Best baked apples

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 1 large apple
• some marzipan
• some raisins, soaked in rum
• some pine nuts, roasted
• Cinnamon
• some jam
• some lemon juice
• some butter
• some honey
• some almond flakes, roasted

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 50 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 5 minutes

Wash the apple and let it drain. If possible, twist off the stem with your fingers. If that’s not possible, carefully loosen it on all sides with a small, sharp knife and pry it off. This should be done carefully, as this end of the apple will be used later. Now turn the apple over and insert an apple corer into the apple at the blossom end. Try to position the corer so that, after piercing, it also cuts out the center of the stem. If the apple corer doesn’t come out easily, you can use a small, sharp knife to slightly smooth the cut on the stem side so that the middle part comes out effortlessly. If you neglect this step, you may tear off too much of the apple skin when pulling it out, which will at least be aesthetically pleasing. Now cut off the stem end of the removed middle part of the apple (at least 1 cm long, a little more for larger apples) and insert it back into the apple. If you like it to be perfect, turn it so that it sits seamlessly in the apple as before. By putting the stem end back into the apple without the stem and also without the blossom, you can eat the whole fruit later without worry. Now you hold a long knife parallel to the worktop and cut off a lid so that it is not too thick, but thick enough to allow easy access to the inside of the apple and to fit enough filling. Set the lid to one side. Now you cut out some of the flesh of the apple at an angle of about 45 degrees around the removed middle part. How much flesh you remove will of course depend on the size of the apple and whether you are more interested in the filling or the soft, warm flesh. The removed flesh is eaten immediately and helps keep the cook healthy. Now you brush a little lemon juice onto the cut surfaces of the apple and the lid. This is especially important if you are preparing several apples, which is not only recommended for larger groups of sweet-toothed people, but also for preparing in advance, as the baked apples will easily keep for several days in the refrigerator and – slightly warmed up – can easily make other delicious desserts. Now place the apple in an ovenproof dish, set the lid aside, and press some marzipan into the hole in the middle of the apple. Then sprinkle the visible flesh with a little cinnamon. Next, add the rum raisins and the toasted pine nuts, and if you like, a little of the melted butter. Then drizzle on some honey and replace the lid. The remaining opening is sealed with jam. The butter, which was melted in a small saucepan during preparation, is now drizzled onto and into the apple. Use at least two teaspoons of melted butter per apple so that the outside of the apple is coated and the butter can run down. This prevents the apple from sticking to the dish and also mixes with the fruit juice to provide enough warm, delicious sauce that can be drizzled over the finished apple on the plate. As soon as the melted butter is on the apple skin, sprinkle a few almond slivers on top. The ovenproof dish is then placed in the unheated oven at 150°C and left there for about 50 minutes. Important: the length of time (or the temperature) can of course vary depending on the oven and the size of the apple. The only thing that is important is that the apple is in the oven long enough so that the flesh is wonderfully soft, but that the temperature is not too high, otherwise the apple will start to burn. By the way: Nutella is also a great alternative to marzipan; if you mix different fillings, you can use toothpicks to mark which apple contains which.