The fall my youngest started kindergarten, I had this idea that I was going to be one of those mothers who baked on weekends. Real baking \u2014 pie crusts from scratch, the whole thing. That lasted about three Saturdays before I remembered I don\u2019t actually enjoy making pie crusts and the kids didn\u2019t care either way as long as dessert showed up.<\/p>\n
What I did keep doing was these apples. I\u2019d seen some version of the recipe in a church cookbook \u2014 the kind with the spiral binding and a Casserole on every other page \u2014 and I tweaked it until it became mine. Foil packets, Slow Cooker, five ingredients, done. My daughter called them \u201ctreasure apples\u201d when she was little because of the way you unwrap them, and I never corrected her because honestly that\u2019s a better name than anything I would\u2019ve come up with. She\u2019s thirty-one now and she still asks for them at Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
Why you\u2019ll love this recipe<\/strong><\/p>\n Only 5 ingredients \u2014 apples, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins or walnuts. Nothing exotic, nothing to hunt down. The apples are the only place where I\u2019d say don\u2019t wing it too much. You want something firm \u2014 Honeycrisp is my first choice, Granny Smith if you like a little tartness, Gala in a pinch. What you don\u2019t want is a Red Delicious, which my mother bought exclusively and which I believe exists only to disappoint people. Anything too soft going in will be applesauce coming out, and while applesauce is fine, it\u2019s not what we\u2019re going for here.<\/p>\n Butter: softened, so it actually mixes with the sugar instead of sitting in chunks. I use unsalted out of habit, but I\u2019ve grabbed the salted by mistake before and honestly \u2014 it might be slightly better. That little edge of salt against the brown sugar is not a bad thing.<\/p>\n Brown sugar: packed, light or dark. Dark gives you something deeper, almost molasses-y, and I\u2019ve been reaching for it more often lately. Either works. I usually use about a tablespoon per apple, maybe a little more if I\u2019m feeling generous, which I almost always am with brown sugar.<\/p>\n Raisins or walnuts for the filling \u2014 I use raisins when I\u2019m making these for grandkids and walnuts or pecans when it\u2019s adults. Pecans especially are wonderful here; they get this buttery, almost praline quality from the brown sugar. One year I used dried cranberries and chopped pecans together \u2014 sometime around Thanksgiving, 2019 maybe, or the year before \u2014 and I\u2019ve been meaning to do it again ever since.<\/p>\n Foil-Wrapped Slow Cooker Baked Apples That Smell Like October Used To<\/p>\n ngredients<\/p>\n 6 medium firm apples \u2014 Honeycrisp, Gala, or Granny Smith Tear off six pieces of heavy-duty foil, each one big enough to wrap an apple with a few extra inches to pinch closed at the top. If you\u2019re working with regular foil, double it up \u2014 I once used a single thin sheet and the packet split open halfway through cooking and the butter pooled at the bottom of my Slow Cooker and burned just enough to be annoying. Heavy-duty is worth buying a box of.<\/p>\n Core each apple from the top down, stopping before you go all the way through. You\u2019re making a well for the filling, not a tunnel. If the bottom opens up, everything good drains straight out. I use a melon baller for this because my apple corer has been missing since approximately 2017 and at this point I\u2019ve stopped looking.<\/p>\n Stir the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon together until you have a thick paste \u2014 it\u2019ll be sandy and a little crumbly, which is exactly right. Stand each apple on a sheet of foil, spoon the filling down into the core, tuck in your raisins or nuts, then add whatever butter mixture is left on top. Bring the foil up around the apple and pinch it firmly at the top. Snug, not crushed. You\u2019re making a sealed packet so the steam stays inside and does the cooking.<\/p>\n Stand them upright in the Slow Cooker, close enough together that they lean on each other a little. Don\u2019t add water to the bottom \u2014 you don\u2019t need it and it makes everything soggy. Put the lid on.