Does anyone else out there like to shake it up a little and keep things “fresh” for their Sweet Peas? I do. However, our fun has to be fast and easy. Here is a fun way we have been enjoying apples.
I have been using a heart-shaped cookie cutter from William-Sonoma to make these fun mini-hearts for our kiddos to snack on. Served fresh, you can pair them with spreads (our favorite is the Cocoa Almond spread from Trader Joe’s), dips, or cheese.
Here is how we do it. I included the ruler size because I am a doubter. When someone writes a recipe or makes a video and tells me they used 1/4″ slices, I want to know if they are guessing, or they really mean it. No guesswork involved for our friends:
First, slice an apple into 1/4″ rounds. 
The diameter of the apples that yielded double hearts from one slice were 3 and 3/8 inches in diameter. These were Jonagolds that we bought from Costco.
Now that we have the OCD part out of the way, here comes the fun stuff 🙂 The how-to is under the pictures, in the captions.
Make star-centered hearts by centering the shape cutter on the apple.
To get two hearts out of the same round, start by placing the wedge of the shape cutter over the stem of the apple.
Then move the shape up and cut your second heart.
You can serve them plain, or with a spread, dip or cheese:
Or, you can add cinnamon and sugar and serve them raw:
Night Owl’s favorite way is to have “hot apples” – he loves them warm out of the oven 🙂
Charger was my big helper on picture day – he helped brush them with melted butter, and then we sprinkled them with our cinnamon-xylitol blend.
These were baked for 10 minutes in our 350 Fahrenheit convection oven.
From start to finish, the raw version takes about ten minutes. The hot apples took about 30 minutes to prep with little hands help, and then 10 minutes in the over. We snacked on the scrap edges while we were prepping, and saved them to munch on throughout the morning.
I think this kind of project is perfect for Sweet Peas who want to help in the kitchen, especially on big cooking days like Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter. It’s enough for them to really help, without taking a chance at inadvertently having one of your major dishes altered in a way that may test your gentleness when you are feeling “perfect” pressure.
It also makes a delightful Sunday morning treat. The “hot apple” version is great for cooler weather. I can see us doing this with different shapes as the seasons change. Why buy guilty gummy treats infused with chemicals and questionable ingredients when you can turn apple slices into fun shapes? Who says that fresh can’t be fun??
As you may have noticed, this treat is also gluten-free. I can see us making these to take along when we go out to dinner, party, etc., and we want to ensure our kiddos get a “safe”, yummy treat. It’s simple enough that we could bring enough to share, and also budget-friendly so we could do so without straining the wallet.
I hope you enjoy making these with your Sweet Peas. Leave us a comment and let us know how you added your own moxie to the idea 🙂