Fill your kitchen with the iconic smell of baking apples and cinnamon with these cozy oatmeal baked apples. Cored apples are filled with an oat-brown sugar-cinnamon mixture and then baked until the apples are soft and the oatmeal mixture has a cake-like consistency. The moistness of the baked apples surrounds the oatmeal mixture to make a heart-warming dessert or breakfast that is full of nutrients and delicious comfort.
I love all types of baked apple-cinnamon recipes, and this one is a bit different to me because the apple is stuffed with a filling inside of it instead of sliced and used as a filling. Because it’s a bit different, it makes a festive dessert or breakfast, especially served with some vanilla ice cream or drizzled with some maple syrup, or even caramel sauce. We had them for breakfast this morning straight up without any added toppings, and they were so good!
I added two new cookbooks to my collection over the holidays, and I adapted this recipe from one of them–Savor by Ilona Oppenheim. I love the photos in this cookbook, and the recipes are natural, beautiful, and seasonal. I made a few changes from the recipe in the book to fit the tastes of my family–but I am so grateful for the idea and the basic framework. This is a dessert/breakfast that is easy to make and comes together quite quickly, plus you can feel good about the wholesome ingredients.
The holiday season is over now, and it is time to get back to work, time for the kids to go back to school and indoor soccer, and hopefully time for me to put some positive new intentions and habits into practice in my little corner of the world. We spent a few days up in northern Michigan over the New Year, and it was so refreshing and invigorating to be up in that cold, clean air!
Getting away from the routine allowed us to have some good family time when we weren’t rushed or pulled in a bunch of different directions. We played some long games of Pokémon Monopoly (thanks to my son 🙂 ), went sledding, and walked along the snowy beach. I loved all the lights in town on the dark evenings–lights in the trees, lights on the shops and restaurants, lights reflected in the water along the beach, and especially the fireworks over the lake on New Year’s Eve.
This is such a good time of year for introspectionand for making home a warm and cozy place. Walking in the cold air clears the head. It is also definitely the time of year to make warm, nourishing things in the kitchen. These oatmeal baked apples hit the spot this morning. Happy New Year! I hope you all have a great weekend, and stay warm! I will be sharing this recipe over at Angie’s virtual potluck, Fiesta Friday, co-hosted this week by Quinn @ Dad What’s 4 Dinner and Monika @ Everyday Healthy Recipes. 
Cozy Oatmeal Baked Apples
Ingredients:
- 6 medium to large apples (I like Honeycrisp or Jonagold for this)
- 1 cup of old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/4 cup of brown sugar
- 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt
- 1 and 1/3 cups of milk
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, melted
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with parchment paper.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Mix well with a fork. Make sure your butter is melted.
In another bowl, combine the milk, vanilla extract, egg, and melted butter. Stir well. Add the milk mixture to the bowl with the oat mixture, and stir well with a wooden spoon.
With a paring knife, cut off the tops of the apples. Set the tops aside. With the same knife, carefully cut around the core and cut out the core (you can also use an apple corer). Scoop out the seeds and rest of the core with a spoon, if necessary. Leave 1/2 inch at the bottom of the apples intact, with the holes in the core about an inch wide.
Place the cored apples on the prepared baking dish. Spoon the oatmeal mixture into the cavities of the apples, filling them as full as you can. Place the tops back on the apples for baking. If you have oat mixture left over, you can bake it in a small baking pan and bake it alongside the apples. (I put mine in a min-loaf pan and it made a cute little cake-like loaf).
Bake the stuffed apples in your 350 degree oven for about 40-50 minutes, or until the apples are soft and the oat mixture is set. These taste best warm, but can also be served at room temperature. Enjoy!
I am not a huge fan of eating dates, but when they are pureed in a smoothie (or baked in something), they make a really good sweetener, full of minerals natural goodness, and with such a mild flavor that they just kind of blend in, especially with the more powerful flavors of the peppermint extract and dark chocolate. The banana gives this smoothie a bit of richness, while the maple syrup and vanilla extract fill out the flavor.
I hope that you all are having a happy holiday season! It has been a bit hectic for me lately, but I am hoping the next couple of days will be less about rushing and more about savoring time with family and celebrating this special time. (Hopefully the man who was tailgating me on the road today will be able to slow down soon too!!) I plan to make my husband and kids a chocolate peppermint smoothie tomorrow morning, and for a change, nobody has to get up early!
Our daily lives are not always peaceful, and the events going on in the world are not always peaceful either. But in spite of all that, there is a special stillness about this time of year. I don’t know if it is the muted light or the alignment of the stars or what, but if I stand outside and stay still, I can feel a quiet peace. My husband and I were outside with our dog yesterday around sunset, and with the fading light, black tree branches, and white snow all around, I felt a sense of quiet peace. It has always been that way at this time of year. There is a hush to the air. I hope you all have a great weekend! A very festive 
Bark is a festive winter dessert because it is fun to make, and has so many variations. In this version, I use my favorite tea–called Lady in Waiting–from 
I added some orange zest because I cannot resist the flavors of chocolate and orange together, and with the citrus notes already present in this tea, the orange zest goes perfectly. The quality of the chocolate also makes an impact, I have found. Spending a bit more on good chocolate is worth it when making bark. The flavors of the tea leaves and orange zest are subtle, and they look so pretty! It is well-known that both chocolate and tea have lots of health benefits, especially for the health of the soul. 🙂 I find both chocolate and tea especially good for the soul in the winter, when we seem to feel all pleasant things more intensely due to the challenges of the cold weather and long stretches of darkness.
The winter solstice is tomorrow, and it feels every bit of winter here today. We have plenty of snow on the ground and a cold wind is blowing. Our dog has taken to spending time next to the heat vent in the kitchen, and the kids don’t want to get out of their warm beds on these cold, dark mornings. This year, I am especially enjoying our Christmas tree lights and the colorful lights out on the porch as they cast such a warm and cozy glow. We are trying to remember to eat dinner by candlelight, even when it is a dinner thrown together at the last minute.
