Baked Apples Filled with Fruit & Nuts

Per Nana~

About a year ago, Hubby saw a bag of dried figs at Costco and just had to

 have them. After tasting just two of them, he decided they were not to his 

liking. Into the fridge they went while I hoped to find a recipe to use 

them up. When this recipe came along I decided that here was my chance. 

Well guess what. Even dried figs do not last forever. 

They had what Google tells me were natural sugars crystallized on

 them, but they looked absolutely gross. And we were nearing the expiration

 date on the bag so instead I went with raisins, prunes, toasted pecans and

 that delicious Manuka honey from our stash of Seattle goodies. 

I do not have an apple corer so I had to use a trusty knife and spoon. 

The apples took a lot longer to cook than I expected, almost two hours, and 

they were still not very soft. Tasty, yes, but a bit "al dente". I have to 

admit that I did like the filling and as most of you know, I hate raisins. 

I am really not a fan of baked apples but this was a nice recipe and I

 am anxious to see how the other Doristas made out. 

Per Tricia~

This was another case of expectations getting the best of me. 

With the ingredients involved- dried fruit (apricots, cherries & raisins)

 and pecans that I love, cinnamon, honey and sea salt, I didn't it was

 possible for me to end up disappointed. That was the fatal error. 

Those darn expectations. 

And did I mention the cinnamon ? Not just any old cinnamon was used

 but I dug into the stash from the Sahale Snacks swag at the International 

Food Blogger's Conference in Seattle earlier this year. Sahale gave us a tin 

of their special "Yen Bai" cinnamon and it is truly out of this world. Yen Bai 

is a province in northern Vietnam, near the China border and produces what 

is considered the champagne of cinnamons due to the fact that it has the 

highest volatile oil of any cinnamon in the world. All Yen Bai cinnamon

 is Vietnamese...but not all Vietnamese cinnamon is Yen Bai. 

We were off to a good start. I continued on the swag hit and dug into

 the delicious Manuka Doctor honey we also received at the conference. 

(I can still hear the New Zealand accent of their spokesperson) We were

 all sold at the table while taste testing it and I have since learned that 

the benefits of this honey produced from bees that feed off the Manuka 

trees found in New Zealand. It is earthier and richer than other honey, 

and while it tastes delicious, it is also known for its health benefits. In fact,

 some folks literally use it right on their skin as a topical solution.  I focused

 on the taste, however, and was ready to eat the filling before even 

baking the apples.  In hindsight, I probably should have.

An apple corer appears to be the only kitchen gadget on earth that I do

 not own, and I had a tough time understanding how I was to core the 

apple while being careful not to cut through the bottom. I also felt 

horrible wasting much of the  apple to dig a wide hole for the filling so as

 a result I think the filling cavity was undersized. My bad. 

The top of the stuffed apples seemed to darken well before I could get
 them  past the al dente stage and I even threw foil on to protect them. 

I served it with a dollop of vanilla yogurt on top.

I came into this recipe liking baked apples and excited at the filling Dorie suggested, 

but there were simply too many prep steps for the apple, not to mention the

 task of having to baste them every 15 minutes, for me to want to revisit this. 

The taste testers was similarly neutral. Certainly not bad, just not a repeat for us. 

Happy French Friday ~