VOLCANIC BAKED APPLES WITH CHOCOLATE

For baking you’ll need a tart variety of apple that will be fluffy and juicy when baked; traditional favorites are Rome Beauty or McIntosh, though you can always fall back on the ubiquitous Granny Smith. All of them are liable to burst open, hence their ‘volcanic’ title!

Serves 4
4 apples
100 g/3½ oz bar of your favorite chocolate
2 tablespoons/30 g butter
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons/30 g brown sugar
2 tablespoons muesli
2-3 tablespoons of water

1. Heat the oven to 375˚F/190˚C. Wash and core the apples, scooping out a hollow to hold the filling. Slash the skin of each apple horizontally around the equator so the flesh can expand without bursting the skin.

2. Break the chocolate into sticks – Grandma prefers the dark kind — push the sticks into the apples and set them in a buttered baking dish.

3. In a small saucepan melt the butter with the honey and off the heat stir in the sugar with the muesli. Spoon the mixture over the apples, pushing it down the hollow center with the chocolate, and add the water to the dish.

4. Bake the apples, basting occasionally so the honey forms a glaze, until they are tender when pierced with a skewer and the ‘equator’ has exploded like a volcano, 30-40 minutes. Towards the end of cooking, keep an eye on the dish and add more water if the honey shows signs of scorching. Serve the apples hot, with the honey syrup spooned over as a sauce.