Festive baked apples with marzipan and rum raisins in vanilla sauce

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 4 apples (e.g. Braeburn), preferably the same size
• 200 g marzipan paste
• 50 g raisins
• 100 ml rum, high proof
• 80 g almond sticks
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 400 ml cream (UHT cream) or fresh
• 2 packs of cream stiffener
• 1 sachet of dessert sauce (vanilla flavor) without cooking
• e.g. milk

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 45 minutes

If possible, soak the raisins in rum in a tightly sealed container the day before (but this also works during preparation). The longer they soak, the better they will infuse. You can easily soak the required amount for the winter in rum at the start of the season, store in a cool place, and skim off the required amount with a clean spoon. Prepare the vanilla sauce with the milk according to the package instructions. If you like, you can of course also make the sauce yourself using any recipe. Chill well before serving. Preheat the oven to approx. 180°C (convection oven or top/bottom heat). Core the apples using a corer. Now make jagged cuts all around with a kitchen knife, reaching the hollow so that the top of the apple can be easily lifted off, creating a kind of star. Knead the marzipan mixture with the slivered almonds and a few rum-soaked raisins. If children are eating with you, you can use unpreserved raisins and only arrange the preserved ones on the plate for the adults when garnishing. Fill the apples with the prepared mixture – some of the filling should slide into the hollowed-out apple base, and the rest should be spread over the cutout. Now press on the lid – as you can see in the photo, the marzipan is now visible as a layer between the two apple halves. Place the apples in an apple roasting pan or all together in an ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon and place in the oven. We don’t like the apples too soft, so 30 minutes of baking at 180°C is sufficient. However, you can also go up to 200°C and cook for 30-40 minutes. Or – which we really like – if possible, cook the apples directly in the apple roasting pan on the fireclay of the fireplace. However, the preparation time varies depending on the type of oven and the heating level, from 20 minutes to 3 hours! As soon as the apples come out of the oven, they should be served in portions. To do this, whip the cream with the cream stiffener beforehand (we also add a pinch of cinnamon here). Place a small ladleful of the custard on each plate and place an apple in the center. Garnish with a few rum raisins and a dollop of cream. Of course, you could also add vanilla mousse or vanilla ice cream instead of custard, top the apples with an extra tablespoon of cranberries and toasted almond slivers or brittle after baking, use nuts instead of almonds, and so on. There are many ways to further refine this recipe. If you don’t like vanilla, you can replace the rum raisins with raisins and serve them with a white wine sauce instead. We enjoy the baked apples (prepared beforehand and placed on the fireplace) after a strenuous winter hike with a nice, hot tea with rum (pot), or—as we did this year—as dessert with the Christmas menu.