French Baked Apple Recipe For Good Women

If you want to try your hand at an easy French dessert, this baked apple recipe is the perfect place to start. You'll want to make it again and again once you realize how fabulous it makes your house smell. And there isn't a simpler way to get everyone to the dinner table, then enticing them with the smell of dessert.

La Bonne Femme

Part of the fun of serving this French dessert (or any French food for that matter) is knowing something about its name. The literal translation of this recipe is Good Woman Apples. When the term bonne femme is tacked on to the end of recipes in France it usually indicates that a dish is simple and not at all fussy to prepare.

However, calling someone a bonne femme in France is not necessarily a compliment. A bonne femme might indicate someone with common manners or an old and feeble woman.

More then likely the origin of the term in association with food derives from the Latin words bona fama, indicating something with a good reputation. So these baked apples have a good reputation - and with reason!

Pommes Bonne Femme

• 6 cooking apples (Pink Lady give delicious results)
• 3 tablespoons softened butter
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup raisins (optional)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• red currant jelly
• toasted slivered almonds

Remove the core from each apple leaving it whole (an apple corer is of course handy for this, but a paring knife will work if you cut carefully). Don't peel the apples - the skins will hold them together as the apples soften in the oven. Place the apples side by side in a baking dish that just fits them..

Mix the butter, sugar, cinnamon and raisins (if you are using them) and spoon the mixture into the cored apples. Add two tablespoons of water to the baking dish and place in a 400°F oven for one hour. Bake until soft (may take longer if the apples are large).

To serve, drizzle on the cream and any sauce left on the bottom of the baking dish, then top with red currant jelly and a sprinkling of almonds..

Makes 6 servings

Looking for more easy French desserts or just more apples? Stop by Easy French Food where you'll find lots of simple recipes and fun information on French food, like this French apple tart known as Tarte Tatin, and this ever so easy French apple cake recipe Enjoy!