One of the reasons I love this time of year (I used to call it Fall, but I’m not feeling the Fall love this year in San Diego), are the root vegetables and crisp apples. I look forward to being in the kitchen more, roasting vegetables, and finding healthy alternatives to baked desserts that are a little more quick (like apple crisp, pies, etc.).

Concoctions like this often come from, “oh these are getting soft, better use them before they spoil,” or “what needs to be used first.” Sunday, it was apples. I had six Gala apples that were not as crisp as they were initially, and needed to be used. I decided to bake them and see what I ended up with.

Baked Apples

• 6 (organic) Gala apples
• Cinnamon
• Ground cloves
• Butter pats (I use Organic Valley salted, pastured)
• Kosher salt

I put 4 pats of butter in the bottom of a pyrex 8×8 dish and popped it in the oven to melt the butter. I took it back out and layered apples, cinnamon, ground cloves, butter pats, and kosher salt, until the pan was full:

I cooked them for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees, but cook them until the apples have the texture you prefer. Mine weren’t crisp, but they weren’t mushy either. The butter had formed to a thick rich sauce, that was bubbly:

I loved them (in part because the house smelled wonderful), they reheated so well, and with no added sugar. The options here are endless-I thought about adding bacon, cheese, onion, sage, on and on 🙂