The season of pumpkin spice and sharing lavish meals around the table with friends and family is upon us. As recipes for Thanksgiving classics abound, we wanted to share a recipe for a simple, but striking dessert that forgoes pie crust all together: fruit and nut stuffed apples, slowly roasted in a bubble bath of hard cider and aromatics. The core of the apples is gently removed and filled with a cinnamon and cardamom spiced mixture of our toasted Shakhurbai almonds, sun-dried figs, and dried-white mulberries. After a long trip to the oven, the apples come out meltingly soft and caramelized, with a surprise hit of nutty texture hiding inside. Choose a hearty baking apple for this preparation, and do your best to seek out a hard cider that’s free of additives or preservatives. If you prefer not to cook without alcohol, use non-alcoholic cider in its place, reduce the sugar by a smidge, and spike it with a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.
Serves 4, but scales easily.
Ingredients
¼ cup Ziba toasted Shakhurbai almonds, roughly chopped
¼ cup Ziba sun-dried figs, roughly chopped
¼ cup Ziba dried white mulberries
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon maple syrup
4 medium-large baking apples
¼ cup salted butter, softened
¼ cup maple sugar
6 cardamom pods, gently crushed
4 cloves
1 small cinnamon stick
1 inch-long nub of ginger, sliced
1 bay leaf
1½ cups hard cider
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Whipped cream to serve
Instructions
In a small mixing bowl, combine the chopped Shakhurbai almonds, sun-dried figs, dried white mulberries, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom and maple syrup. Mix with a spoon to coat, then set aside as you prepare the apples.
Lay each apple on its side and cut off the top quarter of each, reserving it for later use. Using a sharp paring knife or a teaspoon with a pointy tip, carefully scoop out each apples core—leaving a little crater that can comfortably fit a heaping tablespoons worth of filling. Take care not to carve too close to the apple’s edge, or the filling will collapse out as the apple bakes.
Stuff each emptied cavity with a heaping tablespoon of the spiced fruit and nut mixture. Top each apple with its reserved lid. Being careful not to let the filling spill, thoroughly rub each apple in the softened butter. Place the maple sugar in a small, wide-rimmed bowl and roll the butter rubbed apples in it to coat. Use your fingers to fill in any sugar-lacking crevices, you want each apple to be fully adorned with sweetness.
Place the apples in a small oven-safe rimmed frying pan or a baking dish. Nestle in the aromatics, and pour in the cider. Bake the apples, basting occasionally, for about 75 minutes – or until they’re blistered on top and quite soft when pierced with a knife.
Remove the apples from the pan, and place the pan over medium-low heat on the stove. Spike the pan juices with the apple cider vinegar and reduce until it reaches the consistency of a pourable caramel. Strain out the aromatics.
Serve the apples warm, drizzled in caramel, with a generous spoonful of whipped cream.
Recipe inspired by Clare de Boer of The Best Bit.
