• The night before you can soak the rains or currents in rum if you like. This is an optional step.
  4 tablespoon raisins , 2 tablespoon rum
• Place the nuts in a frying pan, and start to roast them on medium heat. You need to stir continuously to ensure they do not start to burn. Once you smell the roasted nuts and they start to brown, add in the butter and brown sugar.
  2 oz chopped nuts , 2 tablespoon butter , 1 tablespoon brown
• Stir until the sugar has dissolved and the nuts have caramelized. Remove the pan from the heat, and add in the raisins or currents, ground cinnamon, and lemon juice
  ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Add the marzipan to the warm nuts. You can knead it together to smooth paste. The heat will make the marzipan easier to work with. Alternatively, instead of the marzipan add the fruit jam and mix to a smooth paste.
  2 oz marzipan , 3 tablespoon fruit jam
• Preheat your oven to 180°C/ 356°F circulated heat. Grease the bottom of a baking dish with butter.
• Carefully slice off the top of the apple. Then using an apple corer or a sharp knife carve out the center of the apple. I like to make the hole of the apple centers a little bigger so there is more space for the filling.
  4 apples
• Place the apple bottoms on into the dish. Start filling your marzipan or jam mixture into the apples with a spoon. To ensure that there is no air in the apple, you can stuff the mixture in with the handle of a wooden spoon. Put the top of the apple on top of the mixture. (This is optional but it looks nice)
• Bake the apples in the oven for about 45 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, cover them with some aluminum foil so they do not burn.

For the Vanilla Sauce

• In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with 4 tablespoons of the milk. Mix until you achieve a smooth paste without any lumps. 
  2 tablespoon cornflour / cornstarch, 2 cups whole milk
• Place the remaining milk, salt and sugar into a saucepan. 
  3 tablespoon sugar, 1 pinch salt
• Slice the vanilla pod open lengthways and scrape out the vanilla bean pulp. Add both to the milk mixture. Alternatively, mix in the vanilla extract or vanilla sugar. 
  1 vanilla pod
• Bring the milk mixture to a boil. Now remove the vanilla bean from the milk. (Don’t discard, you can use it to make vanilla sugar).  
• While stirring continuously pour in the starch-milk mixture. Leave to boil for a minute and then remove from the heat. 
• In a separate bowl, combine 6 tablespoons of the hot milk mixture with the egg yolk and mix until combined. (this is to prevent the egg yolk from starting to cook before it is absorbed by the sauce). Now pour into the rest of the sauce and stir well. 
  2 egg yolks