Winter warmers

Question of the week: as the weather's getting colder, do you have a favourite Winter-warmer type recipe you'd like to share?

"Baked apples are a classic pudding this time of year, and for good reason. You'll need one cooking apple per person, plus some dark brown sugar, sultanas or mixed dried fruit, a smidge of butter, a sprinkle of ground cinnamon, an oven proof dish, and an oven preheated to 180c

The only tricky bit to the whole thing is coring your apples - it's easiest with a dedicated tool - like a tiny cookie-cutter on a mini bayonet - but if you don't have one of those around, no problem. Work carefully with a sharp knife, blade longer than the apple is high, to make four vertical cuts, forming a square column around the core. Carefully! Then push the column out, and you're good to go.

Now you just need to score a line around the circumference of the apple, and put them in your dish. Fill the core with alternate layers of your dried fruit and your dark brown sugar, tamping them down as you go, and ending with a little bit of butter and a final dab of sugar - the butter will melt down and make the fruit filling moist, but can be skipped if you've not got any to hand. Pop the whole thing in the oven for about half an hour.

The apples should be bursting at the seams with fluffy, light flesh, with the stuffing adding a rich sweetness. Serve with a light dusting of cinnamon, and either ice-cream of Greek yoghurt.

(For a quick fix, you can put a basic version of this together with an eating apple, no sugar or butter, and cook it in the microwave in about five minutes.)

* Photo by anjuli_ayer, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.