Baked Apples w/ Ricotta

Baked Apple Ingredients

•  5 large or 8 medium cooking apples, washed, peeled, and cored
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese(homemade is best)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup raisins dried fruit
• 2 tablespoon  organic unsalted  butter
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 
  

Baked Apple Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter a baking dish.
3. Core the apples and keep the bottoms to stays put in the baking dish.
4. Rub the insides of the apples with lemon juice.
5. Melt the butter in a small skillet and toast the almond slivers until they just begin to brown.
6. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the apples) to the skillet and mix. Taste. You may want more cinnamon, or a bit more lemon zest. Make adjustments to your own taste.
7. Place the apples in the buttered baking dish and divide the ricotta mix among them. Depending on how large your apples are, the filling may not come to the top of each apple. 
8. Bake the apples until they either begin to brown or begin to split. Different varieties of apple behave differently when they are cooked through. You need to poke one with a small sharp knife. There should be no resistance. The cooking time varies from 45 minutes to one hour. Just keep watch.
9. Allow a half hour or so for the apples to cool down before serving. The filling gets really hot.
10. Serve with heavy cream, whipped cream or coconut cream.