Sunday, February 22, 2009

Baked Apple Dessert

I tried making a new recipe tonight that I got from a Whole Foods magazine that I picked up for free at the Whole Foods the other day. The recipe title is "Baked Apples with Pecans and Raisins". It turned out to be "Baked Apples with Walnuts and Raisins" because we didn't have pecans.

The first time I (we) had ever had baked apples was with our friends Matt & Bri. It was ridiculously simple. Take four apples, core them (but don't pierce the bottom), pour in sweet and condensed milk, bake until tender. Voila, delicious dessert!

This recipe takes it to the next level. That sounds fancy, but in reality I had the apples cored and the filling made in probably 7 minutes. Here's what they looked like before they baked:



And the finished product (picture is a little fuzzy and I should have left them in the pan for the picture):



They were absolutely delicious! I don't really like walnuts but we didn't have pecans. The recipe seemed a little different than what we usually make and have for dessert. I'm glad we tried it because it was good. Here's how we made them (this is altered from the Whole Foods Recipe based on what we had on hand):

*2 Granny Smith apples
*Couple finger-fulls of raisins
*Couple finger-fulls of brown sugar
*Small finger-full of walnuts broken into small pieces
*A few shakes of cinnamon
*A few shakes of nutmeg
*1 pat of butter cut in half
*Some apple cider

Core the apples but don't break through the bottom. Mix everything else, except cider and butter, together (this is the filling). Place filling into apples. Place butter on top of filling. Place apples into small baking dish. Pour in cider (maybe half an inch up the apples).

Place baking dish into 350 degree oven 30-40 minutes, until apples are tender. You'll want to baste the apples every 10 minutes or so.

The original recipe calls for dried apricots in the filling. We didn't have any but they would be delicious.

Try it out, let me know what you think. If you've had good baked apples before, tell me how they were made.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Beh-Beh

We had a baby, a week ago today. She's adorable and beautiful. We named her Maya Reese.



I'm a slacker at blogging about it. Good thing my wife rules. You can see more pictures and get the details here. Why write it twice if Jessica did a fantastic job writing about it and I'd say the exact same things?