Every Blue Zone article eventually runs into the dessert problem. There is no traditional Ikarian cheesecake, no Sardinian brownie, no Okinawan cookie worth writing up. Sweets in these places were occasional — festival food, name-day food — and the everyday end of a meal was fruit.
So this is not a substitute for dessert. It is what dessert was: an apple, softened in the oven until it collapses at the touch of a spoon, honey, walnuts, cinnamon. It takes four ingredients and it is genuinely good, which is the only reason it survived.
The Ingredients
- 4 firm baking apples — Bramley, Braeburn or Honeycrisp
- 60g walnuts, roughly chopped
- 3 tbsp honey (or maple syrup for the vegan version)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 30g raisins or chopped dried figs — optional but traditional
- 1 orange — zest and juice
- A pinch of sea salt · 100ml water for the dish
How to Make It
Core each apple from the stem end, stopping about 1cm from the base so you leave a closed cup. Widen the cavity to roughly 3cm. Then score a shallow line around the apple's equator — this is what stops the skin bursting untidily as it swells.
Mix the walnuts, raisins, cinnamon, orange zest, a pinch of salt and two tablespoons of the honey. It should clump together when pressed.
Pack the filling into each apple, mounding it slightly. Stand them in a baking dish, pour the orange juice and water around the base — not over the tops — and drizzle the remaining honey over.
Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30–40 minutes depending on size. Baste twice with the syrup from the dish. They are done when a knife slides into the flesh with no resistance and the skin has wrinkled.
Rest 5 minutes and spoon the reduced pan syrup over each one. Greek yoghurt alongside is entirely in keeping; so is nothing at all.