Baked Apples with Mandarin & Maple Glaze
Dessert
Feeds 4
Cook Time: 45 mins
Difficulty: Medium
Nostalgic, simple, delicious and a taste of my childhood! I have such an attachment to this dessert. A strong part of my mums pudding armoury, largely made of things she would always have in the cupboard - I may have got a bit cheffy and added the orange and maple glaze though!
We are spoilt for choice in the UK for apples! As summer ends and Autumn arrives, apples start getting plucked from the trees and the country goes into apple overload! There are tons of varieties and I really recommend trying as many as you can. The diverse array of textures and flavours across apple varieties is quite incredible!
For this recipe, I always like to pick an apple I like to eat. There is a bit more of a natural, apple-y sweetness and you don’t have to rely quite so much on added sugar. A lot of baked apple recipes will ask for Bramley or cooking apples - these work great but just add a touch more sugar to the filling and maybe a bit more maple syrup to the glaze!
Baked apples are renowned for exploding in the oven - don’t worry too much, for me, this adds to the charm of the pudding! Keep an eye on them when they are baking, if they look like they are swelling up a bit, just take them out of the oven, cover them in foil and leave them to sit and rest until they are soft throughout!
INGREDIENTS:
4 Good Sized Eating Apples
80g Sultanas
40g Pecans
1 Dsp Light Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
25g Butter
4 Mandarins or Oranges
100g Maple Syrup
METHOD:
Pre-heat the oven to 180C
Roughly chop the pecans, then add to a bowl along with sultanas, light brown sugar and cinnamon to make the filling
Core the apples and fill the void with filling
Top each apple with a knob of butter
Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes depending on the size of your apples
While they are baking, make the glaze
Juice the mandarins or oranges into a saucepan, add the maple syrup, add to hob on a high heat. Simmer and reduce until sticky but still pourable (around 1/4 reduction). If it reduces too far, just add a splash of water
When the apples are soft all the way through, remove from the oven and pour over the glaze
Serve with tons of custard, ice cream, cream or creme fraiche!
