Apples....

Apples and fall go hand in hand so let me take you on my apple adventure. Two weeks ago I made arrangements with Mike from Hamptons Hilltop Orchard to get two bushels of apples to put up for the winter. I was very excited to get the apples and made arrangements with my in laws to borrow their dehydrator to make apple chips during my apple weekend! My father-in-law delivered the dehydrator when I was away from my office so he just put it in the back of my vehicle along with some of the apples he had picked (I thought he was just bringing some, but it turns out he brought a lot!). So when I went to load the two bushels of apples into my car from Mike I found that I already had a car full of apples (two 5 gallon buckets full and a small box full). So on Tuesday I took home about 3 bushels of apples instead of two! In my book the more apples the better so let the cooking begin!

First I have to say that any recipe is better when you start with amazing produce and if you want amazing apples go visit Mike this week at market! We spent the weekend making applesauce, apple cider, apple pies, and apple chips! YUM!!!!!!

Preparing the apples: 
I remove the core and skins when I am preparing the apples unless I am going to make cider then I core them, but leave the skins on. I will be doing cider with all of my applesauce batches from now on because it is easy and a little less time consuming! See all the yummy recipes below!


Apple Cider and Applesauce
After many batches of just applesauce I discovered you could do cider and applesauce all in one process!

Fill your stock pot with cored halved apples and two mason jars of water. Heat to boiling and then let it simmer until the apples are soft. Have another stock pot waiting with a fine strainer in it. When the apples are soft, mash the apples with a potato masher just to break them down a little. You do not want to mash them completely down at this point. Then pour the apples and juice into the strainer. Let the juice run out and put the apples back into their original pot. Now add your seasonings to your cider. I added about 1/4 cup sugar and tsp cinnamon. Bring to a boil and let it boil for about 8 minutes. Viola...Apple Cider! At this point you could can it or I just put mine in a mason jar with a lid. Let it cool to room temperature and then stuck it in the fridge. I may attempt to can some this coming weekend, but we will see.

Now back to your applesauce. You apples are already soft so just add back in about one mason jar of water to the apples along with 3/4 cup sugar (I use white sugar, but you can use brown sugar or a combination of the two), about a 1/8 cup cinnamon and a couple pinches of nutmeg. Bring it back up to a boil and let the sugar and spices absorb into the apples about 5 minutes. Then mash the apples with a potato masher and I always run my emersion blender through the apples to get a good texture to the sauce! A few chunks of apples in applesauce makes it yummy! Remember these apples still have the peels on them so you have to strain the sauce to take out the peels. I just used my strainer and spoon to push the sauce through and then just discard the peels. Let the applesauce cool and then bag in quart ziplock bags and freeze.

Apple Chips

Peel and core your apples. Then slice thinly and place in the dehydrator. Follow the directions on your dehydrator to see temperature and length of time. Some recipes call for dipping the apples first or added sugar and cinnamon, but as I said earlier...when you start with great apples there is no need to add anything to these.

Apple Pie

There are a ton of apple pie recipes out there. I used the one in my Betty Crocker cookbook and it was delicious. The best part about making these apple pies is that I got to let the kids make their own mini pies to deliver to MiMi and PaPa so we could share the apple mania! I found the little foil tart pans at C&R in Fayette and I let them put their dough in the bottom, we filled them with apples and then they got to do their patterns on top on half and then we added the crumble topping to the other half. What a great way to enjoy apples with your family! Oh and you get to enjoy eating them when they are done!!!!!! YUM!!!!





So that was my weekend adventure with apples and it is far from over because I still have lots of apples to use in the next week, but my house smells delicious and we are going to enjoy all of this apple adventure clear through winter!