Apple Season 2022 has been a bumper one! The Food Hub #GleanTeam have been very busy picking and distributing surplus harvest from all around Shropshire!
There are so many ways to use both eating and cooking apples. Delicious eaten from the tree but there are many ideas for your to store creatively so that you can use them all year!
Below are some ideas and recipes to help you get started, some you will know, but hopefully some will give you some new ideas.
Stewed apples – slice your cooking or eating apples, add a little water and sugar to taste and simmer (on hob or in microwave) over low heat for 15 mins. Store in container in fridge or freeze in portions (don’t forget to date and label) and use as and when you need it.
Bircher Muesli – Mixed stewed apple with muesli in the fridge over night.
Apple Crumble – Use stewed cooking apples or simply slice some eating apples into oven proof dish. Add extra sugar or seasoning (e.g ground cinnamon) to taste. Make a topping by mixing by hand in bowl or in food processor – 8oz flour, 4oz butter and 4oz sugar. Add some nuts, seeds or oats as you prefer. Bake for 30 mins at 180 degrees until topping golden brown.
Apple and Raspberry Leathers (from Silvia – Food Hub team member
Ingredients – 1kg of fruit, I used apples and blackberries (optional: damsons, raspberries, grapes), 100g caster sugar, 80ml water
- Peel and roughly chop the apples, wash the blackberries and put all of the fruit in a large, heavy-based pan. Add about 80ml water, just enough to stop the fruit sticking, and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes to an hour, stirring now and then, until the fruit is soft and broken down. If it starts to stick to the pan, add a little more water.
- Push the cooked fruit through a sieve and get as much of the pulp as you can. (Alternatively, use a mouli – it’s quicker and more efficient)
- Rinse out the pan, then put in the strained pulp and add sugar. This will vary, depending on the sourness of the fruit used, somewhere around 100g for the quantities specified here. Heat the mixture and stir to dissolve the sugar, then simmer gently until the pulp has a thick, coating consistency.
- Spread the pulp in the centre of large baking sheets covered with non-stick paper, aiming to make a smooth, even layer no thicker than 3mm. Tent the trays with muslin and leave them somewhere warm and breezy to dry out for a couple of days. Alternatively, leave them overnight in a low fan oven (set to about 50˚C), or in a dehydrator until set. To see if the mixture is ready for rolling, check in the middle and in any thicker parts to see whether everything is properly set.
- Cut the trays of dried pulp into roughly 3cm strips and roll them up. Store the rolls in an airtight container in the fridge.
Other ideas
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- Apple Sauce/Stewed apple – can be frozen in portions or stored in fridge.
- Use your sauce……
- side for Sunday roast – meat or veggie
- add to ice cream for tasty and simple dessert
- add to pork casserole – cook in slow cooker or microwave to save money for energy
- add to muffins or tray bakes
- make or buy pie topping and bake in oven
- use puff pastry to make apple strudel
You can find lots of recipes online but also there are a great selection here. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/cooking-apple-recipes
Don’t forget to search through your cook books, apples are a wonderful and versatile ingredient, you will be amazed how many recipes you find that use them. A great way to use up those apples and try something new!
Storing Apples
Place a few apples in a biodegradable or paper bag –and store in the fridge. Once they have past their best for eating fresh, cook and freeze.
To store apples over winter, wrap each one in a single sheet of newspaper and place them in single layers on a tray. For a cheap alternative to apple racks, use an old filing tray, adding more layers as you need them.
