These easy Baked Apples are a delicious healthy fall dessert. Crisp fresh apples stuffed with a cinnamon sugar, walnut mixture and baked until warm and tender. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Baked Apples
Hooray for apple season! I have so many favorite apple recipe this time of year, It would be hard to choose a favorite! Top contenders are my Grandma’s apple cake, and the most popular apple crisp.
What I love about baked apples is you still get the sweet tooth fix, without all of the extra calories. My love for this healthy treat comes from my Mom. Whenever we had a big sweet tooth, but didn’t want a heavy dessert she would make baked apples.
They take all of 5 minutes to prepare and the end result is sweet, tender apples with a delicious sweet filling. I love to top mine with low fat vanilla ice cream and a little drizzle of my favorite homemade caramel sauce. It’s perfection.
How to make baked apples:
Use a pairing knife to cut a deep hole into the apples, removing the core; this is where the filling will go.
Combine brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and nuts and fill the apples with this mixture.
Pour about 1/4 cup of water in a baking dish, place the apples on top. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until they are tender when poked with a fork.
When serving baked apples I like to scoop the juices from the bottom of the pan on top of the apples. Yum!
WHAT ARE THE BEST APPLES FOR BAKING?
Granny Smith apples are my favorite for any kind of baking, especially in dessert recipes like apple crisp, or Apple Cake where the apple is really the star of the show. For this recipe, I love to use large red apples, but you can really use any type of apple.
Consider trying one of these easy Apple Recipes:
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Baked Apples
Video
Ingredients
- 4 good-quality apples (I like to use red apples, but baking apples, such as Granny Smith, work great to!)
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar , packed
- 2 Tablespoons butter , room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup water
- Ice cream , for topping, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Use a paring knife or apple corer to remove the stem and seeds from the apples, making a deep hole where the filling will go.
- Combine the brown sugar, butter and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix well to combine. Add the nuts. Spoon mixture evenly into each of the apples.
- Add 1/4 cup of water to a baking dish and place apples on top.
- Bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until apples are tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.
- Spoon the sauce drippings from the pan over the apples. Serve with ice cream, if desired.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
*I originally shared this recipe in September 2015. Updated October 2018.
Kathleen says
Delicious recipe, easy, simple, common items that you may have already. We used red delicious apples, we didn’t have nuts on hand so we used dried cherries, they came out perfect. Thank you for sharing this recipe which will now be a dessert staple in our home.
Lauren Allen says
I love to hear that you made it work with what you had on hand! I’m really happy you liked them! 🙂
Sherrie Pollock says
You only publish the good reviews?
Lauren Allen says
I had a baby and have been taking time to recover :).
Gaye Norberg says
Perfect dessert for 2. Our empty nest loves these baked apples for a warm dessert that’s not too sweet. Delicious!
Sherrie says
Horrible. There isn’t enough cinnamon/brown sugar filling to fill 4 apples and, I used the exact amounts listed. Even when baked longer than called for, the apples remained too crisp. The flavor is bland, not sweet enough and, did absolutely nothing for me. I couldn’t even eat half of one and, the other 3 still remain in the pan…. probably won’t get eaten.
Lauren Allen says
Hi Sherrie,
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the recipe. I wonder what type of apples you were using; could it be that your apples weren’t great baking apples?
As for the filling, given the enormous variety in apple types and sizes, it’s hard to make a “one-fits all” apple filling. If you have large apples, chances are you may need make extra filling.
angela parker says
add more sugar and cinnamon and rebake
Bridget says
Wow, you seem to be mad about this. Dont you have 1 positive thing you can say about the recipe? At least it’s somewhat healthy.
Gerri Ratigan says
Why would people post “Horrible” and say other negative things. Shame on them. This is a great recipe. Get a life you troll people! Its almost impossible to screw this up. If it isn’t sweet enough, put more sugar in it.
Jennifer Calimer says
Wow… Listen to you. I’ve tried this recipe twice using the sane amount of ingredients as listed and they’ve always came out delicious? Obviously you did something wrong. Lol.
But you know what they say, it’s wonderful after it cooks unless you’re not doing a wonderful job. 😉
Carla says
Did you use crabapples? 🙃. I’m making this recipe for the first time tonight and used four pretty large honey crisp apples. At first I didn’t think there was enough filling, but it was perfect. We’re having guest over for chili and then the baked apples with ice cream for dessert. A perfect fall dinner.
EMILY GUICHET says
Just double the stuffing !!
Felicia says
Hi,
I am not able to find USA Apple here in Singapore. Can I use pacific rose Apple from New Zealand and cut down the baking time?
Thanks
Lauren Allen says
Yes, that should work! IF the apples are smaller then cut back slightly on the baking time. It’s a pretty forgiving recipe.
Erin says
Soooooo good!!! Saved this to my favorites.
Harlee says
This was great! I do have a few notes I would add. The filling recipe is there for the ratios not for an exact amount. The amount you need will depend on your preference, the size of your apple and how big you make your hole. Bake time will depend on the type of apple you choose as well crispier apples will take longer to cook. Finally this is not super sweet so don’t expect that if you have a massive sweet tooth look for something else.
When I made it I did make extra filling because I needed it. I used Envy apples which are known for being crisp so I cooked them an extra 15 minutes and they were soft but still held a little crispiness which was awesome with some vanilla ice-cream and Carmel
Louise says
This recipe made exceptional baked apples! Super easy and quick too. I used Jonagold Apples -awesome! I added a little extra of each ingredient to fill 6 medium apples. Served them for breakfast with creamy vanilla yogurt on the side, beautiful presentation, wonderful flavor! Thank you for such a great recipe!!!