There’s nothing like spicy baked apples to make your whole house smell WONDERFUL!  Baked apples are also a nutritious snack for your hungry just-home-from-school kids, as well as a fabulous dessert!

My husband is reading over my shoulder, and he told me to say that adults who are just home from work love Zesty Texas Baked Apples, too.  (He always eats two at a time, in fact!)

Ingredients:

(This batch will serve three people, more or less)  (Less, if one of them is my husband.)

3 large tart peeled and cored apples  (I use Granny Smith apples.)

1 tablespoons lemon juice.  (Use fresh-squeezed, not that bottled stuff.)

2/3 cup Texas Apple Jalapeno or Habanero Pepper Jelly (depending on how HOT you like it!)

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

A cinnamon stick for each apple

What to do:

Place the apples in an ungreased baking dish.  Drizzle with lemon juice and set aside.

In a smallish saucepan, combine everything else and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved and the butter is melted.

Fill each apple core and then drizzle the rest all over the outsides of the apples.  Stick a cinnamon stick in each core.

Bake, uncovered, at 375 for about 20 minutes or until the apples are tender.  Serve warm.  Set out the whipped cream or Cool Whip; some people will want it.

You can also cut the apples into wedges; this often works better with younger children.  Just toss the pieces into the baking dish, pour the pepper jelly mixture over them and stir it all up, and serve it in a cereal bowl!

Throw some raisins or nuts in the mixture for a change of pace!

I’m serious; your house will smell absolutely AWESOME.  Your neighbors will be drooling.