Ingredients
- 4 red apples, such as Cortland
- 1 3/4 cup granola with oats, no sugar
- 7 tablespoons raw sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 4 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
- 4 tablespoons milk
Supplies
- Baking cups, jumbo size (optional)
- Baking sheet
- Cutting board and knife
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Melon baller
- Mixing bowl
- Mixing spoon
- Parchment baking paper
- Paring knife
- Serving dish/dishes
- Spatula
- Spoon
Directions
Your sweet Sproutlet will love helping you begin work on this recipe by choosing beautiful red baking apples like a Cortland. McIntosh apples will also work well, but tend to soften when cooked and will not hold their shape as well. Red Delicious apples are not recommended for baking.
- Cut each of the apples in half from the stem down. Trim the seeds out but leave in the core, it will keep the apple sturdier during baking.
- To carve, lay each apple on cutting board flat side down, red curved side up. Use a paring knife to cut the shape of a heart into the apple.
- Use a melon baller to carve out the heart shape that you outlined. Hollow out and scrape to form a thick bowl as if carving a pumpkin. Save the edible pieces that you cut out.
- Chop up the pieces that you removed from the apples, trimming off the peel, and put into a mixing bowl.
- Add melted butter, granola, 5 tablespoons sugar, flour, milk, and cinnamon and mix by hand to create the dough filling.
- Place the dough filling into the heart that you carved with your fingers. Shape dough filling into a heart.
- Place in jumbo baking cups (optional) on parchment on a baking sheet.
- Top with the remaining raw sugar, bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes or until tops are golden.
- Cool and serve to your favorite Valentine just to show them that you care on this lovingly special day!