Red Hot Candy Cinnamon Baked Apples

Red Hot Candy Cinnamon Baked Apples – A quick baked apple side dish that can be served hot or cold.

Since the combination of daylight savings time and winter is leaving me without much natural light to photograph in, I recently put a few tabletop light boxes on my birthday/Christmas wishlist. My hubby took one look at their design, and the $150 price tag, and decided we could DIY our own for much, much cheaper than $150 a pop. He mocked up a 3-D model with Google Sketch-up, I searched all over the city for enough sheets of foam board (why is this stuff so hard to find in white?!), and we made our own light box for less than $30, light bulbs included! I plan to share the designs, along with a how-to post here in the next few weeks to jump-start a food photography series I’ve been asked to write. It’s been fun to have a new light box, but I’ve had to learn how to photograph my food all over again because it’s so very different. The first recipe I shot with my light box was my Turkey and Stuffing Meatloaf Muffins with Cranberry Glaze, so this is my second try at lighting with the light box. It’s not amazing, but it’s not half bad either.

These Red Hot Candy Cinnamon Apples come from my grandmother. She would serve these at least twice a week with dinner when I was around because she knew how much I love them. The best part is that they’re so simple. Just water, apples, and some Red Hots (generically known as cinnamon imperial candies). If you’ve never had a Red Hot before, they’re a bit smaller than m&m’s and have a very strong, sweet cinnamon flavor much like an Atomic Fireball or a Hot Tamale. The hardest part of the recipe is actually finding the Red Hots. I usually find them at Walgreens, Walmart, or online. Brach’s also makes a version called cinnamon imperials that I have often found locally at Albertsons and King Soopers. The candy adds a cinnamon and sugar flavor to the apples and gives them a fun bright red color, but isn’t nearly as sweet and sticky as the more common Southern red candied apples. These can still count as a fruit when they’re done.

Red Hot Candy Cinnamon Baked Apples

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• Author: Stephanie Powers
• Prep Time: 10 min
• Cook Time: 45 min
• Total Time: 55 minutes
• Yield: 12 1x

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Description

Red Hot Candy Cinnamon Apples – A quick baked apple side dish that can be served hot or cold.

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Ingredients

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• 6 medium baking apples, halved vertically from top to bottom and cored (Use your favorite variety – Jonagold, and Gala are good choices)
• 2 Tablespoons of Red Hot candies or cinnamon imperial candies (affiliate link)
• Enough water to barely cover the bottom of the baking dish (1/2-3/4 cup)

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Halve and core the apples and place them cut side down in the bottom of a glass 9 by 13 baking dish.
3. Sprinkle Red Hots in the bottom of the dish around the apples.
4. Add enough water to just barely cover the bottom of the dish with 1/4 inch of water. You don’t want to make a sauce and dilute the cinnamon candies.
5. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes, or until apple skins are generously wrinkled and their flesh is soft enough to cut with a fork.
6. Serve hot or cold as a side dish, or with ice cream or whipped cream as a dessert.

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Notes

• Gluten-Free: These are gluten-free!
• Vegan/Vegetarian: These are likely not vegan/vegetarian because Red Hots contain confectioner’s glaze, a possibly non-vegetarian ingredient.