I've been making this baked apple recipe for my family FOREVER. It's so easy and delicious and it's definitely a family favorite. I quick put it up on my stories a few weeks ago and you all wanted allllll the details and I'm still getting DMs about posting the recipe. So I thought I would make it official and post the recipe here for future reference.
This recipe is also super versatile. You can serve it with ice cream for dessert or simply as a side dish on a cold fall night (it really warms you up!) and of course it also makes a great Thanksgiving or Christmas side dish as well. And I'll be honest, it makes a pretty amazing afternoon snack on a Saturday too! It makes the whole house smell amazing too. It's a unicorn friends! It's also so ridiculously easy... let's take a look. Also, before we get started... here is a link to my sweater, I am in my usual size small, it looks like this exact color is sold out.
I start with 4 simple ingredients... apples, cinnamon, sugar and BUTTER. Butter is really the secret ingredient here and I learned this from the mother of one of my college roommates when she had us over for Sunday dinner once. It makes the apples super creamy tasting and delicious.
For the apples I chose a typical baking apple that is slightly tart. Here I used Spy apples. They were perfect. I know there are a lot of by-the-book cooks that insist on taking the skin off the apples. But I for one am lazy AND I like the texture of a skin on apple so much more. But feel free to remove the skin.
I chop the apples into bite sized pieces and for this batch I filled an entire casserole pan, since these apples don't last long in our house it's always better to have more on hand. If you don't finish them all, they refrigerate well or you could even freeze the leftovers. But spoiler alert: you probably won't have leftovers.
Then I add the cinnamon and sugar right over top of the sliced apples. You could put them in a separate bowl and stir it all together, but again, I'm lazy... so I just poured it over top and let it sink down as it bakes.
You can't forget that butter! I take the pats of butter and also layer them right on top of the cinnamon and sugar. It will melt into the apples as they bake. YUMMMMM!
Then once they get out of the oven a quick stir to move around the butter, cinnamon and sugar and you are set to go! You can top with ice cream for dessert or serve as a side dish. Recently we did steaks, squash and apples for dinner. It was insanely good as a fall meal. For Christmas or Thanksgiving you could add a few cranberries to the top for a festive touch.
Here's the recipe:
16 small/medium baking apples (I used Spy)
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
6 tablespoons of butter
Bake at 425 for 35 minutes for apples that still have a bite or 45 minutes for a more applesauce finish.
That's it!
