Baked Apples Stuffed with Dried Fruit and Nuts

Serving Size: Serves 4

Ingredients

4 (6-oz) Red Apples, like Gala, Honeycrisp, or Sweetango

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup finely chopped dried apricots

2 Tablespoons dried cranberries

2 Tablespoons chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted

2 Tablespoons packed dark brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 cup Brennan’s Apple Cider

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup Vanilla Yogurt

Adapted From: Epicurious.com

Description
A flavorful fall dessert!

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350F.

Core apples with corer.  Stand apples up and make 4 evenly spaced vertical cuts starts from top of each apple and stopping halfway from bottom to keep apple intact.  Brush inside of apples with lemon juice and stand apples in a 9-inch ceramic or glass pie plate.

Toss together apricots, cranberries, nuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl.  

Rub ½ tablespoon of softened butter into dried-fruit mixture with your fingers until combined well, then pack center of each apple with mixture.  Put a piece of remaining butter on top of each apple.  Pour cider and vanilla around apples and cover pie plate tightly with foil.

Bake in the middle of the oven, basting once until apples are just tender when pierced with a fork, about 40 minutes.  Remove foil and continue to bake until apples are very tender, but not falling apart, 20-30 minutes more.  Transfer to serving dishes and spoon sauce over and around apples.  Serve with dollops of yogurt.