Baked Apples

Haha....they look kinda yellow. I should fix that. (and thanks, Matt, for taking the pic!)

Anyway, last weekend Mom, Dad, Jon, Matt, and Melissa were all with us on Long Island. Dave and I had some leftover apples from when we went apple picking, so we made this easy, yet (somewhat) time-consuming dessert.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
6-8 apples
3 tbs butter, softened
3 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
pre-made pastry sheets (we used 1 1/2 packages)
raisins, walnuts optional
1 egg yolk
Raw sugar (or regular sugar)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Peel and core apples, and set aside.
3. Mix softened butter, sugar, and cinnamon in bowl. I added extra cinnamon ;-)
4. Add in raisins and/or walnuts, if using.
5. Fill apple cavities with cinnamon sugar butter mixture ("apple cavities?" Not sure why I called them that)
6. Roll out pastry sheets, and cut into 8" squares.
7. Place an apple on pastry square, and fold up corners to meet at the top. Crimp edges, and add decorative pieces of pastry, if desired.
8. Repeat with remaining apples.
9. Brush with egg yolk, and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
10. Bake for 30 minutes, or until apples have softened and pastry is golden brown.

For Melissa, we omitted the pastry. Dave and I actually made these again when we got back to MA, and we didn't use the pastry either. Halfway through the baking time, I brushed the cinnamon sugar that had oozed out the bottom back onto the apples, and continued baking.

I preferred them without the pastry, and Dave liked them better with.

Oh yea- serve with ice cream or whipped cream. Yum!