Healthy Baked Apples Recipe Stuffed with Halvah

Healthy Baked Apples, stuffed with halvah or not, are a great dessert, but are also perfect for breakfast. Delicious topped with yogurt or ice cream! Halvah Stuffed Baked Apples with honey and toasted walnuts is a great new twist when making baked apples.  The nutty taste of the halvah compliments perfectly with the sweet apples!

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I've loved baked apples for years because as a kid, when my mom kept us all on Weight Watchers, she often made black cherry diet soda baked apples for dessert.

Actually I remember them as being very good but today it's time to take another spin on this healthy dessert.

Besides it's apple season and this easy dessert of healthy baked apples is one the whole family will enjoy.

​They aren't quite apple strudel or even apple cake, but this great dessert is still one delicious treat.

Why I Love Healthy Baked Apples

Like I mentioned-mom's baked apples were always good even if they were made with not so healthy diet soda.

Whole baked apples remind me of Fall and are such a simple comforting dessert.

Simple healthy baked apples gives your home an aroma of warm spices.

It's amazing how such a handful of ingredients can make such a perfect dessert.

Know Your Ingredients: Healthy Baked Apples

Apple juice/cider- Apple juice is filtered andd pasteurized and apple cider is not.

Cardamom - Don't like or don't have? Try cinnamon as well as pumpkin pie spice or just leave out.

Salt- Brings out the sweetness of the apples

Brown sugar - light or dark, or coconut sugar 

Baking apples include: - Fuji, Empire, Jonathons or Jonagolds, Pink Lady orCortland apples are some of the best baking apples. They hold their shape and don't turn in to mush if baked correctly. Please use large apples.

Halvah- (plain, chocolate or vanilla) What is halvah? It is a Middle Eastern confection made from sesame seeds or tahini. Often eaten like we eat fudge over here. It is sweet and nutty and also quite crumbly. Rich like fudge-for some it is an acquired taste. It is formed into blocks and cn be found in most any variety like chocolate or coffee or pistachio. There are halvah stores that have over 25 varieties. Don't have halvah? Substitute oats! Or add more nuts!

Toasted chopped walnuts or raisins or both

Honey or Maple Syrup

Ground Cinnamon

Canola Oil or a flavorless oil or coconut oil

Pomegranate molasses or regular molasses 

How To Make Healthy Baked Apples

​Begin by making a the apple cider syrup that the apples will bake in. Combine the apple juice or cider, cardamom or cinnamon and a pinch of salt in a large pot and bring to a boil. 

Continue boiling until mixture is reduced to one half cup and then stir in brown sugar or coconut sugar.

Prepare the apples for coring by using a small paring knife and starting at the stem end. Use an apple corer or sharp paring knife to cut out the seeds and the core of the apple. 

Be careful not to cut through bottom. Pare off a ½″ strip from bottom and top of each apple. Then use the paring knife to cut shallow slits lengthwise through the skin of each apple at 1 ½′ intervals which will help the apple not to burst.

In a medium bowl mash the halvah or use oats or extra nuts or a combo. Stir in honey, nuts and cinnamon until well combined.

Stand the apples in a shallow baking dish. Place oil and molasses into the hollow center of each apple. 

Spoon the halvah nut mixture into the cored center of the apple. Spoon the cider baste all over the apples.

Bake apples, basting every 10 minutes or so, until the apples are tender enough to be pricked with a fork. This takes about 45 minutes. Do not let them become mushy.

Spoon the pan juices over the apples again before serving. 

Served warm, at room temperature or chilled. 

this …

I dolloped mine with some honey Greek yogurt, but feel free to use whipped cream or a scoop of vanila ice cream.

I have to laugh when I think about the diet black cherry cola baked apples my mom served to us.

That recipe was probably lower in calories than this one, but this is a delicious recipe with natural ingredients.

And way back then I had never heard of halvah.

As kids, we were happy to have dessert of any kind and easy baked apples are a great option when trying to eat healthy.

I love this healthy baked apples recipe. 

FAQ's

How To Serve Whole Baked Apples with Cinnamon

Baked apples and cinnamon is often served as a simple dessert, but I think the best way to serve these is for breakfast or brunch.

