I love the taste of apples baked in an apple strudel but always found the pastry a tad too filling, and not something I wanted to take on at breakfast. So one morning I thought, how about just taking the apples and bake them on their own? It was delicious. This recipe also makes a super filling for pancakes.

As the apples shrink quite a lot in baking, I usually take two apples per person.

Ingredients

6–8 medium apples, such as Jonagold, Elstar or Braeburn
(about 1 kg or 2 pounds)
2-3 tablespoons raisins
2-3 tablespoons broken walnuts
1½ tablespoons brown sugar, or to taste
2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Method

• Preheat the oven to 210 °C (410 °F).
• Peel, and cut the apples using an apple divider, or slice them into quarters, and trim away the core. Chop them into small pieces.
• Combine with the raisins, walnuts, brown sugar, mixed spice, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
• Pat down in a baking tin, and bake for about 25–30 minutes, until the apples are tender, but not soggy. They’re ready when a toothpick slides easily through them.
• Serve with quark or yoghurt.