Super Baked Apples

Before I finish with the 1958 Good Housekeeping Casseroles, I had to print this delightful dessert recipe. But that's not a dessert picture I posted, is it? What are those things on the left side of that odd pot pie, you ask? Wait and see...

Super Baked Apples

6 medium-firm red baking apples

2 tablesp. melted butter

3/4 cup snipped flaked coconut (What does snipped mean? I can't imagine cutting flaked coconut further...)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup water

Start heating oven to 350 F. Wash (good thing they told us this), core apples. Starting at stem ends, pare apples 1/3 way down (Huh?). Dip in butter, then coconut. Arrange, with pared sides up, in shallow casserole. Boil sugar with water 10 min.; pour around apples. Bake apples 1/2 to 1 hr., basting frequently, until they are easily pierced with fork, and coconut is toasted golden; remove from oven.

This doesn't sound too bad, right? Hang on for the variations:

Cranberry apples, where you pour boiled whole-cranberry sauce instead of boiled sugar.

Baked Pears: You can guess what this is.

Wait for it -

Chili-Glazed Apples (pictured)

Omit butter, coconut. Substitute 1 cup corn syrup for sugar and water. Spoon 1 tablespoon chili sauce over each apple for about 10 min. before it's done.

So many things wrong with that one. Spoon for 10 min. or spoon, then cook? Also - chili and apples should not ever go together. This is almost as bad as a prune recipe, but not quite. Is this really a dessert? Dessert should have one of the basic dessert food ingredients anyway: chocolate, chocolate, sugar or ice cream. Also, this is really stretching my definition of casseroles beyond the limit.

I'm reading Knit Two by Kate Jacobs. This one is fun, and hopefully not as heart-wrenching as the first. (Then why are you reading it, you ask? Because it's a sequel. Everyone knows if you read a book you are committing to reading all sequels, good or bad.)

I'm blogging over at Teen Seen today too, from Quake Books. I talk about banned books. Frankly, there should be some banned cookbooks (anything featuring prunes), but that's another story.