Common Cuisine |

Nutrition varies slightly between types of apples, but here is a general idea. A one cup serving of raw apple, with skin, contains about 3 grams of fiber and 14 grams of sugars. It has about 10% of your daily vitamin C requirement, as well as small percentages of vitamins A, E, K, B6, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, and Folate.

To get the best nutritional punch out of an apple, leave the skin on. Most of the fiber is in the skin, and about half of the vitamin C lies just beneath the surface. Also, since vitamin C is light and heat sensitive, the best way to protect that nutrient is to eat it raw and unpeeled. And raw apples are so portable! They make a terrific snack because they satisfy your sweet tooth, provide some nutrition, and even leave your mouth feeling fresh afterward.

There are more varieties of apples than you will probably be able to try in your lifetime (like in the thousands). They range in flavor from sweet to tart, and in texture from soft to crisp; and vary in color from green to yellow to red. They ripen at different times of the growing season and vary in their ideal climate requirements.

So how do you choose an apple? One way is to figure out what grows locally, and try those. Local apples are more likely to reach you in peak condition. And it never hurts to support the local economy.

Another way to choose is to just try something different each time and figure out what you like. A few years ago I would have told you that my favorite apple was a golden delicious. But then someone brought me a tart Pink Lady, and now I buy those whenever I can find them. Many people like Gala and Fuji apples for their sweetness, McIntosh for the crunch, and Granny Smith for pie.

The truth is that the best apple for your application is the one you like the best. My Golden Delicious tree showered me with so many apples this year, I am just preserving them and not complaining that they are not the Cortland or McIntosh that I usually prefer.

Good luck in your apple choosing! Any apple is a good one if you eat it.

Sources include:
www.NutritionData.com
University of Illinois Urban Extension
www.AppleJournal.com

• 7 crisp apples
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup dried cranberries or raisins
• ½ cup walnut pieces
• ½ cup orange juice
• ¼ cup water
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp orange zest, or 1 tsp lemon zest
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• ½ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Core and slice apples using a peeler/corer/slicer tool, while leaving peel on. Or, core and peel 1″ of skin off around the top using an everyday corer/peeler tool. Place whole apples into pie dish. Stuff centers of apples with cranberries and walnuts.

In small saucepan, melt butter. Add orange juice, water, butter, brown sugar, orange zest, cornstarch, and cinnamon; whisk until smooth. Pour over apples. Bake 1 hour until apples are tender. Sprinkle cinnamon over top.

To serve, place apples in small bowls and spoon sauce over top. Top with ice cream if desired.

Serves 7.

An apple corer/slicer is a fun gadget to have in your kitchen for snacks. This round handheld device cuts your apple into 8 wedges with one slice…

Just make sure you get one with sharp enough blades to easily pierce apple skin without bruising the flesh. I think the rubber handled Good Grips Corer and Divider from OXO looks pretty comfortable for the palms of your hands as you push down.

If you want something really fancy and durable, check out the square Cuisipro Stainless Steel Apple Corer, which comes with interchangeable blades for making French fries and diced potatoes. You will look like quite the pro to your friends.

To simultaneously peel, core and slice a larger volume of apples, consider a peeler/corer/slicer tool. These come in two types: clamp-mounted to the edge of your counter, and vacuum suctioned to the flat surface of your counter. I have enjoyed my clamp-style tool, but have seen high reviews for the vacuum-mounted Peel Away version offered by Back to Basics. This tool gives the user the choice to peel, core and slice; just core and slice; or just peel; plus if the peeler or coring blade ever wear out, you can buy replacement parts. For making pies, applesauce, and other apple-intensive treats, this is the ultimate kitchen companion.

Whew! We bought a house a few months ago that came already stocked with, among other things, three mature apple trees. I have had so many apples this year I don’t know what to do with them all!

I have made applesauce until my freezer is full, canned filling for a dozen pies, dried apples for snacks throughout the winter, and had friends over to make applesauce and take it far, far away from here. I have given away apples, probably numbering in the hundreds, even had a few people pick their fill directly off the tree. And still I have probably 400 apples left on my back porch for whatever I can think of to do with them!

I have learned a lot about apples this year. For example, it takes about 10 of my apples to make a pie, 15 or 20 to make a 9�? x 13�? apple crisp, and about 60 to make a gallon of applesauce. Dried fruit rolls are a great treat to make with extra applesauce, but did you know that a 6�? x 1�? strip of apple fruit roll is the same as eating a whole apple? That takes about as much effort as chewing up a vitamin! And a hungry three-year-old does not appreciate the potential gastrointestinal consequences of eating four of those strips in one sitting.

I have learned the value of doing little jobs frequently, so they don’t become big impossible jobs. When those apples started falling off the tree, I was not ready to do anything with them, so I didn’t. But they kept falling and falling, and as I got more behind I began to avoid the tree so I didn’t have to think about how many rotting apples I was grinding into the grass. Several weeks and many apples of prime harvest season were lost in this way. Then finally my husband helped me pick them all up one Saturday. We must have put two thousand apples in the green waste bin. After that, I was finally ready to keep up with the falling apples. Now I know that next year, I have to go out every morning and give a little love to the tree and the fruit it is producing.

These apples have also shown me the joy of sharing. I love the smiles I get from everyone I give them to. Nobody has turned me down, and several have mentioned thanks again, weeks after the fact. It’s so much fun that I may just load up a wagon with bags tomorrow and start down the block to meet some of my neighbors. Yes, this apple harvest has been a little overwhelming, but I think I’m going to get used to it in the years to come.