Healthy Baked Apples are a delicious, easy dessert! Gluten free, dairy free + made with only 9 ingredients – they’re the perfect nutritious, fun treat!
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There are few things I love more than healthy baked apples. They truly are DELICIOUS!
We go apple picking every year, and it’s always been one of my favorite activities. As a kid, my mom would make baked apples almost every time we came home from our local orchard.
Typically baked apples are made with lots of butter, and sugar – but they don’t even need that!
Apples are so sweet and delicious on their own that you can make a baked apple even better with just a few simple ingredients!
Ingredients for healthy baked apples:
To make baked apples you’ll need :
The hardest part about making these healthy baked apples is coring them, but I’ll show you how to do that!
How to core apples:
- To core apples, first slice off the top to make flat – removing the stem. You can eat the tops – don’t throw them away!
- Take a sharp pearing knife (this is the one I have– it’s expensive but SO worth it) and cut out the center of the apple.
- The center doesn’t have to be perfect cut out or rounded, you just want to get the seeds out. You’re going to fill this with the oat mixture so you wont even see it.
It’s ok if your apples get a little brown while you’re preparing them – it won’t affect the taste. However, if you want to prevent this you can squeeze a little lemon juice on top of them.
How to make baked apples:
To make baked apples:
- Core your apples. See above for instructions on how to do this. If you don’t want to core your apples, try our Apple Crisp recipe or just slice your apples and put them in a baking dish.
- Mix together your apple ‘filling’.
- Stuff the apples with the filling + bake!
Once your apples are baked, allow them to cool for a little bit and top with vanilla ice cream.
HOW good does that look?!
Can you make these without keeping the apples whole?
You definitely can make these without keeping the apples whole. If you’d prefer baking the apples in slices – check out this Healthy Apple Crisp recipe. It’s very similar to this recipe and will give you more of the treat you’re looking for!
You also can cut these apples in half down the stem-line and core them that way. They will cook a little bit quicker. Either way will work!
You also can peel the apples if you prefer not to eat the skin. We actually like the skin and the added nutrition it gives!
What kind of apples are best for baked apples?
ANY apple will work for baked apples, but different apples have different tastes.
If you prefer sweeter apples, Cortland or Fuji are a good choice. For a more tart applesauce Braeburn, McIntosh are a better choice.
This post lists all of the different apples and flavors they bring to a dish.
There’s really no ‘wrong’ apple to use – when you bake them they become softer, sweeter + sooo delicious!
Substitutions for this baked apple recipe:
These apples are pretty versatile and easy to make. Feel free to sub any of the following ingredients.
Spices: I sometimes will add even more cinnamon to this recipe. You can add more cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg or any spices you choose!
Nut free You can make this recipe nut free by simply omitting the pecans
Paleo: You can make this recipe paleo by skipping the oats and doubling up on the pecans. It is less ‘filling’ but will be equally as delicious!
Maple Syrup – You can sub with honey
Oil – You can sub coconut oil with olive oil or avocado oil
Oats – You can sub quick cook oats in this recipe. You can’t substitute steel cut oats in this recipe.
WW Freestyle note: This can be made into a 3SP dessert. Sub maple syrup for sugar free sweetener. Omit pecans.
Serving/Storing Baked Apples
Serving: I like to serve these with vanilla ice cream, but they’re delicious on their own! You can also serve them with vanilla or plain greek yogurt.
Storing: These apples will stay in your refrigerator for up to 4 days (if they last that long!)
Can you freeze these baked apples? I wouldn’t recommend freezing these baked apples. You can bake this ahead of time + then reheat them though! They’re best when eaten fresh out of the oven with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Other healthy apple recipes:
Here are some of our favorite healthy apple recipes. We love to cook with apples and hope you enjoy these too!
Healthy Baked Apples
Ingredients
- 6 large apples honeycrisp, braeburn or empire are best
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- ½ cup pecans chopped
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil melted
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- ½ cup apple cider or water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Core apples. See above graphic – slice the tops of the apples flat +remove the stem with a sharp knife. Cut about 1/2 the way down to remove the seeds from the center. You can peel the apples but we prefer to keep the skin on.
- Grease an oven safe baking dish with cooking spray or coconut oil (8×8 will work best), and place the apples in the dish.
- In a bowl combine oats, pecans and spices. Add in melted coconut oil + maple syrup. Stir to combine.
- Place apples in baking dish. Divide oat mixture evenly among the center of the apples, pressing the filling in towards the center of the apples.
- Pour apple cider or water into the bottom of the baking dish. Cover apples with foil and bake for about 30 minutes, making sure to baste the apples with the cider every 5-10 minutes. Uncover the apples for the last 5 minutes.
- The apples should be fork tender when cooked. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Katelyn
I’m not going to lie, i was skeptical that this would be as good as regular baked apples with butter and sugar.. but they were pretty tasty! My whole family liked them. I didn’t use nutmeg, added a little extra cinnamon. Delicioius!
The Clean Eating Couple
Glad you liked them, Katelyn! They really are just as good as the regular baked apples 🙂
Donna
It was delicious! Of course we added ice cream and took the health-grade down a smidge, but it would be great without as well.
The Clean Eating Couple
Glad you enjoyed it, Donna! The ice cream makes it sooo much more delicious 🙂
Jennifer
Really delicious and easy to make.
The Clean Eating Couple
Thanks, Jennifer! Glad you enjoyed them!
Holly
Would it be possible to stuff them (I’m not using oats) and wait until the next day to cook them? I am going to my parents for dinner and want to have everything done that I can. I’m so excited to try them!
The Clean Eating Couple
Hi Holly- I haven’t tried this but I think it would work! The apples might get brown, but they brown anyways in the oven. Let me know if you try it! :).