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 posted a recipe for 
I love these apple crunch bars! The apple-cinnamon combination is always so cozy and comforting, especially when the apples are bubbling away in a pot on the stove. And the crunch mixture is so tasty, so full of salty-sweet flavor from the pistachios and brown sugar, with such a crunchy, crumbly texture that mixes so well with a fruit filling. They really are a great breakfast choice, snack, or even a guilt-free dessert, if that’s what you are looking for.
In a few days (I can’t believe it is coming up so quickly!) my family will be celebrating Thanksgiving. It is the time of year when we consciously think about what we are thankful for, about gratitude. I recently checked out a book from the library about the spirituality of gratitude, because it is something I want to cultivate more deeply in my life. It is easy to be grateful when things are going well, and more challenging to feel gratitude when things don’t go our way, or when we are struggling. I am enjoying (though it is sometimes really hard!) going further into this practice.
For this recipe, I am using a type of wheatberries that I bought already parboiled, so they only take about 20 minutes to cook, which is pretty important to me, since my mornings are often rushed. They are fairly easy to find, in natural food stores, or in the grain or health food aisle of many grocery stores. If you have wheatberries that have not been previously parboiled, they can take up to an hour to cook, which is fine if you have the time. One nice thing about wheatberries is that the leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days, and they are very versatile, so you can make a big batch and serve a breakfast bowl a couple of times a week, or use the leftovers in savory dishes as well. Just warm up the leftovers on the stove with a little added water, or even in the microwave.
I love the hearty, nutty taste of wheatberries, and they are satisfyingly filling too. I can eat a bowl of them and feel sustained for at least a couple of hours or so, without feeling overly full. The ingredients in this breakfast bowl are simple and accessible. I am continually striving for a balance between convenience, nutrition, and good taste. It doesn’t take much time or extra planning to chop an apple, swirl some maple syrup and vanilla extract into some plain yogurt, and sprinkle on a handful of walnuts. 
Yet it tastes flavorful, comforting, and sustaining, like it will give me energy to get my day started in a positive way. Sometimes a recipe can be so simple, yet it’s what we need to give us an extra nudge to try something. I can imagine that bananas, dried fruits, almonds, and milk would also taste really good with this.
