Does anyone have a good, simple baked apple recipe that doesn’t turn into apple sauce with skin?
1 Like
I suspect it’s a matter of choosing the right sort of apple to bake. Some will collapse, others won’t. Personally, I’m all for collapsed apples.
2 Likes
You need to get a baking apple, I think Rome Beauties are the name and what we always used when I was still at home. They just need to be cored, filled with cinnamon sugar (or spices you prefer) nuts if you like, then bake. Pretty sure they were covered with foil & took about 45 minutes to cook.
I don’t mean to say that Rome Beauties are the only apples that will bake & retain their shape, it’s just always what we used. Think you can still find them in most supermarkets but I’ll have to look next time.
In the UK, a baking apple (like Bramley Seedling) is one that’s going to collapse (held together by its skin). If I wanted it to cook through but still retain texture, I’d use an eating, rather than cooking, apple.
When making a pie or crisp I definitely want apples to “fall” and collapse. For baking whole it’s nice to get the kind that hold their shape, but the apple flesh is nice and soft. So I’ve always just used Rome Beauties for that.
I like Braeburns the best for pie making, sometimes mixed with golden delicious that aren’t very ripe. Both are good for eating out of hand too.
I wonder how many varieties the UK and US have in common, or if they are all totally different. Do you find many apples there that are imported from the US?
1 Like
Honeycrisps hold their cubes when diced for chunky applesauce, so I assume they remain intact when baked whole. As I recall, Cortlands and Granny Smiths stand up to baking, as well. Since forever, chefs have used Golden Delicious for pies because the slices hold their shape. I prefer tarter apples and will happily sacrifice texture for brighter flavor. By the way, try filling your cored apples with a mixture of maple syrup, softened butter, and granola.
2 Likes
Ah. This could warrant a thread of its own.
There are, literally, hundreds of apple varieties in cultivation in the UK. But you will never see more than a handful in the supermarkets. There are those that I think are pretty specific to the UK - such as Bramley and Cox’s Orange Pippin. And there are those that have much wider popularlity such as Braeburn. I reckon I can go to the supermarket every week of the year and find Braeburns - when they’re out of season in the UK, they are imported from across Europe and further afield, such as New Zealand, South Africa and the US. But the imports are restricted to those most popular ones - for example, I’ve never heard of the one you mention.
Maybe we should look up, say, the ten most popular varieties in each country and see what’s common in both lists. I suspect we’d find it’s the ones that are “good keepers” that are popular with the supermarkets.
1 Like
