Courtesy of PureZing

Apples and cinnamon basil combine the best of a winter fruit with the first hint of herbal spring.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

Pick 4 large baking apples: Rome, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Pippin, Gala or Braeburn types
Juice from half an organic lemon
Juice of 5 organic oranges (peel from one of the oranges)
3 Tablespoons golden raisins
½ cup pitted dates, chopped
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon chopped basil
Sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine dates, raisins, cinnamon and basil.

Core apples almost all the way through and remove half the peel. Rub fresh lemon juice on all cut parts of the apples, and fill with date mixture. Put apples in baking dish.

Julienne orange peel and put into orange juice. Pour orange juice and peel around apples.

Bake 50 minutes, basting every ten minutes with orange juice mixture. When apples are tender when pierced with a knife, sprinkle each apple with sugar.

Put apples under the broiler and basting with pan juices, allow a glaze to form.

Allow apples to cool. Serve with yogurt, sour cream or even vanilla ice cream.