Jack O' Lantern Apples

Check these homemade babies out:

My jack o'lantern apples

These were born out of necessity for a homemade treat for my best friend's Halloween/house warming party. I debated doing "Mummy Hot Dogs" but figured that would ultimately bomb since neither of us are big fans of hot dogs. I have an abundance of apples so I really wanted to find a fun way to incorporate some into the meal. I initially thought about taking the easy route and making an apple pie with some Halloween cut-outs but then I remembered seeing carved apples somewhere (probably Pinterest) and decided to combine the two and voila.

I added green food coloring to the apple pie filling and some sugar gems for no other reason than that I wanted to use them. The actual carving was a pain and time consuming. Breaking news- apples aren't used for carving for a reason! I couldn't get too imaginative because 1. I'm just not imaginative to begin with and had to Google pumpkin carving designs. 2. there wasn't much space to really do much. Almost all the apples looked like the one on the right. The one on the left was my exception mainly because it was time consuming and most of the apples I had weren't as tall.

I wasn't going to do anything else to the apples since I figured the pie filling would suffice but I thought the different flavors and temperatures would probably not work well together so I baked them long enough to have them cook a little but not completely bake through so that they would basically melt (think real jack o'lanterns two weeks after Halloween).

I was able to save one for my best friend before they disappeared so it's safe to say they were a success. Not pictured: the vanilla frosting I added cinnamon and vanilla extract to for those who wanted an added layer of sweetness to top it off.

I only got to take a bite off one because sometimes that's what happens when you're the baker. Good news is I can make myself a whole batch. Bad news is I can make myself a whole batch.