Magazine Mondays: Hazelnut and Currant Baked Apples with Sticky Marsala Sauce

This entry for Magazine Mondays was for one of our desserts on New Year's Day.  We were having our traditional Pork Roast with Sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and whole green beans and decided to try yet another recipe from donna hay magazine, Issue 38.  I seem to love every recipe I try from this magazine!  This was for Hazelnut and Currant Baked Apples with Sticky Marsala Sauce.  However, I did leave out the marsala for this first time--we just wanted to see how the basic recipe would be without the wine.

This is the picture before baking.  As you can tell,  I didn't get fancy.  It was more like--let's hurry up and get these apples in the pan and in the oven--we're starved!

Hazelnut and Currant Baked Apples with Sticky Marsala Sauce

1/3 cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts

1/3 cup currants

1/3 cup finely chopped dates

1-1/2 tblsp. brown sugar

2-1/2 tblsp. melted butter

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

5 apples, cored (I used Cortland.The recipe calls for 12 apples for this amount of ingredients--I just used 5)

1 cup water with 2 tblsp. brown sugar (recipe calls for 1 cup Marsala with 1/4 c. brown sugar)

Cream or ice cream to serve, if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix nuts, fruit, sugar, butter and cinnamon.  Remove a strip of peel around each apple and place in baking dish.  Fill the centers with the mixture.  Heat the water and brown sugar and pour over the apples. Bake for 20 minutes or until apples are tender.  Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

I actually felt the nuts and fruits might benefit from being presoaked to soften before using.  They seemed a bit chewy, although tasty.  These apples were quite better when reheated the next day and I believe it's because the flavors mellowed and the dried fruits had softened. 

I think these apples would be good with raisins or other fruits and with or without nuts.  I love this recipe and will definitely try the wine added next time.