They can be served warm or cold and are perfect with a dollop of yogurt.

Or a scoop of vanilla ice cream or an extra drizzle of maple syrup or honey.

But there's something extra special about this simple recipe especially when you have them for breakfast!

​Healthy baked apples can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

If you want to serve them warm just pop them in the microwave for about a minute.

​It's definitely apple season and I love seeing all the different apple varieties starting to pop up.

Baked apples are the perfect way to celebrate Fall.

And apples are a traditional food that Askenzic Jews eat for our new year.

Apples and honey and apple desserts in general are what I use to welcome the High Holidays.

Of course, these healthy baked apples are just one way to enjoy.

Keep reading the original post from 2014 for more on the High Holidays and our traditions!

One of my favorite songs that I sing for the new year but couldn’t find on You Tube is “Apples and honey, it may sound funny, they will make your new year sweet and sunny, apples and honey.”

So..you will have to eat the apples without the song. Enjoy them.

Just as a Jewish holiday isn’t complete without family, it most certainly wouldn’t be complete without food.

Traditional foods for Rosh Hashanah includes food made with honey. 

Honey symbolizes something sweet for a sweet new year.

I made a great honey cake this year and these honey halvah stuffed baked apples. 

This salted honey rose tart was so good last year, that I made it again this year.

Our challah bread is shaped in a circle to symbolize the fact that life is a circle. Life never stops.

(And though this is a post from 2014 those thoughts are especially poignant in 2024.)

Today I’m keeping this short and sweet, with sweet being the important word here.

You see tonight is the beginning of the Jewish New Year. All Jewish holidays go from sunset to sunset.

I don’t know how much you know about the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, so I’ll fill you in just a teensy bit. Rosh Hashanah translates to “head of the year”.

It is believed to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve and the completion of the creation of the world. “Rosh Hashanah thus emphasizes the special relationship between G‑d and humanity: our dependence upon G‑d as our creator and sustainer, and G‑d’s dependence upon us as the ones who make His presence known and felt in His world.” (from Chabad.org) 

On Rosh Hashanah, the  book of judgement is opened and it is in this book that a decree of judgment is given.

The prayer goes a bit like this. “Who shall live and who shall die, Who shall be impoverished and who shall be enriched, who shall fall and who should rise…and so on and so on.

On Yom Kippur, (celebrated ten days after the new year and also called the Day of Atonement) the book is closed, though we have until Sukkot for one last chance.

It is in these ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur that we must make good or ask for forgiveness for anything we may have done that was hurtful or wrong in this past year, and try to ensure our good fate for the future. 

We also symbolically “cast our sins” into a rushing body of water and say prayers accordingly.

During the Rosh Hashanah service we also blow the shofar.

If you’ve ever tried blowing a shofar…well, it is not easy. 

And we hear 100 blasts over the two days of the new year. The shofar is a sound that awakens us and calls us to repent over what may have gone wrong this last year.

For me this is a cleansing holiday. It is a time for reflection and new beginnings. It’s a time to look back over the year behind us and reflect on how we could do better in the coming year.

For more years than not we have had the pleasure of celebrating Rosh Hashanah in the mountains at our temple’s summer camp.

The service is small and full of the sounds of music and children and usually dogs.

We celebrate in our jeans at over 10,000 feet, while the aspens turn golden around us, the pines rise above us, and the stream rushes before us.

When the weather is good, it is truly glorious and when the weather is bad, it is pretty glorious too. 

There is nothing that says “God” more to me than Mother Nature.

Though I usually welcome the new year with happiness, and gratefulness that we made it through another year intact, this year I am feeling a bit bittersweet.

Alex is celebrating in Shanghai at a Chabad  House, Zoe is in Philly and Manservant is in Stockholm at a synagogue there.

I miss my family, and holidays are meant for family. I know we will be with each other in spirit, but it just isn’t the same without them.

(May we remember those that are missing and pray for their swift recovery.) 2024

So if you are celebrating the New Year, I wish you health, wealth and happiness. Along with a good strong dose of peace.

And even if you aren’t, I wish you the same.

Have a sweet year, my friends!

More Apple Recipes

Homemade Applesauce

Passover Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

Baked Apple Pancake

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