What to Do With Fresh Apples

Savor the bounty of a fall apple harvest in a variety of apple recipes.

Some varieties of fresh apples will luckily last in storage for several months, but even those will eventually have to be used. Apples are a versatile fruit, easily fitting into sweet and savory applications. When using apples in the kitchen, carefully consider the type of apple you have. Cooking apples retain their shape best after cooking, salad apples resist browning after cutting, and eating apples have a full flavor when eaten out of hand.

Apple Chips

Dried apples become crispy when they are soaked in syrup before drying.

Potato chips are passe. Make your own sweet chips from baked apple slices. Food Network chef Alexandra Guarnaschelli prepares a recipe with thinly sliced Winesap or Royal Gala apples that she covers with sugar syrup and dries in a 200 degrees Fahrenheit oven until they become crispy. To adapt this recipe for your kitchen, sprinkle the baked apple chips with cinnamon as soon as they come out of the oven. Serve the apple chips with yogurt drizzled with honey or as a garnish for a pork dish.

Applesauce

Layer your homemade applesauce with yogurt or ice cream or a sweet treat.

Though a childhood favorite, applesauce is not baby food. Homemade applesauce from a selection of sweet, tart and soft apples such as the one from Epicurious has more flavor than the mealy mush served in day care centers. For apple varieties, the Epicurious recipe suggests sweet apples like Fuji and other crisp apples; Granny Smith for tart apples; and Jonathan or Rome Beauty for soft and sweet varieties. When making your own applesauce, like mashed potatoes, the texture can be as smooth or chunky as you want it. Add your own spices to the applesauce such as cinnamon or cardamom, or combine the applesauce with mashed sweet potatoes for a sweet and tart twist on plain mashed potatoes to accompany rich pork or poultry dishes.

Salad

Apples complement the flavor of many creamy or leafy salads.

Chop up fresh apples and add to a salad. Apples pair with chicken in a creamy chicken salad, such as the recipe from the University of Illinois Urbana Extension. Since the salad is completely coated in a tangy yogurt dressing, the cut apples will not brown in the salad, but if you are adding apples to an undressed salad, toss the apples in lemon juice immediately after cutting to keep them bright. Add sliced apples to leafy salads for a change of texture and taste. Use your favorite apple for making salads, but the best results will come from using salad apples that stay firm and resist browning. Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Fuji and Cameo are such salad apples, according to the apple visual guide from Epicurious.

Grilled Cheese

Apples give a grilled cheese sandwich crunch and a sweet-tart flavor.

Apples are not just a whole fruit to accompany a sandwich. Add slices of tart apples, such as Granny Smith, to foil the creaminess of a grilled cheese sandwich. One recipe from Chow combines tangy aged cheddar cheese with tart apples for a bold and fruity flavor combination. The sandwich is prepared on walnut bread for a slightly sweet and nutty flavor to complement the nutty overtones of the aged cheddar. Take this idea and make it your own. Opt for cream cheese and sweet-tart apples such as Fuji or Gala apples on cinnamon-raisin bread for a sweeter and milder treat. If you do not have time to slice apples, substitute homemade applesauce. Spread the applesauce between slices of cheese on the sandwich for an apple flavor without making the bread soggy.

References

• Food Network; Apple Chips Recipe; Alexandra Guarnaschelli
• Epicurious; Three-Apple Applesauce Recipe; Jill Silverman Hough; October 2008
• University of Illinois Urbana Extension: Apple Chicken Salad Recipe
• Chow; Apple and Aged Cheddar Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe; Kate Ramos

Resources

• Epicurious: A Visual Guide to Apples