BAKED APPLES

I am notorious about buying food items for a recipe and then not getting around to making the recipe. That's what happened to me recently when I bought four BIG apples because I had seen a recipe that called for two. I have been trying to write down recipes that sound fantastic and that I want to make sure I try, but ever once in a while, I don't write it down for whatever reason. That's the case with this recipe calling for two BIG apples. Wayne has asked me several times if I was going to make something with the BIG apples and I would always answer back, "Yeah, something." 

To be honest I haven't tried to find the recipe, but I did get to thinking about maybe making some baked apples in my Instant Pot. While I have eaten a baked apple, it's been a long, long time. Needless to say I have never baked any. It sounded like something that would work though in my IP. I just needed to find a recipe. 

So I did what every other person, well most anyway, do. I googled baked apples. I don't have an Instant Pot cookbook yet. Not finding any recipes for baked apples in the IP, I had to narrow down my search. Then I found two I think.  Sweetandsavorymeals.com had a good post that lead me to this post. 

I decided I wanted fresh cranberries, pecans, brown sugar, and a little cinnamon stuffed in the hole. (I want to do some using chopped dates sometimes because I love dates.) As I said earlier I have never made any baked apples before. Since I came up with my own amounts for "stuffing", I had too much for the holes I made when I cut the core out. I think next time I will cut the hole a little bigger. I do have two more apples you know and I saved the leftover stuffing mixture to use. I also thought apple juice sounded better than water for the liquid so I used that. I used 1-1/2 cups because my IP (Duo Gourmet, a Costco Exclusive 9 in 1 IP) requires a minimum of 1-1/2 cups of liquid. Seems like most IPs just require 1 cup.

You can use your favorite ingredients in your "stuffing" and sorta go by the amounts I will give to judge how much you need. The main thing I am sharing is the cooking times, etc to use for the IP. If you don't want to use an IP, you can bake them in a 350 - degree F oven for about 40 - 45 minutes. You won't have to add as much apple juice or water, in fact 1/4 cup might be enough.

Remove the brown sugar and have a No-Sugar-Added treat!

BAKED APPLES IN THE INSTANT POT

2 - 4       large apples

1-1/2      cups apple juice

2            tablespoons brown sugar

2            tablespoons chopped pecans

3            tablespoons fresh cranberries cut in half

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

Cut the core out of the apples. Hole should be 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter.

Pour the apple juice in the inner pot.

Place apples on wire rack.

Combine the stuffing ingredients in a small bowl.

Stuff as much of the mixture as you can in the hole of each apple.

Lift rack with the apples and place in inner pot. Close the lid.

Press the pressure cooker (or manual) button on front of pot.

Increase the time to 7 minutes.

IP will indicate ON as pressure builds in the pot.

Then the timer will indicate 7 minutes and

the float valve will be up

and the timer will start counting down the minutes while it is cooking.

When done, allow the IP to vent for 5 minutes on NR (Natural Release) which means you do nothing.

The timer will start to count up. After 5 minutes

(or so - I got busy and it was 6 minutes before I checked it),

press vent button to QR (Quick Release) any steam still in pot. (I took my picture a little late)

When the Float Value drops, it is now safe to open the lid.

You can rest the lid by inserting lid tab into handle hole.

My apples were baked. If yours aren't cook for 2 more minutes.

Remove rack from cooker and carefully remove apples with a large spoon. 

Allow to cool a bit before enjoying.

If you are interested in other posts I have using the Instant Pot, click on the Instant Pot labels on the right side of this post if you are looking at the web version of my blog. It will open a window of the other posts.