Recipe: Healthy Baked Apples

Baked apples oozing with goat cheese and honey on a white plate.

These baked apples are perfect for a healthy snack for one or stylish dessert for company. Pretty enough for a crowd, this baked apple recipe is filled to the brim with toasted oats, pecan pieces, dark chocolate, sliced pear, and honey goat cheese.

It’s a gluten-free, easy-to-make, low-carb dessert that tastes like pure decadence.

Once you assemble the apples, toss them in the oven until they’re toasty warm and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Ingredients for Baked Apples

Here are the ingredients for our delicious healthy baked apples:

apples
butter
old fashioned oats
pecans
dark chocolate
honey
cinnamon
goat cheese

However, this is a very versatile recipe and can be easily customized. Try some additional spices like cloves, pumpkin pie spice or cardamom. Use maple syrup instead of honey. We’ve even added some chopped pear to the mixture with delicious results.

To make this recipe dairy-free, simply omit the goat cheese.

What Kind of Apples Should I Use?

The best apple to use for this baked apple dessert is a firm and sweet apple. We like using Fuji, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, or Granny Smith. It’s also important that they have a solid base so they can stand up on their own once you place them in your pan. It’s also helpful to have the apples be approximately the same size so they cook evenly.

How To Make Healthy Baked Apples

To make these baked apples, you’ll start by cutting the tops of the apples off just as far as needed to remove the stem and create a flat top. Then you take a pairing knife or an apple corer and remove the center of the apple to discard the seeds. If you’re using an apple corer, make sure you don’t go all the way through but leave the base of the apple intact.

Depending on how much filling to apple ratio you want, you can remove a small amount which only includes the seeds or you can scrape away a larger amount of flesh to allow for more filling in each apple.

Next, you’ll create your filling first by toasting some old-fashioned oats and then mixing all of your ingredients together. Fill the apples with your mixture, bake in the oven and eat!

Other Healthy Fruit Dessert Recipes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Yield: 3 serving(s)

Ingredients

3 small apples (firm)
2/3 cup oats
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/3 cup pecans, chopped roughly
1.5 oz (70% or more) dark chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 tsp cinnamon, plus additional to sprinkle on top
Goat cheese, thinly sliced

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spread oats onto a baking sheet. Toast for 10 minutes until slightly browned and fragrant.
Cut off the tops of each apple. Then using a sharp knife or apple corer, remove the inside of the apple leaving at least a 1/2 inch edge.
In a medium bowl, mix toasted oats, melted butter, chopped pecans, dark chocolate, honey, and cinnamon.
Once mixed, place each apple into a baking dish and fill with mixture until just overflowing.
Layer sliced goat cheese over each apple.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Broil an additional 2-3 minutes until cheese is slightly browned.
Sprinkle with additional cinnamon and a drizzle or chocolate or honey, if preferred.