Inspired by Apples of Uncommon Character by Rowan Jacobsen.

Ingredients:

20 tasty crab apples , stems on (try Martha, Centennial, Whitney, Chestnut or Wickson)
1/8 cup canola or safflower oil
½ Tbs cinnamon
1 Tbs (or less) sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
Wash and dry the apples.
Place the apples in a bowl, and toss with the oil until coated.
Add the cinnamon and sugar, and toss until the dry ingredients are evenly distributed on the apples.
Place the apples on a baking sheet, and roast till soft. Rowan says 1 hour, but that is way too long - after 25 minutes the apples had blown apart. (But they were still delicious.) My recommendation is to stay close to the oven after 15 minutes and pull them out when you hear that first explosion. You want them to be tender and wrinkled but not a pile of sauce.
Rowan suggests serving them in low bowls or wide glasses. We just put them on a plate in the center of the table and used our fingers. The long stems are perfect for dropping the apples into your mouth and eating off the soft flesh. The core stays attached to the stem.
If you want to skip the sugar, you can roast these with just a light coating of oil.