Abundance of eating apples

[Chippychop]

Normally I give them away/ eat them/ lose a lot to windfall. How do I store them properly? Can I make something out of them!

[ThatBloodyWoman]

Could you trade your excess?
I used to trade excess eggs from my chickens for tomatoes.

[Holberg]

Apple sauce, apple pie, compote (with plums or cherries), apple streusel cake, tarte tatin, ooh... whereabouts are you? (I love apples)

[Chippychop]

I'm about 60 miles north of London. Quite fancy a bit of chutney making too, DH not a cooked fruit fan

[Holberg]

Ah, a bit distant unfortunately!
There are some cakes that use apples as a substitute for either eggs or fat (but I cannot remember which! prob fat)

[ThatBloodyWoman]

Do you have to store them in a cool dark place with brown paper or something between them,and check them regularly to weed out any that go rotten?
Or you could get a dehydrator to dry it?

[Chippychop]

I'd like to store them- I got some old apple crates last year but the apples went mouldy - I mustn't have done it right

[aircooled]

Juice freezes well if you could buy/hire an apple press.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

You can freeze cooked apple or blanched apple slices ready to use for crumbles or pies in the winter. To blanch them, you peel, core and slice the apples and then drop into simmering water for a couple of minutes. I can't remember if you're supposed to put sugar and/or lemon juice in the water, as it's a long time since I did this - used to do it regularly when we had a bumper crop of cooking apples - so maybe check online for that. Anyway, you lift the blanched slices out of the water and cool on a baking tray, then freeze in airtight tubs or freezer bags in convenient portion sizes.

Apple chutney is a very good idea as it doesn't need to be kept in the freezer or fridge (once you open a jar you might want to keep it in the fridge but not till then). Just make sure you have plenty of jars to put it in before you start! You can keep them in a fairly cool, dark place (e.g. under the bed in an unheated spare room or out in a shed) for the two or three months they need to mature before you can start eating the chutney. That's the traditional approach, anyway. I use a Rose Elliott recipe which doesn't appear to be online. It uses apples, onions, ginger, salt, sugar and vinegar, I think.

This one is fairly similar but doesn't use onions:

Apple and Ginger Chutney
Based on a recipe from The Cranks Recipe Book, we have tweaked it a bit to our liking :)
Ingredients:
750 ml. cider vinegar
675g. molasses cane sugar (or any very dark sugar)
3 bay leaves (make little tears in them)
1 kg. cooking apples, peeled and chopped
100g of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or crushed
a little seasalt

Slowly dissolve the sugar in the vinegar in a large pan. Add the bay leaves. Prepare the apples, garlic and ginger and add these also with the salt. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer for 2-3 hours until the excess liquid is gone. Cool and jar.

[Fugghetaboutit]

Yes make chutney for Christmas! Lovely gift. Applesauce for anyone with baby is a nice gift too

[Solo]

My parents used to wrap each apple in newspaper and box/crate them and put them in a cold and dark larder. They lasted a very long time!

[shovetheholly]

If you are storing them in crates, they need to be perfect and not bruised. Otherwise fungal ick (technical term) can spread through and turn the lot to nasty brown mush. I assume the newspaper that Solo mentions cuts down on its spread and reduces the risk!

How lovely to have apples this early. What variety are they?