Air Fryer Baked Apples

Juicy Air fryer Baked Apples are cored apple halves filled with cinnamon oat apple filling and baked until tender. This recipe uses two clever hacks for making a moist baked apple that is delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce.

Air fryer love continues with an easy baked dessert, snack or light breakfast.

What I love about baked apples is that you still get sweet cravings satisfied, without all of the extra calories (one serving contains only 171 calories). Baked fruits in general are one of our family favorites. The fruit tends to get sweeter and softer, making it even more delicious when paired with the crispy topping (like Baked mango or Baked pear).

What are baked apples?

In a more simple form, any apple that is oven baked is termed as baked apple. It can be whole, halved, sliced or chopped - stuffed or topped with buttery, sugary, nutty, spicy mixture that compliments the crisp-tart apple and then baked until softened and juicy.

How does air fryer work?

The top part of an air fryer holds a heating mechanism and fan. When you place the food in the basket, hot air rushes down and around the food. This rapid circulation makes the food crisp like deep-frying. So, this machine is excellent for foods that need to be crispy.

However, making a moist baked apple in air fryer was tricky, since air fryer mostly dries out the moisture from the exterior. So, we came up with 2 clever hacks to solve the problem.

THE SECRET

1. Water in the air fryer basket - This might sound unconventional, but adding a little water in the air fryer basket when cooking fatty foods like bacon to avoid smoking is a more common hack. Inspired from this technique, we added water into the air fryer basket, which creates a steamy environment that in turn helps in not drying out the apple.

2. Adding apple into the filling - Traditional baked apples generally have a streusel like filling made with butter, sugar, spices, oats and/or nuts. But, this recipe has some chopped apple mixed along with it, which softens upon cooking and helps in retaining the moisture inside out.

Air fryer baked apples is:

• Quick & easy
• Great for dorms / eating for one or two
• Recipe can be easily doubled
• Kid friendly
• Perfect Fall flavors
• Not-too-sweet
• Healthy
• Allergy free - Nut-free / Gluten free / Egg free
• Delicious

Main ingredients:

Apple - Use you favorite apple like Fuji, Honey crisp, Jonagold, Braeburn or Granny smith.

Butter - Just a tablespoon of butter - unsalted / salted / cold / room temperature

Oats - Old fashioned oats

Sugar - Light or golden brown sugar

Spices - Ground cinnamon and Nutmeg

How to make baked apple in air fryer?

An overview

Prepare apples - Cut an apple in half, using an ice cream scoop, spoon or pairing knife, scoop out the core and some flesh making a small golf ball size cavity to hold the filling. Chop the scooped flesh (making sure not to use the seeds or core) into ¼ inch pieces.

Make filling - Stir melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to make a paste and then stir in oats and chopped apple. Fill the apple cavity, packing them gently.

Air fry / Bake - Pour ½ cup water into the air fryer basket and then bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

Eat - Serve hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Expert tips:

½ cup water into the air fryer basket helps in producing steam which results in a moist baked apple recipe.

Don't reduce / increase the quantity of water - We tested the recipe with ¼ cup / ½ cup and ¾ cup water. We found that ¼ cup was just perfect, but all the evaporates in the cooking and the air fryer basket becomes a sticky mess to clean after. Whereas, ½ cup created the necessary steam yet was much easier to clean.

The recipe can be easily doubled for 2 large apples.

Make the following changes if using medium size apples:

1. The same filling recipe can be used for 2 medium apples
2. Reduce the cooking time to 10 - 13 minutes.

Best Apples to use - The best apples to use for air fryer baked apples are firm and not super round. We prefer apples that hold its shape after the intense cooking like Gala, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonagold, Braeburn, Pink Lady, or Honey crisp (refer more on best baking apples here).

Select apples that are a touch flatter on the sides - This helps the apple half stand up straight when placed in the air fryer basket because you don’t want them to topple over in the air fryer.

Serving suggestions:

Serve baked apples hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, salted caramel sauce or whipped cream for an easy dessert or snack.

If serving for a light breakfast, then serve it with some greek yogurt sweetened with honey.

Frequently asked questions:

More Air fryer sweet recipes:

Air fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten Free Apple Crisp

Apple fritters in the Air Fryer

Banana Cake in Air Fryer

Bread Pudding

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