Try to get good country apples—firm, juicy, and with a tart flavor. This version of a baked apple includes some indigenous Northeast Kingdom products.

Ingredients

　　1 tablespoon Gooseberry Jam (page 240)

　　A dab of butter

　　A sprinkling of ground cinnamon

　　1 1/2–2 tablespoons maple syrup

　　A couple of chopped walnuts, or butternuts if you can find them

　　Heavy cream (optional)

　　Core the apple at the stem end, and set it in a small baking dish. Stuff the gooseberry jam into the hollow. Top with a little butter and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Pour the maple syrup on top, and sprinkle a pinch of cinnamon and the chopped walnuts over all. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 1 hour. Enjoy it warm with chilled heavy cream, if that pleases you.

　　The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. Copyright © 2009 by Judith Jones. Published by Knopf. All Rights Reserved.Judith Jones is senior editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf. She is the author of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food and the coauthor with Evan Jones (her late husband) of three books: The Book of Bread; Knead It, Punch It, Bake It!; and The Book of New New England Cookery. She also collaborated with Angus Cameron on The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook, and has contributed to Vogue, Saveur, and Gourmet magazines. In 2006, she was awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in New York City and Vermont.