How to Make Easy Baked Cinnamon Apples
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These baked cinnamon apples are easy to make, and oh how I love the aroma wafting through the kitchen. The juicy apples are stuffed with dark brown sugar, a cinnamon stick, and a vanilla bean, and topped with lemon sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon making them a delicious and fun dessert to eat during the fall season.
Apples are my family’s favorite fruit by far. So when apple season starts, I get to make all sorts of goodies that we don’t get to enjoy a lot of during other parts of the year. Our favorite apple desserts are apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, apple crisp, and simple applesauce. The kids also enjoy plain apple slices as a delicious treat, too.
Today I’m sharing a simple recipe for baked cinnamon apples that you can feel good about feeding your family. The delicious aroma of baking apples and fall spices perfume the air in my house better than anything else, too.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Fruit is a healthy treat– Fruits have natural sugars that make them a great treat all by themselves. But this recipe goes a step further to dress up the apples for a special occasion dessert, and without the extra calories of some other dessert recipes.
Easy Recipe – I love baked apples because I don’t have to do much except stuff them with goodness after I take out the apple core. Few recipes are that simple.
Customizable – You can swap out ingredients to use what you like. Instead of dark brown sugar, use light brown sugar, date sugar, coconut sugar, maple syrup, molasses sugar, or your personal favorite. You can also add different spices or keep things simple. If you avoid dairy products, swap out the butter for coconut oil.
Ingredients
The main ingredient in this recipe are fresh apples. I recommend that you choose the kind of apple that your family enjoys. If you don’t like tart apples like Granny Smith, use sweet apples like Gala, Jonagold, Macintosh a.k.a. McIntosh, Rome, Ida Red, etc. You will also need granulated lemon sugar, dark brown sugar, unsalted butter, ground cinnamon and cinnamon sticks, and vanilla beans.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
You can swap out the lemon sugar with plain granulated sugar mixed with a little bit of lemon juice or another flavored sugar like vanilla sugar, orange sugar, or rose sugar, if you want. You can also use regular light brown sugar in lieu of the dark brown sugar, or use an alternative sweetener like maple sugar.
How to Make Baked Cinnamon Apples
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C). Slice off the top and bottom of your apples.
Core your apples with an apple corer. Save your apple scraps to make apple scrap jelly, cranapple jelly, or apple scrap vinegar!
Set the apples into a heavy bottomed baking dish or Dutch oven, and rub softened butter on the tops of your apples.
I like using enameled cast iron Dutch ovens because it prevents scorching in the bottom of the pot. Thinner pots may not give you the results you’re looking for.
Then sprinkle the apples with granulated lemon sugar.
Next, add a spoonful or two of dark brown sugar into each hole of the apple. You don’t need to pack it firm, though.
This is optional, but you can stick a cinnamon stick and half a vanilla bean into the center of each apple for additional flavor. I like how it looks like an apple stem.
Finish off by sprinkling ground cinnamon over the top.
Then bake at 400°F for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the top is golden and a toothpick can be pushed in without much effort.
Let your baked cinnamon apples rest for 15 minutes before serving. Discard the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean, and serve the apples hot or with a scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream.
Tips
- Take care in removing the apple cores. If you have an apple corer like the one I use, it’s helpful to keep using the corer and not emptying it out between apples. The cores will pop out on their own as you press it into the next apple. However, for the last apple core, I find that pushing a chopstick through the apple corer, away from me and the apple corer blade, is the simplest and safest way to remove the final apple core.
- Start checking your apples at 30 minutes by sticking a toothpick into the flesh of the center apple. If your apples don’t begin to crack around the top edge, the only way to know for sure that your apples are cooked is to check how soft they are. The center apple will take the longest to reach perfection.
- Enjoy the juices in the bottom of your pan after cooking this recipe. Drizzle the juice on top of your baked apple and some good vanilla ice cream for an extra special treat.
Recipe FAQs
Once they have cooled down to room temperature, store leftover cinnamon apples in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to a week. You can also freeze for longer storage up to 3 months.
Yes, an apple a day keeps the doctor away…or so the old adage goes. Apples have fiber and natural sugars, making them good for digestion, and vitamins A, B6, and C, which can give your immune system a boost. Cinnamon is an antioxidant that can help protect your body from free radicals. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, which can help reduce swelling and joint pain. You can omit the extra white and brown sugar in this recipe for a healthier treat, too.
You can bake any apple in the oven but it’s best to reach for your favorite and what you already have for this recipe. The best tart, green apples are Granny Smith because they hold their shape very well and balance the extra sweetness. The best sweet red apples are Jonagold, Gala, Rome, Macintosh, Ida Red, and Fuji.
More Fruit Desserts from the Farm
- Easy, Moist Fruit Cake Recipe Without Alcohol
- Moist Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe
- Easy Blueberry Peach Crisp in a Skillet
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Also, tag me on Instagram @rivers.family.farm.
Easy Baked Cinnamon Apples Recipe
Easy Baked Cinnamon Apples
Equipment
- enameled cast iron Dutch oven (or heavy bottomed pot)
- apple corer
- cutting board
- sharp knife
- measuring spoons
Ingredients
- 6 apples, cored
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- granulated lemon sugar, to taste (or plain sugar, vanilla sugar, orange sugar, or rose sugar)
- ⅓ cup dark brown sugar (or light brown sugar or alternative sweetener)
- ground cinnamon, to taste
- 6 cinnamon sticks (optional)
- 3 vanilla beans, cut in half (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400℉. Wash your apples and slice off the top and bottom so that they can sit flat. Core your apples.
- Set the prepared apples into the bottom of an enameled cast iron Dutch oven, and smear the tops with softened butter the best you can.
- Sprinkle lemon sugar on top of each apple, to taste. Add a spoonful or two of brown sugar into the center of each apple.
- Optional: Insert a cinnamon stick and half a vanilla bean into the center of each apple.
- Sprinkle ground cinnamon over the tops of the apples.
- Bake at 400℉ for 30 to 40 minutes until the top is golden brown, or until a toothpick can go into the flesh of the center apple without much effort.
