As summer slips away and the weather starts to get a bit cooler, our thoughts naturally turn to apple picking. It’s a super-fun family-friendly activity that gets the kids excited to eat all those apples they’ve picked. It can seem a little more daunting for parents who are stuck with a few overflowing baskets of apples, though.
Sure, the apples look amazingly inviting in decorative bowls on your counter, but leave them too long, and you’ll have a pile of rotten ones. The solution is to find yummy apple-picking recipes to make with your newly picked fruit. There’s no need to search the internet for the best apple recipes. Here are four of the best recipes to make with apples that the whole family will enjoy and the kiddos can help make, too. It all starts with some delicious homemade applesauce.
Applesauce
Ingredients
- 8 to 10 apples (choose your favorites or whatever has been picked)
- 1 cup of water
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Directions
- Peel and cut apples into one-inch or smaller pieces
- Place in a medium-sized saucepan
- Add water
- Stir in cinnamon and vanilla extract
- Cover and cook until apples are soft
- Remove from heat and mash using a masher or place in a blender if you prefer a non-chunky applesauce
- Cool and eat or store in a covered container
Apple pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup applesauce
Directions
- Combine flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a medium-sized mixing bowl
- Stir in gently whisked egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract
- Stir in milk
- Slowly spoon in applesauce and stir until combined
- Heat a non-stick pancake pan
- Use an ice cream scoop to spoon on the pancake batter
- When pancake batter begins to bubble, flip it
- Serve warm with maple syrup if desired
Apple Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of flour (can use wheat flour too)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup applesauce
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- Spray the muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray or line it with cupcake liners (use a cupcake pan if you don’t have a muffin pan)
- Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl
- Stir in beaten egg and melted butter
- Add vanilla extract
- Slowly add in milk
- Spoon in applesauce
- Stir, being careful not to over-mix
- Spoon into muffin pans filling each one about 3/4 full
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean
- Serve warm
- Store in the fridge or freeze
Bakes apple slices
Ingredients
- 4 apples
- Cinnamon
Directions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit
- Line two or three cookie sheets with parchment paper
- Wash and core apples
- Slicing horizontally, cut the apples into thin slices
- Arrange on parchment paper
- Sprinkle with cinnamon to taste
- Place in oven, cooking for one hour
- Remove from oven and turn slices
- Cook for an additional hour
- Turn off the oven and allow it to continue to crisp in the oven for another hour (if you prefer crispier slices, allow it to cook for an additional 1/2 hour before cooling in the oven)
- Remove from oven to cool at room temperature
Apple snacking suggestions
Here are a couple of other easy snacking suggestions for those apples your family picks this September.
Apple slices
Ingredients
- Apples
- Toppings (peanut butter, Nutella, cookie butter, sun butter, granola, or any other toppings your kiddos might enjoy on top of an apple)
Directions
- Wash and core apples
- Slice apples
- Spread peanut butter, yogurt, or desired topping onto apple slice
- Top with strawberries, bananas, granola, or desired topping
- Serve
Baked apples
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 apples
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon nutmeg
- 1 cup water
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- Grease a large baking dish with butter or cooking spray
- Wash and core apples
- Slice apples
- Arrange apples in a baking dish
- Add water
- Whisk brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together
- Sprinkle over apples
- Place in oven, cooking for 30 minutes (can add additional water if needed)
- Serve warm with ice cream, whipped cream, or plain
Why choose apples?
Apples are a healthy snack packed with antioxidants, fiber, and water. Snacking on apples is a great choice for kids and adults, too. This versatile fruit is among the top 3 produced fruits in the world. Apples are an ideal snack because they’re so portable and can be eaten whole or sliced and diced for smaller children. They’re just as delicious raw as they are cooked.
Apples contain both quercetin and pectin, which both provide numerous health benefits. Harvard notes that “Quercetin is a flavonoid, a type of naturally occurring plant chemical that has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.” while “pectin is a type of soluble fiber that may help prevent constipation and have a modest effect on lowering LDL, the “bad” cholesterol.” An apple a day may not keep the doctor away, but they’re definitely good for your health.
Picking apples in late summer or early fall is a perfect family-friendly activity kids of all ages and adults can enjoy. Once you get the apples home, though, you don’t want to leave them sitting on the counter until they get too mushy to eat. Apples are an excellent healthy snack for the entire family as-is, but there are a lot of delicious and simple apple recipes, too.
Homemade apple sauce is healthy and yummy. It can also be used to add a twist to pancakes and muffins. You can make applesauce healthier by skipping sugar as an additive. Then, when you spoon it into a pancake and muffin batter, an added sweetener like sugar is unnecessary. After you and your family head to the apple orchard, have fun in the kitchen whipping up one or more of these tasty recipes. You can even get the kids involved in the cooking process, giving them a hands-on example of farm-to-table.