<\/p>\n Cook on LOW for three and a half to four and a half hours. I know that\u2019s a wide window and I\u2019m sorry, but it genuinely depends on your apples and your slow cooker. My current one runs a little hot; my old one ran cold; I\u2019ve had the same recipe take three hours in one and five in another. Start checking around three hours by pressing a knife through the foil \u2014 it should meet some resistance but go through without much force. Tender but not collapsed.<\/p>\n When they\u2019re done, turn off the slow cooker and leave the lid ajar for ten minutes before you open any packets. The juice inside is extremely hot \u2014 I\u2019m not being dramatic \u2014 and if you tear into the foil immediately it will steam your hand and spill everywhere. Open them away from your face. Peel the foil back slowly. This is the moment that got my daughter to start calling them treasure apples, and I think about that every single time.<\/p>\n Ways to change it up<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re serving these to adults and you have a bottle of bourbon open, add about a teaspoon to each apple before wrapping. It kind of disappears into the filling during cooking but leaves a quiet warmth underneath everything that\u2019s really lovely on a cold Night. Apple brandy does the same thing if that\u2019s what you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n Maple syrup instead of brown sugar is a version I\u2019ve tried a few times and liked \u2014 drizzle it over the butter in each apple, maybe two teaspoons per. Less sweet, a little more complex, slightly thinner syrup. It\u2019s a good variation if the brown sugar version starts feeling too rich.<\/p>\n A pinch of nutmeg in the butter mixture is nice. Just a pinch. I\u2019ve also done cardamom once \u2014 just a small amount \u2014 which sounds fussy but was actually really good, though I\u2019ve never been able to get it quite right again so maybe it was an accident.<\/p>\n If you want to cut back on butter, you can use three tablespoons total spread across all six apples instead of one per apple. The filling will be drier, less saucy. Still fragrant and good, just more modest. I make them that way sometimes when we\u2019ve already had a heavy dinner and I don\u2019t want anyone to feel like they need to unbutton something.<\/p>\n Leftovers<\/strong><\/p>\n Leave them in their foil packets in the fridge \u2014 it sounds lazy but it\u2019s actually the right call, keeps the apple from drying out and the juices contained. Good for two, maybe three days. Reheat in a low oven or back in the slow cooker.<\/p>\n The syrup that collects at the bottom of the foil is honestly the best part of leftovers \u2014 spoon it over oatmeal the next morning. I started doing this by accident once when I had half a packet left over and didn\u2019t want to waste it, and now I sometimes make these specifically so I\u2019ll have that syrup for breakfast the next day, which probably says something about me.<\/p>\n Serve them in shallow bowls so the syrup has somewhere to go. Ice cream if you want it to feel special. Whipped cream from a can is perfectly acceptable and I won\u2019t hear otherwise. Or just a spoon and ten minutes of sitting quietly at the kitchen table before the evening gets away from you.<\/p>\n The fall my youngest started kindergarten, I had this idea that I was going to be one of those mothers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2075,"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions\/2075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flavorguide.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEach apple is its own little packet \u2014 the foil traps the butter and spices inside so every bite is swimming in that caramel-cinnamon syrup.
\nThe smell alone is half the point \u2014 the house fills up within the first hour and it stays that way. Worth making just for that.
\nWorks as a weeknight dessert or a dinner party finish \u2014 plain from the foil on a Tuesday, or with vanilla ice cream when you want it to feel like something.
\nCompletely hands-off \u2014 there is genuinely nothing to do once the lid goes on.
\nA few thoughts on the ingredients<\/p>\n
\n6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
\n6 tablespoons packed brown sugar, light or dark (I sometimes add a little extra, I won\u2019t pretend otherwise)
\n1\u00bd teaspoons ground cinnamon
\n\u00bc cup raisins or chopped walnuts \u2014 roughly 2 teaspoons per apple, eyeballed
\nHow to make them<\/p>\n