Autumn is apples and other than garlic it is my favorite 
cooking ingredient.  Oh, basil is close, but apples...

Do you have a favorite recipe calling for apples?  Care to
share it?

130 responses total.

I forget whether I've entered this before, so if it looks
familiar, I apologize for the rendundancy.  This is an
easy way to make outstanding, chunky, full-flavored 
applesauce.  This isn't the baby food-style stuff you
get in jars.  This is applesauce for lumberjacks.  Enjoy.

         ***  Eve's Original Applesauce ***

 *Wash, core, and chunk enough apples to fill a 5 quart
  crockpot to the brim.  This quantity is something like
  4 lbs. or 2/3 peck of apples.  I used a mixed batch of
  seconds.  The more varieties of apples involved the better. 

 *Add 2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
      1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
      2 Tbsp. Calvados
      1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

 *Cover, set to low heat, and let 'er rip for about 12 hours.

 *Stir until at desired consistency.  The residual peels are 
  not a problem and add to the texture but if they bother you
  then just allow the sauce to cool and run it through a 
  food processor.

 *This freezes very well.  

*cook* apples? Sacrelige!

<scott has based his life on the movie "Young Einstein" - always eating
apples, in any situation>

  I used to roast apples over a campfire. Darn good if you ask me.

What is Calvados?

A French apple brandy.  Now, when you go to buy it you're going to gasp
and put your wallet back into your bag.  But don't.  It makes this recipe,
is wonderful in apple spice bread, apple chutney, etc. And it goes a long
way.  I've been making this applesauce for maybe 8 years now and my
original bottle is about a third full. 

i cheat for apple sauce....i just cut the cored apples in half (skins left on!)
in the oven (airbake pans are wonderful for this), with the cut side down.
let 'er rip at about 350 until they are soft, and the mush up, removing skins
only if  you are a wimp.  if's i'm feeling adventurous, i might add some 
cinnamon and/or nutmeg....but no sugar allowed!!!  i like it tart!!!!!
(granny smiths are good...sor are mutzu's...:)

What's a mutzu?  An apple variety, I guess?

Yah, Mutzu is an apple variety.  Supposedly, in Japan they grow Mutzu apples
that weight a couple pounds, and you have to very elegantly carve them up and
serve them to your friends with a sort of ceremony...

they've really only been around here for about 7 years...but they are my
absolute favoreite......VERY crisp, tart,  not too juicy...they make megs
happy.  :)

Went apple picking at Wasems Sunday, and got a whole bushel of Golden
Delicious.  I'll have apple for maybe a month out of this.  :)

I attended a cooking demo at Kitchen Port a few weeks ago when the owner
of the Dexter Cider Mill shared her recipe for an amazing curried squash
soup. It was wonderful soup but called for some oil and used half and half.
I tried it with a few lower-fat substitutions and found it didn't at
all change the "creamy" experience.  


            *** Curried Squash Soup ***
     Adapted from _The Dexter Cider Mill Cookbook_

Ingredients:
   1 cup chopped onion
   1/4 cup vegetable broth in which to saute onions
   1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
   2 small (1 1/4-pound) butternut squash,
     peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
   2 medium Winesap or Macintosh apples, peeled and chopped
   1 (14-ounce) can vegetable broth
   1 1/2 cups water
   1 1/4 teaspoons salt
   1/4 teaspoon pepper
   1 (12oz.) can evaporated skim milk

Garnish:
   Chopped parsley or chives
   Dollop of sour cream

Directions:

   In a heavy 4 quart saucepan saute the onion in 1/4 cup vegetable broth
until translucent and tender (approx. 10 minutes).  Add more broth as
needed to prevent sticking or browning.  Add the curry and stir constantly
for one minute.  Add the squash, apples, 14 oz. broth, water, salt and
pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to low.  Simmer, covered, 45
minutes or until the squash is very tender, stirring every 10 minutes or
so.  Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool until it can safely be
pureed with either a hand blender or in the food processor.  Process until
very smooth and totally chunk-free.  Stir in the evaporated skim milk and
reheat to serving temperature.  Garnish the individual servings with
parsley or chives over a dollop of sour cream. 

Serves 6. 
 

Mary, that soup sounds wonderful!!

When I used to cook for a living, we made this to serve with chicken breasts.

Heat butter in a saute pan
put in some brown sugar and stir
put the apple slices in pan and toss till warm and 
        coated with butter and sugar
drizzel apricot brandy (a little) over mixture and heat
serve over chicken, accept applause.

Mary, awhile back, I tried finding some of the apple brandy that you
had mentioned [at a local liquor store] but they hadn't heard of it...
Do you know if this is just a regional thing or should it be available
nationwide?  Guess I could go look at other liquor stores...  :-)

Calvados should be available at a full-service liquor store, one
that tends to carry more wine than beer. ;-)

It's imported and expensive but goes a long, long, way.  Treat 
yourself, you're worth it.

i had a friend who grew up in normandy, and said that a lot
of calvados was made around there.

