There’s a bumper crop of apples in Connecticut this year. Business is booming, orchardists are breathing sighs of relief (last year was an apple disaster). I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled.
I hardly ever eat apples, except in the autumn when I get them at the local orchards and they taste like real food that’s been planted in real dirt.
So I’ve been eating apples for the past week.
And I have started my pie baking. Last week I took my annual trip to Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel to get 40 pounds of Rhode Island Greenings, my favorite apple for pie.
They also had some terrific looking Honeycrisps, just for eating out of hand. And some Macoun, which I like for applesauce.
And of course, I bought Cortlands. They were big, beautiful and are the very best for Baked Apples of any kind. Like these:
Granola Baked Apples
6 baking apples such as Cortland
half a lemon
1/3 cup crushed granola cereal
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 chopped almonds
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup honey
4 teaspoons butter or margarine
3/4 cup apple cider or homestyle apple juice
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Wash the apples and remove the core with an apple corer or small knife, leaving about 1/2” of the core on the bottom. Peel the apples halfway down from the top and rub the peeled surfaces with the cut side of the lemon. Put the apples in a baking dish. Mix the granola, raisins, almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice and honey and stuff this mixture into the hollowed out cavities in the apples. Dot the tops of each apple with one teaspoon butter. Pour the cider into the baking dish. Bake the apples for about 45 minutes, basting occasionally with the apple cider, or until the apples are tender. If the fruit is darkening too quickly, place a small piece of tin foil on top during baking. Serve the apples warm or at room temperature. Makes 4 servings