Baking Apples

We've started to enjoy a baked apple as our evening snack; it's a great way to warm up the kitchen after dinner, add aromas, and try out other baked dishes -- sour dough bread is on the agenda tonight, for example.

We find Granny Smiths to be very dependable, but the Macouns last night were outstanding.

I thought folks might be able to add some suggestions to my current list of favorite apples for baking:

Baking Apples

Cortland *****
Empire ***
Mutsu (Crispin) ***
Golden Delicious ****
Granny Smith ***
Honeycrisp ****
Ida Red ***
Jonathan ****
Winesap ****

Non-Baking Apples (Rated for eating)

Fuji ****
Gala ***
Johnagold ****
Macoun ****
McIntosh ***
Red Delicious ***[*] Janet's favorite; not worth eating for me.

Regards, and thanks, Bob

Have been on the same track Bob ! Just tried a few varities in our farmers market : Wolf River - an old local variety - terrific bakers - Spartan and Talman Sweet . Very interesting and unusual taste . The Talmans were so sweet that they need no additional sugar for pie.
A put me together for the Wolf River bakers-- stuffed with rasins plumped in Calvados, a bit of lemon peel, crystalized ginger, black pepper, brown sugar and a bit of butter. Guilding the lilly perhaps but a nice twist on the run of the mill baked apple. Truth be told, however, I love the unadorned taste of a simply baked good apple.

Bob, it's interesting that McIntosh is on your list of "eating" vs. "baking." It actually is one of my favorite baking apples based on the way it breaks down. I almost exclusively use that varietal and Golden Delicious for apple pie.

You're making me homesick for Wisconsin, Christina. At one time, I was able to identify 75 different apples -- we had a competition at the Jefferson County fair. There are only a couple of orchards in this part of New Jersey, and even in the Hudson Valley, not as many varieties are grown as even 15 years ago.

Thanks for the memories.

McIntosh is one of my favorite apples, Carrie. I might add a category for baking in apple pies and apple crisps, and McIntosh would certainly be on that list. I rarely make pies, and have just started to play around with crisps.

I don't care for the way a baked McIntosh looks, though -- it seems to fall apart something like a Red Delicious -- but with vastly better taste.

McIntosh is an all around apple here -- and almost always available. Thanks for the suggestion.

Incidentally, I found a very nice website on apples -- there are many, of course, but the pictures and the text on this one are both very well done.

Link here.

Bob,
One of our most favorite summer and fall activities is to travel the countryside stopping at family orchards to check out what varities they are growing. One larger orchard had sour cherries in the early summer followed by a string of apples ripening every few weeks -all of them old varieties rarely seen anywhere else. The very best pie apple was what they called Greening - long season, excellent keeper, tart and held its consistency when baked. Huge Whitney crabapples for spicing. Winter Banana. Talman Sweet. Winesap etc. The cider from the windfalls was fantastic
Sad to say, the family sold to a "city slicker" apple orchardist from
Washington state who immediately chopped out ALL of these wonderful, old trees and planted.....red delicious. Sob ! What a heritage up in smoke.
The wood was for the taking but we couldn't bring ourselves to take any because of our horror at the event.
Fortunately, there are a few family orchards left but none have the varities of the old Neuser's.

That's a really sad story, Christina. A tornado touched down on our house several years ago and took down the one apple tree on the property. We had just moved in and never learned what type of apple it was ... but people came by for a couple of years asking for a few apples -- they all said it was a prolific bearer and the apples just wonderful.

Of course with thousands of apple varieties in the world it's unlikely I'll ever learn what that tree was.

Russell Orchards, six miles from our house, was just sold -- 200 apple trees, 18 varieties, being cut down this week -- they're growing 22 houses instead.

Cortland tops our list of cooking apples too. Don't know if you ever noticed, there is a critter called Early Corland. It is more than just a clone that come in a week or two before the other.

It is a completely different apple and gets our nod over the maincrop. They ae pear shaped and stripped, whereas the regular edition is smooth red with some yellow and round.

We sometimes find them mixed in together at farmstands. Trees can be ordered.

I've planted a Gravenstein apple tree this year. Hear it is fickle and not a good producer but I could not pass up such an old variety. Am looking for some other oldies to plant next spring

Cortland tops our list of cooking apples too...

Me too. I made baked apples the other day ($8/half bushel) for dessert - see "Family Dinner" thread. I used one of those apple slicers that cuts the apple into wedges, but only went deep enough to remove the core. Then spread out the wedges in a bowl and removed the core. I heated up (nuked) 1 cup of raisins and 1 cup of rum with 1 tsp cinnamon and let that sit until the raisins plimped. Then spooned the raisins over the apples (8), baked them while we were eating dinner and topped with vanilla ice cream before serving.

I'll see if I can find an Early Cortland, Carl. Sounds interesting -- the sources I've checked indicate it keeps well, my wine cellar is great for storing apples over the winter, and a bit tarter than Cortlands, another plus here.

Thanks for the lead. Regards, Bob

Interesting recipe, Howie, thanks. We usually have baked apples with just a bit of sugar and some cinnamon, but next time we splurge, I'll try your version.

Gravenstein tastes great, but it is fickle, and the apples ripen at different times. Doesn't hold at all well. But great in season if you've got the room.

Apples are really tough to grow generally -- I heard a fascinating discussion on NPR a few weeks ago, and had no idea how difficult for the home gardener. I know now why my dad, an ag teacher, bought our apples when I was a kid.

I found two beautiful Rome apples today at the Market Basket. They baked beautifully, are quite large and relatively sweet. Also very good keepers, so I'll buy and store a peck for the winter. **** here.

We used Black Arkansas last night. They make superb baked apples, but they can be hard to find.

What beautiful apples, Bernard. New to me. I'll see if I can find them -- it looks like they keep six months or more so it may be possible.

Thanks for the lead. Bob

Here's a simple apple crisp recipe that just came in by email from a friend at ChowHound:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour or 1 cup rough cut oatmeal or half and half cup oatmeal/flour
1 stick unsalted butter cut into 4 or five chunks
1 cup pecan halves

Pulse a few times in the processor to make a coarse meal.

I would guess this is enough for six to eight apples, but time will tell.