Clean Eating: Roasted Apple with Ricotta, Hazelnuts and Dark Chocolate

PUBLISHED ON: 03.20.2014

Sharing my food from my kitchen and garden are important to me, followed by the simplicity of preparation. With these thoughts as my foundation I am also reminded that to be healthy, I have to eat healthy.  Don’t get me wrong I eat my share of crap food, on the run, and through the drive through window, but, every time I do, I am reminded that eatng like that does not make me feel my best.

This week I turned some time to reading my Stack it High Let it Fly food magazine pile and I managed to dog ear pages of recipes that caught my attention-this was one of them.  I even made a special trip to Trader Joe’s to pick up the ingredients.

The granny smith apples with the core carved out stuffed with a mixture of ricotta cheese, orange zest, crushed hazelnuts (I used pistachios) chopped dark chocolate and raw honey tastes as good as it looks. What is better it is a fairly light dessert that packs real nutrition with no sugar hangover.

Roasted Apple with Ricotta, Hazelnuts and Dark Chocolate
Serves 6
Recipe from Clean Eating Magazine


Ingredients:
Organic unsalted butter, as needed
6 firm baking apples (such as Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Crispin or Pippin)
1-1/2 cups reduced-fat or regular ricotta cheese
3/4 cup unsalted hazelnuts, ground or crushed (note: I used pistachios)
1/2 cup 70% or greater dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup raw honey, divided
1 tbsp orange zest
Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Brush the bottom of a medium baking pan with butter.  Slice a small piece off the bottom of each apple so they stand flat without falling over.  Cut off the tops of apples and using, a spoon or small knife, carve out the core, leaving a thickness of about 1-inch of apple all around.  Transfer apples to baking dish.
2.  In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, hazelnuts, chocolate, 3 tbsp honey and orange zest.  Divide mixture among apples, filling inside cavity of each mounting on top.
3.  Dizzle remaining 1 tbsp honey over apples and bake until ricotta-chocolate mixture starts to melt and skin of apples has browned slightly, about 15 minutes.  Serve warm.
Enjoy!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You cannot copy content of this page