Cooking with Apples
September is here and with it comes apple season. Fresh picked fruit, bursting with juice, crunchy and sweet, is the fruit of choice through November. Apples bought close to where they are grown are the very best. Be sure to visit an orchard or farm, and perhaps pick your own. The crisp autumn air and the fragrance of fresh apples makes for a wonderful experience.
Inside the house, the aroma of apples cooking beckons us into the kitchen. While a freshly baked apple pie in a crisp, flakey crust, is a favorite, that crust is loaded with fat and the filling is rich with sugar and butter. Is there a way to enjoy baked apple desserts without these drawbacks? The answer is, thanks to Calorie Count members and their creative ventures in cooking, we can have what we crave.
When cooking with apples it's important to choose the right variety. Some apples that are good for cooking are Cortland, Gravenstein, Granny Smith, Rhode Island Greening, Northwest Greening, and Rome. These apples hold their shape and flavor when cooked. Our favorite varieties for eating raw, such as Red or Yellow Delicious, Macoun, and Winesaps, don't hold up when cooked. There are newer apple varieties, such as Gala, Honey Crisp, Ginger Gold and Fuji, may be good for cooking, but are also all great for eating out of hand.
Choose firm apples, heavy for their size, with no bruises or broken skin. Once you have chosen your apples and bring them home, it's important to store them properly in a cool, dry place. If you don't have a cool cellar, the refrigerator crisper drawer keeps them well. Don't store them in the same drawer with other fruits, because the natural gases given off by apples cause other fruit to ripen more rapidly. By the way, those gases also cause cut flowers to turn brown, so don't store apples and cut flowers close to each other.
Just before you use them, scrub them gently under cool water to clean off any impurities from the air, from handling, and also any pesticide residue. Buying organic apples is one way to make sure there is no pesticide present.
If you cut apples, they will turn brown on the cut surfaces. To prevent this, sprinkle them with a little lemon juice, or float them in water with lemon juice.
Once again, we have articles from About.com to help us learn about apple selection and storage.
When we look at the nutritional profile of apples, we see that a 138 gram, 5 ounce apple provides 81 calories, nearly 15% of daily fiber, and about 13% of daily vitamin C. In addition, it gives us important antioxidants and flavenoids. Maybe the old saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," is true.
With so many recipes to choose from, we have selected the ones with under 200 calories per serving. Calorie Count members are at their creative best with these dishes chosen from the Recipe Browser.
Comments
I love adding apples to a lot of my cooking, but one of my favorite ways to have them is thinly sliced, or cut into matchsticks, as a salad topping.
These recipes sound delicious, I have found when I sub with Splenda, white and brown sugar, in my pies no one even notices this variation. I know lots of people don't care for splenda but I find it great in moderation and makes these special occasion desserts more calorie friendly and I enjoy them so much more. I also have always used the reduced fat Bisquick and the fat free 1/2 and 1/2. I don't always use theses lower calorie items in all my everyday cooking but with desserts ( which I make only on special occasions and as a treat) I find we enjoy them so much more with a better choice of calorie ingredients.
They do look tasty! but I always feel better about using at least half whole wheat flour. I see they all have a C rating; I bet the added fiber from whole wheat would boost up their rating. Apples rock. I never peel them before adding to recipes since it's a great way to get more fiber, not to mention it saves on prep time.
Oh, great idea! Love wheat flour but sometimes forget to convert recipes. That's what is so great about this CC is so many great ideas and thoughts and reminders..
Here are the recipes from Claire's Newsletter:
Apple Brown Betty
A healthier version of an old fashioned favorite. Whole wheat bread and less sugar keep it low in calories... continue reading
Baked Apple Dumplings
Quick and easy. A serving is half an apple because a whole apple dumpling is too large. Serve with low-fat vanilla ice cream if desired... continue reading
Crustless Apple Pie
A family favorite and the perfect way to have your pie without the rich crust... continue reading
Sheila, your Apple Brown Betty looks great (yum) but I think you forgot to enter 'butter' in your ingredients, so the total cals is off 
Original Post by: reneemichellesteinSheila, your Apple Brown Betty looks great (yum) but I think you forgot to enter 'butter' in your ingredients, so the total cals is off
Woopsie - should be good to go now.
wow i love apple pie and it makes it even better that we dont have to have a crust so thank you i also didnt know about the apples and flowers and that they make other fruits ripen more so thanx 
I learned that bit of information about apples and flowers when I worked for a florist. He threw a hissy fit when someone put their apple in the flower cooler box. We got a real lecture.
It's useful though - if you have avocados or other fruit that is not ripe enough, put it in a loosely folded over paper bag with an apple for a day or so to help it ripen.
You can also use an apple to soften hard brown sugar. Put an apple into a plastic bag of rock hard brown sugar, seal well and leave it for a couple of days. The moisture in the apple will soften the sugar so you can use it, and the apple is still good to eat.
Here's an interesting article about new varieties of apples
http://www.parade.com/export/sites/default/food/2009/08/30-s earch-for-the-perfect-apple.html
I baked the apple muffins. Oh, so good. Had a big group for breakfast and they loved them. (The group was men that had been dove hunting so the flavor was more important than the nutritional value and they all loved them. I didn't tell them they were good for them
). I made 16 instead of 12 and that calculates to 133.5 calories. I will bake them again soon.
I made the Apple Dumplings and they are really good. I found it to be really easy to make and no mess or didn't require any thing that I did not have on hand except for the canned biscuits. I will definitely make them again. I did add chopped pecans to the raisin mixture and I made one with out raisin mixture for a friend that doesn't like raisins. I just mixed brown sugar with a little cinnamon and chopped pecans and it was also delicious. I served it with fat free coolwhip.
Is it be good for health to Eat APPLES in their natural way. Actually I want to gain moi weight...
i also like your way..
What you eat can have a direct effect on your skin if you're struggling with psoriasis. See what to shop for.
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One of my favorite recipes is Crock Pot Apple Pie. Thank you for the tip on storing apples near cut flowers. I did not know this.