Enjoy this delicious but simple apple dessert along with a few tips on storing your fruit.
To maintain their crunch, store them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Apples produce ethylene gas – something that promotes quicker ripening in some fruits and vegetables. That’s great when you want other produce to ripen quickly but not when you’re just trying to store your fruit to eat at a later time.
In addition, the expression “One rotten apple spoils the whole bunch” does indeed have merit. Bruised apples emit more ethylene, causing the rest of the apples to lose their crunchiness and spoil more quickly. So don’t store any bruised ones with other produce or apples. Instead cut away the bruised part and then either eat it or cook with it.
While it may be tempting to keep the apples in a bowl in your kitchen to remind you to eat your fruit instead of something less nutritious, consider that at room temperature, apples ripen eight to ten times faster than when refrigerated.
Baked Apples with Cranberries and Pecans
Serves 4
2 tbsp (25 mL) brown sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) cinnamon
2 tbsp (25 mL) dried cranberries
2 tbsp (25 mL) coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
1 tbsp (15 mL) soft non-hydrogenated margarine, melted
4 baking apples like Golden Delicious
1/2 cup (125 mL) apple juice
Preheat the oven to 350°F/ 180°C. Slice off about 1/4-inch/ 0.5 cm of the top of each apple. Core the apples to remove seeds, leaving the bottom of the fruit intact. Place apples in an 8×8–inch (20-cm) a large oval baking dish.
In a small mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, cranberries and nuts. Stir in melted margarine. Place the mixture in centre and on top of each apple. Carefully pour juice over apples, not to disturb topping. Bake until the apples are tender, about 45 minutes. Baste the apples with the juice mixture with a bulb baster, 2 or 3 times, during baking. Serve warm or at room temperature with a lower-fat frozen vanilla yogurt.
Nutritional information per serving
• Calories: 172
• Protein: 1 g
• Fat: 5 g
• Saturated fat: 1 g
• Carbohydrate: 33 g
• Dietary fibre: 6 g
• Sodium: 29 mg
© Rosie Schwartz
Enlightened Eater 
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