Chai Baked Apples with Honey Yogurt

Nothing smells like fall to me more than chai and baked apples, so why not bring the two together?

Let me first tell you my thought process as I was in the spice aisle to get what I needed for the chai spices. I was there for like 15 minutes I’m sure. You might be able to find a blend of chai spices, but I was unable to find anything unless I ordered it. Or if I did find it, it was with black tea or had a sweetener, etc. Not just the spices to make chai spice.

Chai spice blend usually consists of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger, and black or white pepper – which gives it the kick. Sometimes nutmeg makes it in there, sometimes not.

Some of these spices I use a lot as a dried spice like cinnamon and black pepper. But cloves very rarely, and nutmeg only with pumpkin pie usually, and ginger I get fresh ginger root, not necessarily powdered. So I didn’t want to buy all of these individual spices and then have them go bad and take up room in my spice cabinet. And the fact that good spices are expensive when you’re buying more than just a few, was not appealing to me, but I really wanted to try my idea out.

Then I had a revelation. (By the way, I thought this was perfectly accurate of what happened in the spice aisle. Revelation: a surprising and previously unknown fact, especially one that is made known in a dramatic way.) Pumpkin Spice that you can find EVERYWHERE is cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and ginger. All I had to do was add cardamom and if I wanted the heat, black pepper. Easy peasy. I was telling my husband, my mom, and now ya’ll about this fact, which I’m sure might not be a new idea for some of ya’ll, but it is for me.

I’m sure some of the ratios might be off, and if you have all of the spices needed to make your own chai spice, then be my guest! But this was a simple solution to what I needed. So basically these “chai” baked apples, is pumpkin spice + cardamom. I’m sure to all the chai spice lovers this is a huge “no-no”, but I’m simple and I got the flavor I’m looking for. So why not?

Now – onto the recipe! I paired this with unsweetened yogurt and a little honey. Since I’m not a huge sweet fan and baked apples are sweet enough, having the cool tart yogurt with it was perfect for me, but if you want a scoop of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt, go for it, but I like the plain unsweetened yogurt with mine.

Enjoy!

• Servings: 6-8 servings
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Ingredients

• 6-7 medium apples, mix and match, sliced evenly
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp pumpkin spice
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 3 T arrow root or corn starch
• Sprinkle of salt if desired
• 1 cup unsweetened yogurt of choice
• 1/4 cup honey

Directions

1. Preheat oven to bake at 350 degrees F. Coat the inside of a 9×13 pan with a small amount of vegetable oil.
2. Put sliced apples, lemon juice, vegetable oil, brown sugar, pumpkin spice, cardamom, arrowroot or corn starch, and salt in a gallon size bag. Toss until apples are evenly coated.
3. Throw the apples in the baking pan and cover. Bake for 45 minutes.
4. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes.
5. Take the yogurt and drizzle with honey, or mix in the honey with the yogurt.
6. Let apples cool for 5-10 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

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