Virginia Baked Apple (Wine Lover Magazine, Fall 2009)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut out the core of six apples a little more than halfway down the fruit. Pare off a little of the apple skin, around the top. In a medium-sized bowl, mix ¾ cup dark brown sugar, ¼ cup room-temperature butter, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, and ½ tsp ground nutmeg until blended. Equally spoon mixture into apple cores, place apples in a shallow baking dish and bake for about 15 minutes until apples just become tender.

Remove from oven, plate individually and drizzle on some of the pan sauce. Top each apple with vanilla ice cream, a sprinkling of ground cinnamon, a cinnamon stick and mint sprig. Sprinkle some granola around the perimeter of the plate.

Sometimes I mix a cup of ginger-ale with a 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of allspice and 2 tsp of sugar and add this to the pan to have extra drizzle material.