Spiced Baked Apples

Total Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 1/4 cup pecan halves
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
• 1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar or 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped dried apricots
• 2 tablespoons golden raisins
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 6 baking apples, such as roma beauty
• 1 cup apple juice

Recipe

• 1 for filling: preheat oven to 350°f spread the pecan halves on a baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted, 5-7 minutes. remove from the oven, let cool and chop coarsely. set aside. raise the oven temerature to 400°f.
• 2 in a small bowl, combine the butter and sugar. using your fingertips or a wooden spoon, mix to a paste-like consistency. stir in the pasted nuts, apricots, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg. set aside.
• 3 to assemble: cut a thin slice off the bottom of each apple so that it will stand upright. working from the stem ends and using a sharp knife, core the apples withough piercing the bottoms.
• 4 using a small spoon, stuff the mixture into the cored apples, divide it equally. smooth the tops and cover just the filling with aluminum foil.
• 5 place the apples in a 9x13 baking dish. pour the apple juice into the dish. bake, basting with the dish juices every 15 minutes, until tender when pierced with a knife, 45-60 minutes.
• 6 to serve: transfer the baked apples to a platter or individual serving dishes and serve immediately.