Time to revive this excellent item.  Question: Does anyone have a
favorite method or tool for peeling and coring apples?  We have
a few devices in our kitchen, ranging from the standard corer knife
to a small wheel-like object with blades for spokes that you press
down on the apple (or pear) and it sections and cores in in one
stroke, to a crank-driven machine that peels and spiral-cuts
apples of a certain size.  (It doesn't work on the big commercial
ones.)

Also, does anyone have a favorite orchard to go apple-picking at?

  Michael- I thought you of all people would know better than to end a
sentence with a preposition. ;)

  Seriously, I have found that the orchard just north of South Lyon
on Pontiac Trail to have excellent picking opportunities. 

I usually leave the peel on the apple.  For coring, I cut the apple in half
with a knife, then use a teaspoon sort of like it was a melon-baller, to scoop
out a hemisphere-shaped piece of apple core.

Dunno any good apple picking places.  But Wiards is a bit scary, especially
when their haunted barn and hay rides are in full swing.

We tend to core apples with this tube-shaped thingie that is simply
plunged through the apple extracting a core sample that (for the most
part) includes the seeds.  Aim is an acquired skill.  And what is left
behind allows you to look clear through your apple before devouring it. 
This tends to intimidate the hell out of the remaining apples in the bowl. 

When a recipe calls for peeled apples I first de-core (see above) then
de-skin using my Oxo sure-grip vegetable peeler.  What a wonderful tool. 

My favorite eating apple is a fresh Cortland, one that is still snappy.  A
close second is Jona-macs. 

My plan is to make applesauce this weekend but first I need to hit the
liquor store for more Calvados. (smack) (hic) 

My favorite cider mill is Franklin Cider mill, although I haven't
been there is maybe 15 years.  It was already getting very commercial
last I saw of it but it was where my high school crowd went 

 .  Is the cider still amazing?

<valerie topples over laughing, picturing a bowlfull of intimidated apples>


Those apple-corer tubes always seem to take out a lot of apple flesh.  It
seems like a waste.

Franklin Cider Mill is awfully commercial, yes.  You can barely
see the jugs of cider for the soi-disant "home made" pies, candy
apples, Halloween candy, maple products (from Canada), and the
separate stall down at the end where they sell Hickory Farm crap.
But the cider and doughnuts are excellent, and the little bridge
over the little brook is a nice spot to sit and drink on a weekday
when there aren't swarms of people.  I love the bees and wasps
that congregate around the mill, but you might not feel the same way.
The apple stand next to the store sells a nice selection of fruit.

Once of the owners of the Dexter Cider Mill will be at Kitchen
Port, in Kerrytown, today, at noon.  She will make three recipes
from her apple-based cookbook.  I've attended a couple of her
demonstrations and they are wonderful.  Alas, I'll be working,
but I thought it was worth mentioning to anyone with the time
and the interest.

   if i'd been awake, i'd have gone. her name is kathy koziski.

Neat!  Wish I'd logged in earlier.

I'm super excited....I get to make (and can!) a ton of apple sauce on
saturday....YUM!!!!  :)
(and apple pie, and baked apples, and...and...and...:)

Silvia and I went to Alber's Orchard out near Manchester a couple of 
weeks ago.  The apples were really good and the cider was tasty, too.

Fall is my favorite season.  And part of what makes fall
special is making applesauce.  The first batch of this
season is in the crockpot and the house smells full of 
cinnamon even though the windows are all wide open.

I'm wondering if Dan (danr) would care to share his
recipe for apple pie.  I hear it's quite special.

I don't want to sound immodest, but the recipe isn't really all 
that special.  What's important is knowing how to mix the ingredients of 
the crust and how to pick the apples.  I'll try to write it all down, 
though, and post it here.

out of curiosity, has anyone ever dared to make
the 'mock apple pie' that is usually found on
the side of a ritz cracker box?

I have tasted it.  I was, thanks to the fact that my home room teacher was
the advisor, on the board of the literary magazine at my junior high, and we
were the judges for the cooking contest.  I recall it being rather good.

  My mother's grandfather used to make them all the time. I personally think
that they are evil. My mother has made noises about one day making one, but
that is usually tabled when I remind her that apples are plentiful, and that
crackers, no matter how good they taste, are no substitute for apples.

I'm curious about the Ritz cracker Mock Apple Pie sheerly for kitch value.
It's the kind of thing to bring to a Grex pot luck one day.  :)

I had one many, many years ago (or, rather, a slice of one).  I too recall
it as being just fine.  At this point I'd rather have real fruit, though.

If you want variety from just apples, put in some green tomatoes ...

Mary: What do you add to your apple sauce?

Today is supposed to be applesauce making day for my mother and I, but
I tore a muscle in my apple-mushing shoulder, so applesauce for little Meg's.
Hopefully next weekend though!  All we ever add (when we make it for 
canning for the year anyway), is just a VERY little sugar (A cup for several
gallons of sauce).  If I'm making in small batches for myself, it can tend
to add brown sugar and cinnamon.  :)  YUM!!!

Yowch about the shoulder -- I hope you feel better soon!

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