest to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream before eating it out of the dish!

And now you’re dying to try your own baked apple! Get your own apple baker here! Keep your eyes open – we’ll post more baked apple recipes in the coming days and weeks!

Baked Apple with Crisp Topping:

1 large baking apple, cored

2 Tablespoons rolled oats

1 Tablespoon coconut flakes

1Tablespoon brown sugar

1 Tablespoon butter, melted

1/8 tsp cinnamon

Core apple all the way through and place on spoke of apple baker. In separate small bowl melt butter. Combine melted butter with oats, coconut, brown sugar and cinnamon. Place the mixture into the apple, packing tightly. Let mixture mound on top of apple. Put 1 teaspoon water in bottom of apple baker and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Serve as is or with a scoop of ice cream!