Baking with Dorie: Baked Apples

This week's Baking with Dorie recipe on Serious Eats is for down-home old-fashioned baked apples.  As desserts go, baked apples are very low on the fancy/fussy scale, but they're way up there on the comfort-o-meter, so I hope you'll make them this weekend.  If it's chilly where you, they're guaranteed to taste even better.

Comments

[Dorie]

Maria, I'm so happy to hear that your father is still cooking and baking and really happy to hear that he liked the recipe.

Itir,it's funny, but the baked apple recipes I grew up with all had some of the peel left on the fruit. I think it's attractive to have the peeled/unpeeled contrast and I like the taste and texture of baked peel - not everyone's favorite part of the dessert. But there are no hard-and-fast rules with this sweet. I hope you'll make the recipe -- with or without the peel -- and enjoy it.

[itir]

Is there a special functional reason why you peel the apples only half way down? All the baked apple/pear/quince recipes I know peel the fruit completely.

Thank you.

[Maria]

Hi Dorie! My dad made your baked apples last night and they were a hit! The perfect dessert for this time of year! Thanks!!

[Dorie]

Sarah, you run your knife gently around the apple at the spot where the part that you peeled meets the part that still has peeled. In other words, you go around the circumference of the apple. You just make a little indentation in the apple; you don't cut deeply into the fruit. And, if you don't do it, as I didn't, you'll still have great apples. I hope you enjoy these -- let me know!

[Sarah]

Hi Dorie. I'm considering making these apples for Thanksgiving but I have an ignorant question. When you say you cut them to keep them from popping in the oven: Did you cut vertically, separating the apple from the peel or did you cut horizontally (perpendicular to the side of the apple)?

[Rona]

Oui, comfort food. My mother is no baker, nor does she like to fuss in the kitchen, but she does like to bake apples so I'm bringing this recipe with me when I visit her for Thanksgiving. This is something we can do together and enjoy. Merci mille fois Dorie.