Apples – Autumn Comfort Cooking

Apples ... great all year round eating for snacks and lunchboxes, but I am talking about apples for cooking with.  The evenings are getting darker and it’s getting a bit colder so that is driving me to thoughts of warm comfort food in the form of apple crumbles and apple pies mmmmmm!  I’m not a sweet treat fan generally but I do love apple desserts, and they’ve got to be healthier for you because they’ve got fruit in, right? … right?!?

One of the main thing that made me fall in love with the house/garden when we came to view it for the first time was that it had a mature apple tree and cherry tree.  Well the birds ate all the cherries before they had even remotely ripened but the apples have been amazing!  Not having a clue what to do we have neglected this tree since we moved in last June but it has still rewarded us with lots of big, juicy, tart apples that are perfect for cooking with.   Now we’re a bit more clued in with what to do I can see that they would have benefited from the occasional spray for apple nasties but to be honest they don’t have to look supermarket perfect, any of them that do look a bit on the ugly side are still beautiful on the inside once peeled.  

Obviously there is no way that most gardens will accommodate fruit trees, but autumn is still the perfect time to get a lot of apples on the cheap, try farmers markets or stalls, or even the supermarkets will have cheap apples when they are in season locally.  Buy a big bag of apples suitable for cooking and spend a rainy cold Sunday making pies for the freezer, I’ve made a big apple crumble batch and it is now in person size portions in the freezer ready for a quick re-heat on an even colder rainy day over winter.  If you have apples left over after your baking session you can peel, core and slice them, put them in to a bowl of water and lemon juice as you go and leave the slices in there for 10 minutes.  This will stop them going brown, after 10 minutes you can bag them up and put them in the freezer for a later date when you have eaten all your current batch of apple treats! J



Preparing the apples from my tree for apple crumble filling and cinnamon apple rings

I picked a few of our apples a bit too soon when they were a bit too far towards the sour side of tart but they were perfect for cinnamon apple rings, these are soooo delicious, they taste like sour candies.  So if you get your hands on apples that are a bit sour then don’t despair, try the recipe below.

If you do have a spot in your garden that you think might have space for a tree or if you are thinking about replacing a tree, then do consider making it an edible tree, our apple and cherry trees were so beautiful in the spring when nothing much else was flowering yet and having something in the garden like this that can contribute to the pantry and freezer is wonderful . 



My tree - beautiful blossoms through to tasty fruit - almost a year round winner!

 Pick something that is going to produce well in your area and soil without too much intervention and although, if you plant a young tree, it will take a few years to get producing it will be well worth the wait.  My parents apple orchard planted a few years ago still looks like rows of baby trees but they are producing a ridiculous amount of fruit for such spindly twigs.  If you spend a little bit more money you can even buy trees in the garden centres that are mature enough already to produce fruit, and even these aren’t very expensive, instant gratification! J

For those restricted on space, you might find that you’ve got enough room for a dwarf variety.  Apparently a three to four foot high apple tree might produce up to 45 normal sized apples.  If your climate allows, you can even grow something like these peach trees in a pot that will grow to about two foot high, they can produce 25 to 30 fresh peaches. http://countrygardens.co.nz/index.php?page=shop.browse&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=53  That sounds amazing but I think peaches might find our Dunedin winter a bit too chilly.  So even those of you with a container garden need not miss out on fruit trees … I imagine you would still need a bit of space bigger than a balcony for this one though unfortunately.

Now I have figured out what to do with the fruit I think I need to pay a bit more attention to the tree this year to make sure it keeps healthy and keeps producing all the glorious pie fillings J 

I also need to figure out how to keep the birds out of the cherries so that I can do a blog post next year on the wonders of cherry pies.

Apple Cinnamon Rings

These work best with firm, tart apples.  The sourer the apple, the more they taste like sour candies.  For sweeter apples, you can reduce the amount of sugar that you put on, if they are very sweet, just add the cinnamon as the apple rings get sweeter as they dry out and the flavours intensify.

Really simple ... peel, core and slice the apples into thin rings (should just be able to see in the pic above for an idea of thickness), put the slices in a bowl of water and lemon juice straight away for at least 10 mins.  Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet, you might need to do in several batches. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a bowl, this will depend a lot on the sweetness of your apples and how many rings you are making, but start with the amount/mix you think you need and you can always sprinkle more cinnamon directly on the apples.  Sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon on to the slices, rub in slightly and then flip and do the same to the other side ... this does get a bit messy!  If you have a dehydrator, place on the racks on a medium heat, it will take around 8 hours.  Keep an eye on them towards the end as it will vary depending on your apple variety and slice thickness.  Thinnner slices make these more like apples crisps, I prefer slightly thicker slices make a more chewy treat.  You can also dry these in the oven at about 150 degrees on wire cake racks if you have them or on baking sheets, but you will need to flip them if on a sheet.  Again depends on thickness but wll take around 10 hours (could leave over night if you aren't going to sleep in!)
 

Apple Crumble - I like this super easy recipe here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/applecrumble_89166