Crockpot Baked Apples

These are so good! And they make the house smell amazing :) We had them with vanilla ice cream and I will absolutely make them again.

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped (I left these out since we didn't have any and I didn't want them anyway)
2 tablespoons trans-fat free margarine or butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 Gala or Macintosh apples, cored
1/2 cup apple juice or apple cider (I also didn't have any apple juice so I used water and it turned out fine)

In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, walnuts, margarine or butter, and cinnamon. If you don’t want to use walnuts, you could use pecans or go nut-free by substituting with ¼ cup chopped raisins, prunes, or granola! Another great substitution is ¼ cup of rolled quick oats moistened with a tablespoon of water before stuffing the apples.

Use a grapefruit spoon that has the sharp edges (or a melon baller or small pairing knife) and core most of the way through, I leave about ½ inch apple left at the bottom. You could remove the skin but I find that it helps to hold the apple together as it bakes - it also adds extra fiber which is always a plus.

Fill the apples with the filling and place them in the crock-pot.

Pour the apple juice or cider into the crock-pot, around the apples. If you don’t have apple juice or cider, you can use apple lime juice or apple vinegar (diluted with water and a little sugar).

Set the crock-pot on high heat and cook 2½ to 3 hours until the apples are soft and begin to collapse.
If you don’t have a crockpot, you can use a 7x11 casserole dish or stock pot. Preheat the oven to 350F and cover the pan with aluminum foil. They’ll take about 45 minutes to one hour. A glass baking dish is also an option, just be sure to lower the heat slightly 5-10 degrees since glass can cause food to burn.

If you’re making this recipe for a large crowd, you could do these in the oven in a large disposable roasting pan and just double the recipe. They also taste delish with a scoop of low-fat frozen vanilla yogurt.

You can refrigerate these for up to 3 days, but store them in an air-tight container so they don’t pick up odors from the fridge.

http://skinnychef.com/recipes/baked-apples