Why I like warm vegan winter fruit dessert

I like warm winter fruit desserts on cold winter nights. There is nothing better to warm you from the inside than a warm vegan winter fruit dessert preferably sitting in front of a cracking fire. I don’t know what winter is like where you live, but here in Ireland winter seems to want to linger a bit longer these day giving us plenty of cold frosty nights.

For this vegan dessert I cored some apples and stuffed them with a mix of dried fruit and spices. I added some cold pressed rapeseed oil and brown sugar to the mix. You can substitute both by using a liquid sweeter like honey or a fruit concentrate to bind the fruit mix together for stuffing. With those adaptations you could make this dessert without any added sugar just using the sweetness of the juice concentrate and the fruit.

How To Make Stuffed Spicy Apples:

Makes 4 servings

• 4 eating apples
• 2 dried figs cut in half
• ½ cup chopped raisins and dates
• ¼ tsp cinnamon dissolved in
• 4 tsp rapeseed oil
• 4 tsp brown sugar

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190˚C.
2. Wash and core the apples and score the skin once around the outside.
3. Stuff the core of the apples with a large piece of fig and then some chopped dates and raisins until filled.
4. Set apples into an oven proof dish, sprinkle the top with brown sugar and pour a tsp cinnamon oil over each apple.
5. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until apples are soft.
6. Place the apples on individual plates, spoon the liquid from the bottom of the dish over the apples and serve warm either on their own, with vanilla flavoured soya yoghurt or soya custard.
7. You can also substitute some of the fruit with chopped hazelnuts and/or chopped almonds. Simply replace some of the fruit mix with equal parts of chopped nuts.