Baked Apples with Cranberry Topping

I woke up Sunday morning to the sun shining through my windows.  I bundled up and took a trip to the local farmer’s market.  A few vendors had setup indoor heated tents, which was a nice break from the frigid temperatures. I realized that I should take advantage of a chilly day and make baked apples with leftover cranberries from another recipe. 

Ingredients:

Apples (I used Macintosh, a variety of apples works for this recipe)

Brown sugar

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

A few pats of butter

Maple syrup

Topping:

½ a bag of Cranberries (fresh or frozen)

1/3 cup of sugar

Cinnamon

Instructions:

Wash and core the apples. Place them in a baking dish and add brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, about 1-2 pats of butter in place of the cores of each apple.  Drizzle maple syrup over the top of each apple.  Add about 1/3 cup maple syrup and 1/3 cup water to the bottom of the baking dish to prevent any burning.  This will also create a great flavorful sauce that the apples can bake in.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the apples are soft.  You’ll want to pour the liquid from the bottom of the baking dish over the apples periodically over the 30 minutes.

For the cranberry topping, you can prepare this while the apples are baking.  Add cranberries and sugar to a pot and keep them on a low heat on the stove, stirring every few minutes, until the cranberries become soft and the sugar melts down.  This usually takes about 15 minutes or so. 

Add the cranberry topping to the baked apples, filling the center of each and adding an overflow of topping, depending upon how much you like cranberries!

You can serve this warm (and I’d even suggest adding some whipped cream on the side).  You can store the baked apples and cranberry topping in a covered container for about 3-4 days.  Just take it out of the fridge, pop in the microwave and warm.