Baked Breakfast Apples

There’s nothing like a warm breakfast during the fall.  Similarly, there’s nothing like a warm dessert!  This baked apple dish can kind of be both.  I call it a breakfast baked apple because I stuffed it with homemade granola leftover from my peanut butter granola bars!

When a baked apple is done right, it is pretty heavenly.  I mean, come on:

As I see it there are only two problems you can run into in the baked apple world: 1) You used the wrong kind of apple.  That’s pretty easy to avoid though.  Golden Delicious bake up really nicely.  Or you can check out this chart for other good varieties.

Problem number two is that you cook them too long.  The apple should be soft, but not mushy.  You should be able to easily cut it with a butter knife (in my opinion), but it should be almost melt-in-your-mouth tender.

Master those two (pretty simple problems) and you’ll end up with a great result.

I like to stuff mine with something that has some texture which is why I used granola.  You could use rolled oats if you wanted or any kind of nut really.  Go crazy with it!

Baked Breakfast Apples (breakfast because of the granola you see.)

- 2 Good baking apples, again, the chart.
- 1/3 Cup granola
- 1/4 brown sugar
- 1/4 Teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 2 Teaspoons butter, divided
- Optional spices: nutmeg, allspice, etc.

Helpful Equipment:
- Apple Corer

Before you get started, preheat that oven to 350 degrees.

Coring the apples. An apple corer is one of those tools that I’ve never acquired because I would only use it like once a year.  Ok.  If I had one, I would definitely use it more than that.  But in any event, I just use a paring knife and a spoon and it works great.

If you’re using a corer, just be sure not to cut all the way through your apple or else your filling will all melt out!  That’s not so much of a worry if you use a paring knife/spoon combo.  Just cut a good sized whole in the stem side of the apple like so.

And then get your spoon and scrape out the bottom and edges until there are no seeds left in the apple.  It takes like 30 seconds per apple.  No big deal people.

Mixing the filling. Mix up all your filling in a large bowl (every ingredient expect the butter and apples)!  I loved the granola.  It had a great texture coupled with the soft apple.

Oh. And don’t forget your cinnamon!

You can really stuff these guys pretty full.  I used all of my filling.

Cooking the apples. Set your stuffed apples in a baking dish with about a cup of water.  Also add a teaspoon (about) of butter on top of each apple.

This is extremely important!  Because as the butter melts it makes kind of a delicious caramel sauce with the brown sugar on the inside.

Then bake them for 30 minutes, and then you’ll have these wonderfully tender and fragrant apples.

Whatever you do, resist eating this right away unless  second degree burns in your mouth is your idea of a good start to the day.

After five minutes though, you can slice into them.  The butter will be melted in with the granola and brown sugar and the apple will be tender, but not mush.  It’s really good stuff.

So I’ll be honest.  Betsy and I actually had these for dessert one night.  But I don’t see the problem with eating it for breakfast.  If you served it with ice cream then the ice cream would melt and it would basically be like eating cereal.

Am I wrong?

Am I?!