Baked winter acorn  squash is stuffed with caramelized apples for a perfect autumnal side dish.

Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash

By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime

This post is sponsored in conjunction with AppleWeek . I received product samples from sponsor companies to aid in the creation of the AppleWeek recipes. All opinions are mine alone.

Welcome back to #AppleWeek, where all week long favorite recipes for apples are shared and there is a giveaway for fantastic prizes going on. You can still sign up for the give away by going to the Welcome Page. Today I am sharing my recipe for apple stuffed acorn squash.

Acorn squash, and  also sweet dumpling squash and other similarly shaped squashes are ones I love to stuff. It is easier to do so  rather  than trying to simply peel them, due to the ridges along the outside.

Some squash,  like delicata, are easily sliced and roasted, but the skin on the acorn is more tough. Other squash, like butternut, although they can be  stuffed,  the cavities are smaller relative to the acorn, and also, the texture of the butternut is best diced and roasted alone, because it has less water in it overall.

 

Swiss Diamond very generously supplied me with a paring knife to use  when  prepping my apples for recipes. I have some tips for paring apples easily for  you using the paring knife, which I picked up from watching Jacques Pepin’s cooking show.

Before that,   I admit that my knife skills with apples were left somewhat wanting, and I often opted to use a vegetable peeler or cut them in such a way as I could not get nice peeled wedges.

I  even remember watching the old Iron Chef show (Japanese) on the Food Network, and being jealous of the way that Hiroyuki Sakai could peel  an apple with a full  sized chef’s knfe in just seconds flat, showing off his apparent skills.

The  first thing you want to do is to cut out the stem and  the bottom blossom  end,  which you can do by cutting a small cone shape in each end and removing that.

Then starting at the top,  cut around the outside in a circular fashion, keeping the knife blade close to the skin. I always challenge myself to see if I can get the entire peel off in one piece without breaking it. It can be  fun. My dad used to be  able to do that easily. I recall as a  kid that I’d ask him to peel my apples for me. He thought I was a picky kid who would not eat an apple peel. Truth be told, I liked watching him get the peel off in one section. Every. Single. Time.

You can see I almost had it on this one, but it did tear in a couple spots.

Once you have the peel  off, cut the apple in half and core out the center the same way you did the stem, and then cut the apple into very nice wedges. And by then it almost seems a shame to chop that up, but you want it diced small so you can adequately fill the squash cavity.

And after all that fun I have to tell you that I have several old-fashioned apple peelers. The kind that clamp to  tables and can peel and core an apple in no time flat. It used to get much more use when my daughter was small, as I liked putting up homemade applesauce and apple butter in jars. Now as an empty nester, I have less need for it.

Once you toss the apples with the other ingredients and stuff the squash,  it is easiest to set them on crumpled  foil so they don’t move about.  Plus if some sugary apple happens to escape the squash, it doesn’t burn up  your pan.

After baking, I liked to sprinkle a little extra cinnamon on there, which did make it dustier than I would have liked for the pic but it sure tasted nice. I love cinnamon on apples! And from there, it spoons out quite easily as a lovely side dish. I hope you enjoy it.

Be sure to check out the other recipes below the printout.And definitely don’t forget to go to  the welcome page  (linked at the top of the page) to enter the giveaway before it ends soon. You can’t win it if you’re not in it!

~s

Apple Week Recipe Roundup:

Friday Recipes:

Baked Stuffed Acorn Squash

 

Turkey Stuffed Bell Peppers

Sausage Stuffed Apples

Italian Stuffed Peppers with Ricotta

Turkey  Alfredo Stuffed  Shells