Here’s a special occasion dessert dish that your young kitchen helpers can contribute to the family holiday table that takes advantage of the wide selection of new-crop apples that dominate retail displays at this time of year. The recipe’s simple four-ingredient preparation also makes it a perfect culinary confidence-builder for the beginner cook since the flavor components are provided by two of Melissa’s most popular ready-to-eat products. Namely, a repurposed version of our Clean Snax® (Cranberry) line laced with Melissa’s Cinnamon Dessert Sauce, then stuffed inside a juicy sweet apple and baked. Come to think of it, the apple is also a ready-to-eat ingredient! Just add butter to make the fourth.
Seriously, move over pumpkin pie! I chose to use Fuji apples for this recipe because they are sweet, hold form when baked and, frankly, were the largest-sized apples available at my local retailer. The larger the apple, the larger the hollowed out cavity; the larger the cavity, the more scrumptious filling per serving! Another variety that would work well for this dish is the Honeycrisp, which tends to be quite large and very sweet. I found that a serrated spoon or melon-baller are both very kid-friendly tools for hollowing out each apple. The process adds a fun, arts-n-crafts aspect to the prep. The inedible, tough core and seeds are pretty obvious, but the separation from good fruit should be supervised so neither get into the filling mix.
Each convenient Clean Snax® clamshell package has approximately 30 bite-sized squares that contain nutrient-packed chia and flaxseed laced with honey and lightly salted. While Clean Snax® are gluten free, peanuts are a main ingredient for those with allergy concerns. Turning the Cranberry Clean Snax® squares into a granola-like form can be done quickly in the food processor. However, if you have a very young sous chef who you do not want turning on sharp-bladed machinery just yet, there is always the slower, bowl-and-mallet method. Potentially a little messier, but lots of culinary fun for the very young!
And this recipe is just as simple as that — hollow out the apples, combine the residual fruit with Melissa’s smashed Clean Snax®, fill each apple with that mixture and, finally, about halfway through the baking process, top each with Melissa’s luscious cinnamon dessert sauce. For the Turkey Day feast, serve this dish with lots of fanfare for those chefs at the kids table who made it and maybe a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Culinary kudos both inspire and build kitchen confidences! Happy Thanksgiving.
