For my last post in this year, I have chosen to let you know how to make the tastiest winter warming dish of baked apples stuffed with marzipan, almonds and apricots.

I am in Berlin at the moment, where I saw one of those nice old, tiled ovens the other day, typically for Berlin, where all the old flats here used to have them, as a heating system. My gran had one too and there was a little compartment in it, that a tray of apples would slide into and slowly bake, so they were a regular treat during the winter months.

Admittedly, they would not appear for breakfast or brunch but rather in the early evenings, however, I think serving a tray of baked apples along with a jug of custard or vanilla sauce is a good idea any time of the day…

For 4 portions you’ll need:

• 4 apples (sour ones work especially well)
• 80g dried apricots
• 3 tbsp chopped almonds
• 1 tsp grated rind of an unwaxed lemon
• ½ tsp of cinnamon
• 100g marzipan
• ½ of one lemon
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 250ml apple juice
• custard or vanilla sauce, to serve

Soak the dried apricots in warm water for 20 minutes to soften them.
Once that has happened chop them up into small pieces.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Mix the ingredients for the filling – the chopped apricots, the marzipan, almonds, lemon rind and cinnamon – in a bowl. This is easiest done by getting your hands in there, which is one sticky business but worthit.

To prepare the apples, cut a small slice off the bottom of each apple, so they can stand straight without wobbling too much. Then cut the top off, leaving it aside as a lid for the apple later. As soon as the ‘lid’ is cut off rub the lemon over the apple, as it will otherwise go brown immediately. Now core the apples, using an apple corer. I hope you guys in the US and UK have them to!?

Place the apples in an ovenproof dish and stuff them with the marzipan filling generously, so they all have a little mount of filling which then gets topped with a little butter, before pouring the juice around them. Add the apple ‘lids’ laying them in between the apples and bake everything for about 20 minutes when the apples will be soft still keep their shape.

Serve straight away with custard or a thick vanilla sauce and enjoy!