Balsamic Baked Apples

There’s comfort food and there’s also comfort dessert! This is one of them. Warm, tender apples smell so good baking, you might want to skip straight to dessert!

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

½ cup Bressler’s Elderberry preserves (or other fruit preserves)
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup Olive Scene Red Apple Balsamic Vinegar  
3 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6 medium apples, such as Gala, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Jonagold, Macintosh, and Macoun 
Chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.  
2. In a small saucepan, stir together the preserves, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, butter and nutmeg. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted. Cook for 10 minutes until slightly reduced, stirring occasionally.
3. Core apples and remove the peel from the top third of each apple. Place in a baking dish and spoon sauce over and inside each apple. Bake uncovered 35 minutes.
4. Remove pan from oven and baste apples with sauce from bottom of pan. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until apples are tender when pierced with a knife. (See note)
5. Cool 15 minutes before serving. To serve, spoon sauce over each apple, sprinkle with pecans and add a small scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream, if desired. 

Note: Watch the apples closely after the first 30 minutes of baking. Some varieties, like MacIntosh, soften quicker than others and over baking will make them lose their shape.