Feels like I´m stating it year after year but autumn is my absolute favourite season. As soon as the last warmth of summer takes its leave, I couldn´t be happier to greet the misty mornings and cold crisp days. I also start craving spices, warmth, hearty stews and oven roasts. It´s during this time of the year when I feel most clear-headed, full of motivation and most at home. I love the early morning school runs with a rushed breakfast and crisp morning air brushing the last bits of sleep off. Equally as much I love the lazy weekend mornings with cartoons in bed (for the boys, obviously, although I do love the routine) and bowls of warm milky tea. Making our home cosy for longer and darker evenings, bringing out all the sweaters, warm socks and scarves. It´s a season with a different rythm to it, a different feel and a different menu.
Around this time of the year I tend to have a new found love towards our oven. During summer it doesn´t get much use but now with cooler days and runny noses, I gravitate towards tray bakes, roasted vegetables (to be turned into puree soups or to be eaten just as) and a selection of pot pies. Even for breakfast, during gloomy autumn mornings there is nothing better than a hot tray full of fresh cinnamon and cardamom scones or, a recipe straight from my childhood, stuffed baked apples. An autumnal classic, when you are craving something sweet but the candy stocks have run out. We always have oatmeal at home, apples mostly as well, especially in autumn. With a bit of will you can already make something delicious out of those two. As for the filling, there is a lot of playroom for different preferences, but this recipe here is my favourite.
Stuffed Baked Apples
4 apples
100 g butter
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar
50 g rolled oats
50 g almond flour
Preheat the oven to 180 °C degrees. Cut off the “hats” of the apples, set aside and carve out the apple cores. In a bowl, mix together the oats, almond flour, cinnamon, vanilla sugar and melt the butter in the mixture as well. Stir everything together. Fill each apple with the oatmeal-almond mixture, put the “hats” back on the apples, and cook in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Serve warm, perfect with ice cream or yoghurt or just as they are.
