Baked apples with cream

January 18, 2026

Baked apples with vanilla cream and nuts are my discovery of this winter. This dessert tastes so good it’s hard to believe how easy it is to make. Soft, slightly tart apples, a spoonful of sweet cherry jam, delicate vanilla-scented cream and crunchy nuts on top — delicious! I’m sure that once you try it, you’ll keep coming back to it regularly.

Baked apples – which apples are best?

You only need a few simple ingredients to make this dessert, but one thing really matters: the apples. There are dozens of varieties available, and it’s important to choose ones that are suitable for baking — apples that become soft in the oven but don’t turn into mush, with a pleasantly tart flavour. For baking, I most often choose varieties such as Szara reneta, Antonówka Ligol or Jonagold.

Oven-baked apples – what cream works best?

For baked apples, I recommend the simplest cream possible — one that doesn’t even require a mixer. The combination of creamy mascarpone, a small amount of icing sugar and vanilla extract is surprisingly delicious. Don’t skip the vanilla; it’s essential here. Use natural vanilla extract or a small amount of seeds from a vanilla pod. It will be absolutely delicious, I promise.

Below you’ll find a few more recipes for delicious desserts:

Baked apples

Baked apples with vanilla cream and nuts are my discovery of this winter. This dessert tastes so good it’s hard to believe how easy it is to make.

Print Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5

Baking time 20

Course Dessert

Servings 4

Ingredients

2 big apples (e.g. szara reneta)
4 tsp cherry jam
2 tsp chopped walnuts

Cream

3 tbsp mascarpone
1 tsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract (or seeds from a vanilla pod)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Wash the apples, cut them in half and remove the cores (just enough to remove the seeds). Place them in a baking dish and bake for 10 minutes.
Remove the apples from the oven, spoon the cherry jam into the hollowed centres and bake for another 10 minutes.
Mix all the cream ingredients until smooth and well combined.
Remove the apples from the oven and transfer them to serving dishes. While still warm, top each apple with a portion of cream and sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Enjoy!

key words baked apples