hey kintsugijin i have a request i have a whole bag minus one of braeburn apples that turned out to be somewhat disappointing. wrong season, i guess; they're a little wrinkly around the bases, and a bit mealy and bland. normally i eat apples raw and unpeeled, i just cut them up. but these ones are just... not delightful. so i'm thinking perhaps i should do a cooking thing with them instead. most apple recipes, though, seem to want tart apples like granny smiths. braeburns are sweet and mild. i think they'd make a disappointing pie or apple-leek pizza or whatever. i'm really at a loss what do do with them. smoothies? idek. so -- ideas?
dried apples, applesauce, apple butter, apple cake, apple-pork burgers (or other meat combo)? those are the ones that jumped out at me from here. methinks you will want to balance the sweet with savory but in the opposite direction than you do with tart apples, which you smother in sugar and cinnamon. :D
When I have Disappointing Apples, up to and including Red Delicious which are red but very not delicious, I tend to peel them, cut them into bite-sized chunks, and toss them into a cast-iron pan to cook them up with fat dollops of honey, cinnamon, clove, a little bit of black pepper, and lemon juice; butter is optional but makes everything better. Cook the everliving shit out of these apples, until they are soft and nibbly, and then serve the resulting splodgy mess atop something. Ice cream is my fave, but you can put it on pancakes or inside of turnovers or anything. They keep and reheat really really well too. (This recipe also works very well with underripe berries or peaches.)
I AM SO GLAD. For whatever reason when I buy fruit, a lot of the time I forget it exists or it just isn't a food at the time. So that recipe has saved many an apple that is slightly past its prime. Bananas are even easier. Peel, throw away black skins, break into halves or thirds, freeze delicious bananafruit. You then have instant ice cream whenever you can haul out a blender -- two chunks of banana, plus whatever you want in your ice cream. Peanut butter, chocolate sauce, cocoa powder if you like your chocolate dark, honey, vanilla extract, sea salt... THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.
i've heard blender + frozen nanners = smoothie joy, but have never tried it. i do love to throw things in the blender with frozen yogurt, though, so i'm thinking i might try an apple, some caramel, and a shake of cinnamon. pancake topping is a great idea because i have this pancake-batter-in-a-can stuff i want to try.
Apple sauce is my go-to for bad texture apples. Also if youre worried about them not being tart enough for a pie or whatever you can always add lemon juice.
Me and my housemate made the ziti recipe I linked earlier in the thread.. but added browned italian sausage + skipped the egg step. And of course doubled up the pasta so now there is this 15lb food baby sitting in the fridge that we barely made a dent in, and I get to live off it for lunch all week probably.
@Fish butt I just made your brownie recipe and we're going to eat it for dessert in a couple of hours :)
i just involved fresh orange juice in piña coladas and it's so delicious i keep having to caution myself to slow down lest i get brain freeze and/or stupid-drunk oh my god this is so good
Normandy Apple-Tart (aka Buck Cake Pie) (The Norman approach to cooking can be summed up as “Put apples and cream on it!" Beef? Put apples and cream on it! Fish? Put apples and cream on it! Apples and cream? PUT APPLES AND CREAM ON IT. Sometimes the apples are in the form of cider or Calvados, but still. Apples!) Pastry 1&½ cups flour - white all-purpose works fine. 2 tablespoons sugar ½ teaspoon salt 1 stick butter 3 egg yolks 1 tablespoon water Filling Enough sliced apples to fill the crust - maybe 5-7 apples’ worth, depending. I like Fuji apples, they’re a good general-purpose thing, but if you have a favorite pie apple use that. ½ cup brown sugar. Ordinary granulated white sugar works too, if you don’t have brown. ¼ cup flour nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, allspice to taste ½ pint whipping cream Mix together flour, sugar, and salt; cut in butter until well blended, lumps no bigger than peas. Add egg yolks and water, blend well, knead until smooth - this isn’t like ordinary piecrust where kneading it makes it all tough, go ahead and just moosh it smooth. Pat with fingers into 9-inch piepan, fluting edges to stand up around pan. (I just make it *in* the pie pan, less cleanup that way.) Toss sliced apples with flour and sugar and spices, place in pie shell. Bake at 375 degF for 10 minutes; pour cream in all around the apples, bake 30-35 minutes longer until pastry is golden and apples tender. Cool before serving. As far as I know, my mom got this recipe from her days in the SCA. Also, the next time I make this, I'm going to try mixing a couple dashes of Angostura bitters into the cream before I pour it in.
