{Recipe}: Baked Apples

It has been apple season in Virginia for the past few months. A great date trip is to go to pick-your-own orchards and fill up your bags. My problems is, I don't know when to stop. I always come away with 20 - 30 lbs of apples.

A very unflattering picture of the Mr. and me on our date.

My favorites are Braeburn and Fuji.

The Mr. and I took a trip to Carter Mountain Orchard the last Saturday of September (I know, I know so long ago). We bought Fuji and Jonagold apples.

View from Carter Mountain

I love apples in any kind of baked good, but I thought I would leave them to be the star player in a dish all their own: Baked Apples.

I found a recipe on Pinterest for baked apples, but I added twice as many apples as it called for so it wouldn't be too sweet.

6 fuji apples, peeled and thinly sliced (this is how many I used)
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cornstarch
juice of half a lemon
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter

To peel the apples easily I use an apple peeler.
I then cut them into wedges approximately the same size. If you have more than 6 apples, you can use more. There is plenty of sauce to go around!

Once all of the apples were cut, I put them into a bowl and added cinnamon, cornstarch, lemon, and brown sugar. Sometimes I don't measure and I just dump approximate amounts in and it works just fine. (I think nutmeg would be a nice touch to this recipe too.)

Dump the apples into an appropriately sized casserole dish. Put butter slices on top.

Bake on 400 degrees F for 25 - 30 min. The apples should be tender but not mushy.

They didn't last long!!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!
I can imagine putting these warm apples atop some vanilla ice cream... mmmm!

The Science Behind: Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice that is from the inner bark of trees of the genus Cinnamomum. Cinnamomum verum is "true" cinnamon but other varieties are usually used in cinnamon found in most retail stores. It is mainly cultivated in Asian countries. I went to the spice diva and smelled all the varieties of cinnamon she had for sale. The cinnamon from Vietnam was amazing! It. Smells. So. Good! I kid you not. If you have a bulk spice store, check it out!

The smell and taste is from a chemical found in the spice: cinnamaldehyde. It is an aromatic molecule (chemically aromatic as well as aroma aromatic).

Cinnamon is used all around the word in many different types of dishes. It is mainly used in desserts, but in the Middle East they will often pair it with chicken or lamb.

There are some health benefits associated with cinnamon, although there are more studies that need to be performed to back this up. It has been shown to help regulate blood sugar and so it is useful for those with Type II Diabetes. By eating 1/2 tsp. a day, it could help lower LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol). There are many other suggested health benefits:

http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/10-health-benefits-of-cinnamon.html
http://diabetes.webmd.com/cinnamon-and-benefits-for-diabetes
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/cinnamon

Even if cinnamon doesn't have these health benefits, it tastes so good, why not add it to your food just in case?? I do!