Baked Apples with Nut Cream

The simple recipe for baked apples comes from Annemarie Colbin’s Book of Whole Meals (Ballantine Books, 1983. The nut cream is reprinted with permission from Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair (Sasquatch Books, 2008).

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 Honeycrisp or Fuji apples
• 3 tablespoons raisins
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ cup apple juice

Nut Cream

• ½ cup raw, unsalted cashews
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• Water

Directions

Apples

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Wash apples and remove core by making a V-shaped cut with your paring knife from the top and from the bottom of the apple Using a carrot peeler, take off a piece of skin round the top next to the core to prevent bursting while they bake, but retain shape.
3. Place apples in baking dish.
4. Stuff each apple with raisins, sprinkle with cinnamon and fill with apple juice.
5. Top each apple with a dab of butter.
6. Bake 30-40 minutes, depending on how tender you wish to have the apples.

Nut Cream

1. Grind nuts in the blender until powdered.
2. With the machine running, add the maple syrup, vanilla, and a tablespoon of water. Add more water a little at a time until you have the consistency you desire.
3. Top baked apples with Nut cream to serve.

Makes: 4 apples, 1 cup nut cream