My love of fall is probably apparent to who’s been reading this blog for a while. 2 weeks ago I mentioned, at the end of a Highlights post much like this one, that Brian and I had recently purchased 16 pounds of apples. The comments on the post were positive, but I did receive a little offline feedback wondering whether I’d be able to use that many apples.
(These are not those apples, but this is our beautiful farmer's market)
Rest assured, 10 cans of apple rings, several snacks and an apple crisp later, we used up those apples. We had such a good time, we went back this weekend and bought another 8 pounds to can (more about that later) and several honey crisps to eat (and cider donuts, of course).
Unfortunately, my new found canning obsession doesn’t leave a lot of apples for all of the apple ideas that came my way this week:
The Boston Globe has an informative post about which apples are best for baking. I’ve always had a bit of an issue with this sort of thinking, since I love to eat Granny Smith apples but have been repeatedly told by my other half that those are baking apples. Do we really need to segregate apples in this way? But seriously, if you’re planning to make a pie (which sounds yummy, now that I think about it), this is probably a good piece to read first. (via The Kitchn)
Serious Eats want to know “How much do you know about apples?” I, apparently, don’t know much; I only got a 45%. However, I do know that apples are delicious.
In the (highly unlikely) event that you have more apples than you can eat, you can send them to me, or you can try out one of the 39 apple uses featured on Cheap Healthy Good. Most of the ideas don’t involve actually eating the apples, but there’s some good ones on there (check out #14, 18, and 19).
Crispy Turnovers with Apple, Bacon, and Caramelized Onions (the Kitchn) What is it about apples and onions? And why have I not cooked anything with apples and onions?
Dried Apple Chips (Serious Eats) I’m learning to hate recipes that involve drying fruit because they usually require the oven to be set at 120° or so, which is lower than my oven goes. This apple chip recipe, however, bakes them at 220°, which would actually be possible.
Julie also has a canning problem, and with this recipe for Pear-Kissed Applesauce, she’s not helping my problem. It doesn’t require tons of fruit and makes a nice amount of applesauce. I haven’t tried the recipe yet, but I’ll be adding it to my canning recipe collection, perhaps for next year.
Cheese in cookies? This may be the most genius idea I’ve ever heard. As per usual, I haven’t managed to try the recipe yet, but it might happen any day now. These sound really, really good to me: Apple Gouda Oatmeal Cookies from The Kitchn.
What’s your favorite way to use apples?
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I love that you went to buy more. We will be doing that next week :-)
I do think its kind of silly to segregate apples into “eating” and “baking” groups. They’re all delicious fresh and baked/canned/processed. But then again, this eating apples thing is a new(er) development – It used to be difficult to grow standard varieties of tasty apples because apples are cross pollinators. Most apples were grown to make (hard) apple cider! Gives a new spin on the Johnny Appleseed myth… (Because I feel the need to cite everything, most of those ideas come from The Botany of Desire, which is fantastic, and which you’ve probably read).
It’s nice to have someone on my side :)
I actually haven’t read the Botany of Desire (despite my love of Michael Pollan), but Brian and I did watch the movie on Netflix. Highly recommended.