Hi! This might be a bit random, but on the Dylan Hollis video you mentioned you make baked apples! Do you think you could hook me up with the ratios you use in your recipe? 😁 I have so many apples and I want to make some nice treats for Halloween! 👻
Ah, here is the beautiful part, the only measurement implement I use is a teaspoon.
Now, I use my Oma's (grandmother's) recipe, which is of course the the Only Right One in The Whole Wide World. No I don't take criticism.
Now my Oma's recipe is very post war, so it's really quite basic. Nowadays, people stuff their Bratapfel with marzipan. Untenable extravagance! (And, um, marzipan may be a bit harder to get then the rest of the ingredients even now.) So if you google Bratapfel, you will find a lot of step by step little films that include this ingredient, but I promise you it is optional. It is good, but optional. Oma was worried about the price of eggs, though, marzipan was not getting in there.
So what you need is preferably a bigger apple as those are easier to stuff. It's nice when they're a bit on the sour side for the contrast with the vanilla, but that is optional. You're good as long as it isn't a grapefruit.
Now, my Oma did always have rum. This... may tell you something about her I have always refrained from commenting on. Of course it was for cooking why do you ask.
So you fill a smallish bowl (how big is a smallish bowl? Anything bigger than a teacup and smaller than a salad bowl. You choose!) with raisins. Soak them in rum (you can use water, but it does add to the taste, I promise) until they've become nice and soft and rummish or you want to get on with life after at least ten minutes.
Now people take off the top of an apple to make a nice little lid for the apple but my Oma had kids to raise aint nobody got time for that. She just jammed out the core, but you can use a normal spoon to make a bigger hole and leave some of the apple's bottom half intact. But that is harder with smaller apples so I just end up with a hole in the core of my apple. I will tell you how to deal with that later.
You've now got an apple with a hole in it. You cut a cross in the top so more goodness can drizzle in. Then you put a teaspoon in a pot of red jam. In another bowl, you mix another teaspoon full of cinnamon with a teaspoon full of sugar. You clean the teaspoon so you can have a teapoon full of butter later.
Now you stuff the apple three quarter full with drunk raisins. Then you dollop on a teaspoon full of jam. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Put a teaspoon full of butter on top. Sprinkle again with cinnamon sugar. Sprinkle with almonds. Now the baby is ready to bake.
Now if you had been using marzipan, this would only need a dainty bit of vanilla sauce. But not at Oma's, o no. She took vanilla custard and thinned it with a lot of cream until you still have a rather thick sauce. I live in Holland so I use something called 'vanillevla' I mix in cream with. What is rather thick? You need to be able to pour it, so think gravy.
I like to chill the sauce while the apples bake. I have no idea how long exactly, but half an hour at least. 180 to 200 celsius, depending on your oven, and whatever a medium heat is in America, 350 to 375 Fahrenheit? They needs to get soft but not burnt. Wait until your kitchen smells divine. You can turn the heat low and keep them there, because the trick is to have a great smell during dinner or drinks.
You serve these babies hot and with a good helping of chilled sauce. The sauce is important if you leave out the marzipan. They probably fall apart if you've ended up overcooking them. This does not matter.
If you do use marzipan, hold back on the sauce, though, it can get overwhelming.
If you want to see someone do it, put Bratapfel or Bratäpfel in Youtube. I can assure you they are all Deeply Wrong though 😉
Whatever you choose will end up very tasty.