Recipe: roasted apples

This is ridiculously simple, but so damn good. Roasting removes some of the apples' liquid content, intensifying their flavor and sweetness, making their interiors soft and almost creamy and their cut surfaces almost like apple-caramel-flavored fruit leather. Who needs a baked apple all tarted up with brown sugar and butter?

Ingredients:

• Large, sweet baking apples -- Romes work excellently
• A full-bodied, on-the-sweet-side soy sauce -- like Chinese dark soy sauce, or one of the other styles of seasoned soy sauces
• Non-stick cooking spray or neutral-flavored oil
• Low-fat yogurt for garnish (optional), and/or ...
• Apple juice, brandy, etc. to deglaze pann (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cut apples in half, leaving skins on. With a melon baller or small sharp-edged spoon, scoop out the seeds from each half, leaving a small indentation.
3. Use a baking dish (preferably metal) big enough to hold all the apple halves in one layer with a goodly amount of room between them; spray the interior liberally with non-stick cooking spray (or grease lightly with oil if you're using that instead).
4. Place the apples cut side up in the baking dish. Dribble a scant half-teaspoon of the soy sauce into the indentations where the seeds used to be.
5. Place on a middle shelf in the oven. Roast for about an hour, or until the apples are soft and their cut surfaces well caramelized (check on them regularly so they don't overcook).
6. Use a spatula to gently lift each apple-half out of the baking dish onto individual serving plates. You may optionally place a small dollop of low-fat yogurt in each apple-half's indentation. Serve piping hot.
7. You may optionally use a small amount of apple juice, brandy, or other flavor-compatible liquid to deglaze all the reduced caramel-like juices off of the bottom of the baking pan. Use the deglazed juices as-is to drizzle over the apples; or add some additional spices or flavoring as desired or inspired to do; or maybe add a little bit of cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce.