Looking for a healthy dessert with autumn flavors that you can make easily with few simple ingredients? We’ve got you covered. These Walnut Stuffed Healthy Baked Apples are so easy to make and you need only 6 ingredients (2 are optional) for the recipe. Also, these are sugar-free, gluten-free and low carb. Enjoy them as a dessert or at breakfast the next day!
If you love the combination of cinnamon and apples, you can check out our Apple Cinnamon Loaf Cake or Zucchini Apple Muffins. They are perfect for the season too. But today we are here to share a healthy and ridiculously easy apple dessert recipe that requires no baking skills at all.
What you need to do is quite straightforward: Core the apples, stuff them with a cinnamon walnut filling, top with butter and bake. Besides these main steps, we add an additional step which enriches this classic baked apple recipe in a wonderful way.
We make a simple beet syrup right in the same pan and serve the stuffed baked apples with a drizzle of this syrup. Read on to see how to make that easy beet syrup.
Jump to:
Ingredients
We need 4 main ingredients:
- Apples
- Walnuts
- Cinnamon
- Butter
While you can make an amazing dessert with these four simple ingredients, we want things to get even tastier and fancier. So we make a simple beet syrup to serve with the apples.
We need three more ingredients for this:
- Beet
- Water
- Honey or maple syrup
The Easiest Filling
This is a sugar-free and gluten-free filling and we just need the ingredients below:
- Crumbled walnuts
- Cinnamon
- Apple pieces scooped from the inside of apples
- Butter for topping
Notes About The Ingredients
- We LOVE walnuts with apples, but you can use whatever nuts you like.
- Cinnamon is the only spice in this recipe. You can add more spices like ginger, nutmeg or cardamom if you want.
- We chop the apple pieces scooped into smaller pieces and use it in the filling. So please don’t throw them away.
- You can substitute coconut oil for butter to make the recipe dairy-free.
How To Scoop Apples
First, cut a thin slice from their bottom so that they are flat and can stand stable. Next, cut their top off and scoop the center of each using a tablespoon. It is easy to do it by twisting the spoon inside. Make sure you remove all the seeds. Then, scoop a bit more to make enough room for the filling. Don’t throw the scooped parts away, we are going to use them in the filling.
Don’t worry about their shape. They really don’t need to look perfect.
How To Bake
First, preheat the oven at 400F/200C. Next, place the apples in a baking pan, stuff them with the filling and top each with butter. Then, pour water in the pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the apples are tender. For the beet syrup, please read on.
Simple Beet Syrup
If you want to make the beet syrup, peel a beet, poke a knife into it randomly so that it gives its lovely color. Place it in the pan and then pour water over it. Then bake the apples.
Remove the apples from the pan. Keep the beet there. Add in honey or maple syrup in the pan, give it a stir and heat it in the oven(or over the stove) for 5 minutes or until slightly thick. Remove the beet (you can use it in salads) and transfer the syrup in a bowl. Drizzle it over the apples when serving.
Are They Healthy?
Just like other fruits, apples are healthy when baked without sugar. Although they might lose some vitamins or nutritional benefits, they are still good for your health. Plus, you can enjoy baked apples as a dessert that is waaaaay healthier than most of the other desserts.
The Best Apples For Baking
You can use any apple in season for baking. As we don’t add extra sugar in this recipe, we prefer sweet apples like Gala or Golden Apples. We don’t use Granny Smith for no-sugar baking because of their tart flavor. We do love them raw though. Learn more about the varieties of apples and see which one you can find in your area and which one is best for your taste.
How To Serve
We serve this easy apple dessert with the homemade beet syrup on the side so that we can drizzle as much or less as we like over the apples.
Alternatively, you can serve them with whipped cream, clotted cream or ice cream if you want to spoil yourself even more.
What To Make With The Leftover Filling
We sometimes have a little filling left, which we are happy with. It makes a perfect breakfast bowl topping the next morning.
More Fruit Desserts
As always: If you make this recipe, let us know what you think by rating it and leaving a comment below. And post a pic on Instagram too—tag @give_recipe so we can see!
Sign up for the FREE GiveRecipe Newsletter to get the new recipes into your inbox! And stay in touch with us on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram for all the latest updates.
Print📖 Recipe
Walnut Stuffed Healthy Baked Apples
Baked whole apples stuffed with cinnamon and walnut filling served with a quick homemade beet syrup.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 5 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 5 Gala apples
- 1 beet
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 400F/200C.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine walnuts and cinnamon.
- Cut a thin slice from the bottom of apples so that they are flat and can stand stable. Cut their top off and scoop the center of each using a tablespoon. It is easy to do it by twisting the spoon inside. Make sure you remove all the seeds.
- Scoop a bit more from the ‘walls’ to make enough room for the filling. Don’t throw the scooped parts away, we are going to use them in the filling. Put aside.
- Chope the scooped apple pieces and throw them into the filling, stir well.
- Stuff the apples with the filling and place them in a baking pan.
- Top each with a piece of butter.
- Peel a beet, poke a knife into it randomly so that it gives its lovely color. Place it in the pan and then pour water over it. Then bake the apples for 30 minutes or until the apples are tender. Remove the pan from the oven, transfer the apples on a plate.
- If the water left is not too little, pour about ½ cup hot water in the pan. Add 2 tablespoon of honey or maple syrup in the pan, give it a good stir and put it back in the oven. Cook it for 5 minutes or until it gets slightly thick.
- Remove the beet and transfer the syrup in a bowl and let it cool.
- Serve the apples with a drizzle of beet syrup.
Notes
You can make the step of beet syrup over the stove if your pan is suitable or you can just transfer the beet and the juice in a saucepan. Pour a little more hot water in it if needed. Add in honey or maple syrup and heat until it gets slightly thick. You will come up with an amazing pink syrup to serve with your desserts.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 220
- Sugar: 25.2 g
- Sodium: 18 mg
- Fat: 10.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 33.9 g
- Protein: 2.6 g
- Cholesterol: 6.1 mg
Keywords: baked apples, stuffed baked apples, healthy baked apples
Cressida says
LOVE how easy it is to make these!
★★★★★