Hazelnut-coconut stuffed baked apples

My husband’s parents arrive next week, so I popped up to the market this weekend to get herbs for the bedraggled windowboxes, and wholewheat flour for bread. Then I saw baskets of shiny new chestnuts, piles of fresh hazelnuts and walnuts….. and could not resist them. Roasted chestnuts with red wine? Sourdough loaf with walnuts? We shall see. A handful of hazelnuts ended up in these baked apples, an easy weeknight dessert. So I am bringing these to Fiesta Friday at The Novice Gardener, with autumn greetings to all, and special thanks to the hosts Angie, Selma and Elaine!

It is gorgeous and sunny today, after two evenings of storms. Below is Wednesday night, our piazza was drenched.  Five streets meet there, and the drains get blocked, so streets and lower lying shops get flooded now and then. Thunder, wind and buckets of rain: looks like autumn is finally arriving here. Still nice and warm, so storms aside: it is a lovely time of the year!

Hazelnut-coconut stuffed baked apples with raisins

6 apples
30 grammes shelled chopped hazelnuts
50 grammes dessicated coconut
40g butter, shaved in
40 grammes golden syrup or honey
30 grammes raisins

A little golden syrup or honey to drizzle over before baking
Serves six.

Core and peel the apples. You will be stuffing the apple centres later, so it is fine to have a slightly wide ex-core.

In a bowl, mix nuts, coconut, and butter. Shave in the butter so you can roughly amalgamate the mixture with a fork, like making crumble topping. Stuff the apples generously with the coconut-nut mixture, with raisins stuffed in the middle and more topping packed in on top. Stand upright in an ovenproof dish. Drizzle a little golden syrup or honey over each apple, maybe 3 tsp for all apples together. Cover dish until ready to make.

Heat oven to 200C. Bake 35-40 min or so at 200C, until the apples are slightly softened but not so long the stuffing burns. Enjoy!

Notes: I baked these uncovered, and they were a little drier than when I made Oatmeal-coconut stuffed baked apples at Easter, which were baked partially covered. Still good flavour, though, and the small amount of fresh hazelnuts came through.