Terra Americana

This is another deliciously simple recipe from Dorie.  My mother has started making the recipes out of this book.  She is enamored with the "a little of this and a little of that" style, as am I. 

The caramel-like quality of the filling is rich and satisfying.  The sweet creamy baked apple crust makes it light and refreshing.  I can't wait to try this particular tome with different types of nuts and dried fruit, perhaps some agave nectar and maybe even pears.  I don't believe it will ever get old.  You might come for brunch one day and enjoy it with filled with figs and filberts, topped with fresh yogurt.  Next Christmas eve it could make an appearance full of dates, almonds and apricots, garnished with creme fraiche and a side of shortbread.  The options are endless.

2 Cortland apples
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped fresh cranberries
1/8 cup Local Honey
1 tbsp Russian Mulling Spice
1/8 cup cranberry juice
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 lemon
4 tsp butter or Earth Balance (soy butter)

Preheat oven to 350f.  Peel apples 1/2 way down.  Core apples.  Mix nuts, raisins and apples with honey and spice.  Rub peeled parts of the apple with lemon.  Fill apples with fruit and nut mixture.  Place apples and peels in a baking dish.  Pour juices in the dish.    Top each apple with tsp butter.  Place the remaining tsp butter in the juice.


Bake for 50 to 70 minutes, basting the apples every 15 minutes with the pan juices. Apples are finished when they are cooked to your liking.  Serve hot or at room temperature.  Eat as is or topped with ice-cream, yogurt or cream.

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table.

More from this classic cookbook:

• Cocoa Sables
• Coconut Friands
• Long and Slow Apples
• Crab & Grapefruit Salad

Photo Credit: Julie T Cecchini