Baked apples are a simple dessert made from oven-baked apples with a delicious filling. These fillings are what make the recipe so unique for every family, When i was researching for this article i dont find any history about it. But it is been made for centuries.

Most likely in wintertime, the smell of baked apples warms our hearts. Many recalls the sweet smell of grandmother's kitchen, childhood, rattling coldness and tiled stove.

But what i find out is that the fruity treat is an old home remedy for hoarseness. Slowly eat three Bratäpfel with real honey (just add two tablespoon to every Bratapfel in our Traditional recipe - you don't need to have any desert after that :-) ). 

In doing so, enzymes are released, which do well for your vocal chords. The farmer's recipe, by the way, works much better than the well-known warm honeymilk. The mists rather.

One disadvantage is the warm enjoyment: during heating about half of the vitamin C is lost. On the other hand, there is only one means: Give yourself a second round! 

When it comes to choose an apple for this dish you want to have a semi-tart apple variety like Honeycrisp or Granny Smith. The filling will provide the sweetness. If you are interested which other apple variety you could use have a look to a great guide from the LATimes.

Since there are so many recipes out there we will highlight optional ingredients, just put in what you love and create you own family tradition. The very best is to serve the Bratapfel with a Vanilla sauce. Throughout the story you will find click2view (c2v) links to the product in our store if we carry them, that makes it easy for you to find the right item.

Traditional Bratapfel Recipe

2 apples (for two, so 1 apple / person)

2 tbsp sweet (=not salted) butter

2 tbsp sweet (=not salted) butter for greasing the baking dish

1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts or your favorite nut)

1/4 cup light brown sugar

(optional) 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon adjust it how you like it

(optional) 2 tbsp honey 

(optional) 2 tbsp dark or yellow raisins

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400°. You should bake the apple in ramekins or any often proved dish.  

Grease the dish with butter so that the apples won’t stick.

Mix the your ingredients together until well combined.

Now come the part where you will get better with time and training. The first time, well in my case it doesn't look that appealing. So if you host guest, try the recipe and train before! Wash the apples.  There are special apple kerner available (link) . When coring the apples, don’t go all through to the bottom! Start at the stem side and core a ¾ way down, leaving the bottom of the apple intact. This will provide that the filling won't run out of the bottom and keeps the apple and filling moist. Scoop out enough apple pulp with corer or spoon so that you have an opening in which you will place the filling. 

Now, after thanksgiving you might be trained with stuffing - so fill the apples now and make sure some of the filling is showing on top of the apple. Another way i have seen and is shown on the pictures. Cut of just cut the apples head of about 1.5inch and fill the apple and bake the head together and put it back on top. Also here make sure that the filling is always showing up!

Bake for 30 minutes at 400°. Baking time can be adjusted according to preference. If you would like apple to be more firm, reduce the baking time. If you would like a softer apple, increase baking time. In Germany it is a soft apple that we like, but with enough firmest to cut right through it. so it is not mushy.

more Variaties:

- If you like the optional raisins and like a bit of booze, then soaked them in rum a night before preparation.

- add 1/4 cup Ovomaltine Crunchy Cream (click2view) to it, or any other Nougat/chocolate/hazelnutspread you like. Ovomaltine give some malty crunch-texture to the desert. 

- add 5 Tbl marzipan with or without chocolate, we recommend the Niederegger Weissbrot (c2v) without chocolate but hey it is your recipe so you can use it with chocolate  (c2v) as well. Please cut the marzipan in small pieces and mix it in the filling. Make sure it is distributed through the mix.

Enjoy the preparing and it is fun to do this with you kids as well. (well not the rum raisin variation of course).

*The almost to good to be true pictures (who makes me want go down and look in the oven if the Bratapfel are ready) as been provided by romi@pixabay. I will say: to have your apple look like this,  you and i have to train a lot - but we have a goal, right? - Danke Rita!