“Hey, could you use some apples?”
“Sure, I’d love some.”
So started around two weeks (off and on) of processing yellow transparent apples. There were (I would guess) around two to three bushels to start with, which we made into sauce, fruit leather, popsicles, and cinnamon/sugar dried apple slices.
I like prepare a lot of apple sauce, which is then used “as is”, frozen or made into popsicles and fruit leather. Yellow transparent apples are quite soft, especially when dead ripe, so if you were to core and peel them they pretty much cook into sauce on their own. However, for doing a large volume, I usually just quarter them, cut out any damaged spots, cook them until soft and run them through the food strainer
So, for the applesauce, disassemble apples, dip them in lemon water (about 1/4 cup lemon per gallon of water) to prevent discoloration. Put them into a heavy bottomed pot with a bit of water. Cook until soft. Here we have one pot of mushy apples.
Put soft apples through a food strainer or food mill. The boys enjoy turning the crank.
We ended up with about two gallons of applesauce. I froze most of it in pint and quart bags, but some I put into popsicle molds. These are some of the boys favorite homemade popsicles. Since these apples were a little tart, I added about 1/4 cup sugar to each gallon of sauce, and about a tablespoon of cinnamon.
We worked on apple slices at the same time we were working on sauce so that the boys could rotate jobs so they didn’t get bored as quickly.
Here’s a shot of the boys part way into processing. Dunc is in the foreground, wielding the apple slicer/peeler corer. August is loading apple slices that have been pretreated with lemon water onto dehydrator trays.
To make cinnamon/sugar apple slices, we peel, core and thinly slice the apples (the combo slicer/peeler/corer
Then I dip them in lemon water and drain. In this case I use about half lemon juice and half water because I like a stronger lemon taste on the finished product. Lay them out (not touching) on lightly oiled dehydrator trays.
I place the loaded trays in my sink to contain the mess, and then lightly sprinkle them with a mixture of about two tablespoons cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar (honestly, I don’t usually measure any more, I just eye it up). You can skip the sugar or use stevia powder if you like.
These go into the dehydrator
Please don’t forget to lightly oil your trays
We set aside the nicest apples and filled the dehydrator with more apple slices every other night or so. By the time we finished we had around four quarts of dried slices. I find home-dried slices to be much tastier than most store varieties, even without the cinnamon/sugar mix sprinkled. (As I mentioned, these particular apples were rather tart.) They have a much stronger “apple” taste, and the texture is light and crisp rather than resembling foam rubber. They are also sulfite free.
Here’s a great site for all things apple: http://www.allaboutapples.com/index.htm
They have a variety index, an orchard listing, recipes, health info, apple forums, tips for backyard growers – lots of good info! If you need even more inspiration to enjoy some apples, check out their health benefits. We were lucky enough to get ours from a local family with an over-abundance of apples, so they were not loaded with pesticides. I’m quite happy to remove an occasional worm in exchange for chemical free apples. (For the record, we only found one worm in all those apples.)
We’ll be watching for the next round of apples, especially those that are good for pie. I love harvest time.
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