Bacon baked apples: a sweet-savory treat for a slower evening

By evening, after a full day of choosing the harder, more deliberate thing at every meal, wanting something sweet is just being human. This dish meets that want without asking you to undo the whole day: 2 small apples, a little cinnamon, a little bacon, ready in under 20 minutes.

Apple's real contribution here is pectin, a soluble fiber studied for feeding the bacterial community that keeps a gut lining resilient. The bacon is there for fat and salt, just enough to make the apple's own sweetness taste like more than it is, so the maple sugar in this can stay light, or go, and the fruit still carries the dish.

Bacon is a small ask of an animal, and even a small ask deserves a moment's notice before the pan goes in the oven. Let the cinnamon and rendered fat reach you before the first bite does, and treat this one for exactly what it is: a small, occasional pleasure, made well.

Ingredients

• 2 small apples, cored (green or red)
• 2 tablespoons maple sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 4 slices bacon

Method

Heat the oven to 350 F and line a loaf pan with foil.

Stand the two cored apples upright in the pan. Stir the maple sugar and cinnamon together, then spoon or funnel half the mixture into each apple core.

Lay two slices of bacon across the top of each apple in a cross, so the ends drape down the sides.

Bake until the apples are fork-tender and the bacon has crisped, about 10 to 15 minutes, a little longer for larger apples or thicker bacon. Let them cool for a few minutes before eating, since the filling holds a lot of heat.

Air fryer variation

The air fryer works well here and crisps the bacon faster. Set it to 350 F, stand the filled apples in the basket with space around each one, and cook for about 10 to 12 minutes, checking for fork-tenderness and crisp bacon toward the end. This is an untested conversion, so treat the time as a starting point and watch the first batch.

A closing note

A treat like this earns its place when it is genuine and occasional. Make it beautiful, eat it slowly, and let it be enough.

*Adapted from acleanplate.com*

*Lower-sugar note: the sugar here is the apples, not added sweetener. For a lighter serving, use a smaller portion, or blend in a splash of water or coconut milk to stretch the batch so each serving carries less.*