Brown Sugar Maple Baked Apples

This is a delicious, good old-fashioned southern style baked apple and it makes a wonderful sauce! I have used both, Golden Delicious and Rome Beauties with excellent results. I have also added raisins soaked in rum or Grand Marnier right into the core cavity. I like it with a good vanilla ice cream, but whipped cream is just as yummy. Can easily halve this recipe if needed. This is adapted from Bon Appetit magazine, Oct. 2001.

• Ready In: 1 hr 25 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 8  large golden delicious apples
• 1⁄2 cup  packed dark brown sugar
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 6  tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 4  tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1  cup water
•  vanilla ice cream (optional) or   chilled  whipped cream (optional)

Directions

1. Peel skin off top quarter of each apple. Using melon baller, scoop out core, leaving bottom intact.
2. Stand apples in 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Mix sugar and spices in bowl. Reserve 2 tablespoons mixture.
3. Fill apple cavities with remaining sugar mixture. Spoon 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup into each cavity.
4. Scatter 3 tablespoons butter pieces over apples. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover; chill.)
5. Preheat oven to 350°F.
6. Pour water into pan with apples, then add reserved 2 T. sugar mixture, 2 T. maple syrup, and 1 T. butter.
7. Bake until apples are tender when pierced with skewer, about 1 hour. Transfer apples to 8 bowls.
8. Place baking pan atop 2 burners; boil over medium-high heat until syrupy, about 2 minutes.
9. Spoon sauce over apples. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, if desired.