cinnamon-sugared baked apples on crispy, caramelized ghost toasts

stats:

serves 4

active time: 10 minutes
oven time: 30 minutes

 what you need:

ingredients

4 beautiful (organic) apples 
4  slices sandwich bread (pain de mie, brioche, or challuh), sliced 1 inch thick
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, pliable (bendable but not too soft)
½ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 
fresh lemon juice (as needed)

equipment

Halloween cookie cutter (roughly the same diameter as your apples)
baking dish or ovenproof pan
vegetable or apple corer
knife, fork , or tongs

how to:

• Prepare Apple.  Cut off a little bit of the bottom (to create a flat surface). Peel the apples, leaving the stem in. Rub the apple exterior with lemon juice to prevent browning. Use a vegetable corer or apple corer to remove the seeds and core. Enter from the bottom of the apple.  

• Make Compound (Cinnamon) Butter. Mix together (with a mixer or a spoon) the butter, sugar and cinnamon. 

• Stuff Apples.  Fill the interior of apple with the cinnamon butter (about 1 tablespoon for small apples).

• Make Butter Roll. Take the remaining cinnamon butter and place it in parchment paper (or plastic wrap). Roll into a cylinder shape and place in the refrigerator to allow the butter to firm up.

• Prepare Toasts. Use a cookie cutter and press it into a slice of the bread. Set the crusts and  bread trimmings aside (you can dry them and use them later for croutons or breadcrumbs… or feed them to your chickens).  

• Prepare Baking Dish. Slice off strips of the butter (about ⅛ inch thick) and cover the bottom of the pan or baking dish with the butter. Place the ghost slices on top. 

• Bake Upside-Down. Place an apple on top of the each ghost slice with the bottom up. Place the pan/dish in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 15 minutes.

• Bake Rightside-Up. Carefully pull the baking dish from the oven. Use a fork (or tongs) and turn the apples rightside-up. 

• Add Pat of Butter & Baste. Place a large slice of the refrigerated cinnamon butter on top of each apple. Return the pan/dish to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. Use a large spoon to baste the apples in the melted butter  a few times.  

 

 

• Bake Until Tender. Bake apples until a fork or a knife can be easily inserted. You do not want the apples to be over-baked… they should still hold their shape, and the tops should only be slightly colored.  Remove the pan/dish from the oven.

• Cool. Let the apples cool. 

• Serve. Serve the apples warm but not piping hot. Serve on individual plates, or, place the baking dish on table and baste the apples one last time in front of guests . Use a spatula to plate.