Baked Apples
Halved apples baked under a buttery oat, walnut and cinnamon crumble until soft and golden, sitting in a caramel sauce the oven makes for you.
Soft apples under a crunchy oat crumble, in a pool of caramel you didn't have to make.
Recipe inspiration
A cold night, a fruit bowl going soft, and nobody wants to make pastry. This is crumble without the rubbing-in, ready in the time it takes to eat dinner and wash up. It's the dessert for a Sunday roast, a winter weeknight, or a Christmas table that already has too many things on it.
It also solves the bag of apples nobody is eating. Slightly wrinkly apples bake beautifully; they're sweeter for it.
About this dish
Baked apples are one of the oldest winter desserts in Europe. Apples were the only fruit that kept through a northern winter, so baking them became a Christmas tradition. In Germany they're Bratäpfel, traditionally made with the sharp Belle de Boskoop and sold from Christmas market stalls. In Norfolk, bakers slow-cooked Norfolk Biffins in cooling bread ovens for hours, pressed flat under iron plates, and sent them to London as a luxury; Dickens put them in A Christmas Carol, "squab and swarthy", eaten after dinner. Bosnia poaches its apples instead and stuffs them with walnuts (tufahije).
This version is halved, not whole, so every bite gets topping. Three textures: apple soft enough to cut with a spoon but still holding its shape, a crisp oat and walnut crust, and a glossy brown sauce that tastes of butterscotch and apple. Cinnamon and a pinch of cloves make it smell like Christmas from the other room.
Additions & substitutions
- Whole apples: core right through with an apple corer, leaving the base, stuff the hollow and pile topping on top. Add 10 to 15 minutes uncovered. Prettier, less topping per bite.
- Dried fruit: stir 40 g raisins, chopped dates or dried cranberries into the topping. Soak them in 2 tbsp brandy or orange juice first for a Christmas version.
- Nuts: pecans for a sweeter, butterier crunch; almonds, flaked, for a lighter one; or pumpkin seeds for nut-free.
- Spice: swap the cinnamon for 1 tsp mixed spice, or add ½ tsp ground ginger and the zest of an orange.
- Pears: firm Beurre Bosc pears, halved and cored the same way. Check from 25 minutes; they cook faster.
- Gluten-free: certified gluten-free oats, or swap the oats for almond meal.
- Vegan: the same weight of coconut oil or a plant-based baking block for the butter. Serve with coconut yogurt.
Expert tips
Shopping
- Juicy, firm apples. Pink Lady, Jazz, Granny Smith or Modi hold their shape and give plenty of juice for the sauce. Red Delicious goes floury; Bramleys (if you find them) collapse into fluff, lovely but not this dish.
- Same-sized apples cook in the same time. Medium, about 180 g each.
- A dish they fit snugly in. 20 x 30 cm for 8 halves. Too big and the sauce spreads thin and burns at the edges.
Preparing
- Chill the topping while you cut the apples. Cold, it clumps and holds a heap; warm, it slides off.
- A melon baller or teaspoon scoops the core into a neat hollow. A deeper hollow holds more topping.
- Trim a sliver off the round side so the halves sit flat and don't tip their topping into the sauce.
- Water around, never over. Poured over, it washes the topping off and the crumble goes soggy.
Make ahead, or for a crowd
- Make the topping up to 3 days ahead and keep it in the fridge, or freeze it for 3 months.
- Fill the apples up to 4 hours ahead, cover and chill. Add the water just before baking; bake 5 minutes longer from cold.
- For 8 or 12, use two dishes, not one crowded one, and swap their shelves halfway.
- Leftovers keep 3 days in the fridge. Reheat at 160°C for 10 minutes, or 1 minute in the microwave.
Serving suggestions
- Warm, with vanilla ice cream melting into the sauce, custard, or thick plain yogurt.
- After sticky ribs or a pot of winter vegetable soup.
- On a Christmas table beside apple pie and a jug of mulled wine.
- Cold for breakfast, chopped through yogurt.
Baked Apples
Published 2 Oct 2026 · Updated 3 Oct 2026
Ingredients
Topping
- 50 g rolled oats (½ cup)
- 60 g walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped (½ cup)
- 75 g brown sugar (⅓ cup, lightly packed)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch of ground cloves or nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
- 60 g unsalted butter, melted (¼ cup)
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
Apples
- 4 firm, juicy apples (about 180 g each), such as Pink Lady, Jazz or Granny Smith
- 180 ml water (¾ cup)
- 2 tsp cornflour
To serve
- Vanilla ice cream, custard or thick yogurt
You need a baking dish about 20 x 30 cm, and foil.
Method
- Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
- Make the topping. Mix the oats, nuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Stir in the melted butter and maple syrup until it looks like wet sand and clumps when squeezed. Chill it while you prepare the apples; it firms up and holds a heap.
- Halve and core. Cut each apple in half through the stem. Scoop out the core and seeds with a melon baller or teaspoon, leaving a hollow about 2 cm deep. Trim a thin sliver off the round side of any half that wobbles.
- Fill. Sit the halves cut side up, snug in the dish. Press a heaped tablespoon of topping into each hollow and pile the rest on top, pressing gently so it holds. It looks like too much. It isn't.
- Add the water. Whisk the cornflour into the cold water until no lumps remain, then pour it into the dish around the apples, not over them.
- Bake covered. Cover tightly with foil and bake 20 minutes. The apples steam and start to soften; the kitchen smells of cinnamon.
- Bake uncovered. Remove the foil and bake 15 to 20 minutes more, until the topping is deep golden, a knife slides into the apple with no resistance, and the liquid in the dish has turned into a bubbling, glossy brown sauce.
- Rest. Leave 5 minutes; the sauce thickens as it cools. Spoon it over the apples and serve warm.
Notes
- Sauce thin and watery? The apples were very juicy or the dish was too big. Lift the apples onto plates and boil the sauce in a small pan for 2 minutes, or give the dish 5 more minutes uncovered.
- Sauce dried out or catching? The dish was too big or the oven runs hot. Stir in a splash of hot water and scrape up the caramel; it comes back.
- Apples collapsed? A soft, floury variety, or overbaked. It's still delicious: call it crumble and serve it in bowls.
- Apples still hard? Pink Lady and other dense apples can take 10 minutes more. Trust the knife, not the clock.
- Topping burning before the apples are soft? Put the foil back on loosely and keep baking.
- Topping fell off into the sauce? It went on warm, or the water went over it. Spoon it back on top for the last 10 minutes.
Sources
- "Baked apple", Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baked_apple
- "Norfolk Biffin", Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Biffin
- "Magic Caramel Self Saucing Baked Apples", RecipeTin Eats (Nagi Maehashi), https://www.recipetineats.com/baked-apples/
- "Baked Apples", Love and Lemons (Jeanine Donofrio), https://www.loveandlemons.com/baked-apples/
