Baked Apples - The Wilke Way!

With the Autumn season just around the corner, I have been doing a lot of thinking about apples.  We always have an abundance of them in our household.  We add them to our meat dishes, rice, baked goods, cereals, spreads and just about everything we can.  With our Nesco Food Dehydrator, we make dried apple rings and fruit leathers.  I even use them for my crafts for the children.  Apples are indispensable.

Interestingly enough, my 95 year old Grandmother does not care for apples.  I curiously asked her why she chose not to eat them.  She told me that she had eaten too many as a child.  For her, having grown up during the Great Depression, foraging for food became an absolute neccessity.  When plates were empty, the children would forage the apples that had fallen on the ground and were not considered as fit for harvesting - but before the feral animals could take them.  Looking back, those foraged apples filled a hungry belly and helped to keep hunger pains at bay.  The Great Depression was a difficult time for children and adults alike.  Survival was the main focus.

I was trying to figure out something interesting for the children for our menu this week.  I felt that a lesson in
Baked Apples - The Wilke Way was an appropriate one.
We chose Royal Gala Apples because they were on sale in our local grocery store.  These apples were large in size and are perfect for eating just as they were, or baked.  Very versatile.
Since we are not completely self sustained, we do use our propane barbeque as much as we can in order to reduce our energy costs. 
The older children helped with the peeling and the coring of the apples.

Baked Apples - The Wilke Way
5 large Royal Gala Apples - peeled and cored
1 cup Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp. Butter
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Ground nutmeg
pinch of salt

Mix sugar, butter, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in bowl until it resembles a coarse mixture.
Slice apples into 1 inch wedges and lay onto a seasoned cast iron frying pan (we used a 10 inch pan).
Sprinkle sugar mixture ontop of apples.
Barbeque on low-medium heat for 20 minutes turning apple slices regularly to ensure even cooking.

The sugar mixture becomes a wonderful carmelized sauce.  Be sure to have Vanilla Ice Cream on hand!