Bafflingly, this recipe came out of The Breakfast Bible! It's delicious, but I don't think that any recipe that calls for >1 c. of sugar and 2 c. of whipping cream (and not much else) should be considered breakfast! We had it for dessert last night and it was lovely.

I was surprised at how well the cream clung to the apple skin. I thought it would all just run right off and I'd be sitting there wondering what on Earth they were thinking when writing the instructions. But it actually worked quite well! (The instructions about coring the apples could've stood a bit of adjustment, but giving them their sugar-cream coating actually worked out just fine.)

The original recipe just says to core the apples with an apple corer. So, as far as I can tell, you're meant to punch a hole all the way throug the centre of the apple. I did this with the first one, but I didn't like how it looked and it seemed like it would give a worse final result since you're instructed to fill the apples with the remaining cream and sugar before putting them into the oven. If you've punched all the way through, then everything's just going to run out the bottom! That didn't really seem like a winning plan to me. So, after considering the first apple, I decided to take a different tack with the remaining seven and leave the bottom in tact. This approach does risk ending up with a bit of the core/blossom being served with the final dessert, but I think it's worth it for the easier baking and nicer presentation.

Baked Apples with Cream

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 8 large apples¹
• 1-2 c. heavy (35%) cream², divided
• 1 c. sugar⁴
• ~1 tsp. ground cinnamon⁵
• 1/2 c. water
• 1-2 Tbsp. icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F).
2. Cut a cone out of the top of each apple to remove the stem and some of the surrounding skin.
3. Use a spoon to dig out the core and seeds, leaving the bottom of the apple in tact.
4. Measure out 1/3 c. of the cream.
5. Place the sugar (or cinnamon-sugar) in a shallow bowl.
6. Working with one apple at a time, use a pastry brush to brush the outside of the apple with cream, then roll the apple in the sugar to completely coat it. Set the sugar-coated apple in a shallow baking dish. Repeat with remaining apples.
7. Once all the apples have been coated, pour any of the cream remaining from brushing the apples into the centres of the fruit.
8. Spoon the remaining sugar into the centres of the apples, dividing it as evenly as possible.
9. Sprinkle with the cinnamon (unless using cinnamon sugar for coating).
10. Pour the water into the bottom of the baking dish.
11. Bake at 150°C (300°F) for 90 minutes, carefully basting every 30 minutes.
12. Meanwhile, combine the remaining cream with the icing sugar and vanilla. (If using the larger amount of cream, use the larger amount of sugar.) Beat until stiffened.
13. Once the apples are done, transfer to bowls and top with whipped cream. If desired, add 1-2 Tbsp. of ice cream to the centre of each apple before topping with cream.

---

¹ The original recipe calls for Rome Beauty apples. I ended up using 7 Ambrosia apples + 1 Royal Gala. The Gala (pictured) was much smaller than the Ambrosias and, I think, probably less well-suited to this recipe, but it still worked out fine. ^Back
2 The original recipe calls for 2 c. of cream. I think that seems a bit excessive, especially if you opt to have this as a breakfast dish after all. Since we only had ~1 c. of cream left anyway, I just used that and called it a day.^{3 Back
3} I may have also added a small amount of ice cream to the centre of my apple before topping it with whipped cream. Definitely not a requirement, but I think it was a nice addition. Personally, I liked the idea of a small amount of ice cream + a small amount of whipped cream better than burying the apple under a mountain of whipped cream alone. ^Back
4 Here, again, I reduced the quantities slightly. The original recipe calls for 1 1/4 c. of sugar. I felt like 1 c. would be enough, so I just rolled with that. ^Back
5 The recipe didn't specify a quantity for the cinnamon and I didn't measure how much I used, but I think it was probably around a teaspoon. Next time I might actually be inclined to use cinnamon sugar to coat the apples rather than trying to add the cinnamon separately afterward. I think it would provide a more even distribution and hopefully it wouldn't be too cinnamon-y. I might try it with a half-strength batch of cinnamon sugar for the first go 'round: maybe a 1:12 or 1:16 cinnamon:sugar ratio. Something to think about for next time anyway.^Back