Baked Apples with Maple-Walnut Sauce is essentially apple pie without all the fuss. This baked apples recipe will have you looking forward to apple season every year.
Take advantage of apple season with a plethora of treats. Between caramel apple crumble, fresh apple bars and upside down apple pie, the possibilities are endless when it comes to enjoying this seasonal fruit.
Baked Apples with Maple-Walnut Sauce Recipe
These baked apples with sauce are apple pie without all the fuss. This is pure comfort food that tastes like home, no matter where you are enjoying them.
This simple fall season recipe was designed to create lots of flavor and taste, with very few ingredients. The cinnamon-laced juices are incredible and have been described by many as heaven on a plate.
Lots of baked apple recipes have you bake the whole apple, adding ingredients only to the cored portion in the middle of the fruit. However, halving the apples (as we do in this recipe) before baking them not only saves cooking time, it allows the fruit to soak up all the amazing maple-ness and cinnamon-y goodness.
You are going to love these.
Ingredients for Baked Apples with Maple-Walnut Sauce
Pantry Ingredients
- brown sugar – light or dark brown sugar works fine for this recipe
- ground cinnamon – to get the most flavor out of your cinnamon, make sure yours is fresh
- maple syrup – buy the best you can afford, this really makes the recipe
- table salt
- walnuts – make sure to toast your walnuts before adding
Fresh Ingredients
- Granny Smith apples – I prefer Granny Smith for this recipe because of their tartness, but Gala apples also work great.
- lemon juice – make sure it’s freshly squeezed.
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Once you halve the apples, using a coring tool makes it easy to remove the seeds.
You could also use a knife to remove the core, the coring tool just gives it a uniform and polished look.
How To Make Baked Apples with Maple-Walnut Sauce
Step One: Preheat oven to 400o F.
Step Two: Brush cut sides of apples with 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Arrange apples, cut sides up, in a baking dish. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl (you might need more than the recipe calls for depending on the size of your apples); sprinkle cut sides of apples with sugar mixture. Pour maple syrup in bottom of dish.
Step Three: Cover with foil and bake 10 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes more or until apples are tender. Transfer apples to a serving platter.
Step Four: Pour pan juices into small saucepan and stir in remaining teaspoon 1 teaspoon lemon juice and salt; bring to a boil. Cook 3 to 5 minutes or until sauce is thickened, stirring constantly.
Are Apples Healthy?
Apples are in the top 20 of USDA list of foods with the highest antioxidant scores.
The richest concentration of antioxidants is found in the fruit’s skin, which is perfect since this recipe calls for unpeeled apples!
What is the Difference Between Baking Apples and Regular Apples?
Apples we cook with are for the most part larger and are usually tarter than dessert varieties. The level of tartness being the most discernable. A tart apple when mixed with sugar and other ingredients provides a nice contrast in flavor.
Some apples have a firm flesh that does not break down much when cooked.
Recipe Tips
- If your apples are larger than usual, you may need to use extra brown sugar to cover them.
- Test apples with a fork before removing from the oven, they should be tender.
- Good quality pure maple syrup makes a big difference in taste.
- Make sure to toast your walnuts prior to adding them to this recipe.
As you can see the sauce thickens up nicely after a few minutes on the stove.
Pour this luxuriously, delicious sauce over the apples and enjoy.
Serve the apples warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream for the most amazing, fall dessert.
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Baked Apples with Maple-Walnut Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 large large apples, such as Granny Smith (Gala works too), halved crosswise and cored
- 2 tsps lemon juice, divided
- 2 tbsps light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 1/8 tsp table salt
- 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400o F.
- Brush cut sides of apples with 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Arrange apples, cut sides up, in a baking dish. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl (you might need more than the recipe calls for depending on the size of your apples); sprinkle cut sides of apples with sugar mixture. Pour maple syrup in bottom of dish.
- Cover with foil and bake 10 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes more or until apples are tender. Transfer apples to a serving platter.
- Pour pan juices into small saucepan and stir in remaining 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and salt; bring to a boil. Cook 3 to 5 minutes or until sauce is thickened, stirring constantly.
Notes
Nutrition
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