Sweetening cooking apples

[DecafSkinnySausage]

Just been given an enormous bag of cooking apples by a generous auntie. Would love to give some to 8 month baby but am generally avoiding refined sugar for him - any ideas about alternative ways of sweetening the apples enough to make them palatable?

HI Decaf... I always avoided adding sugar for my DCs .... I also have a cooking apple tree.. and that's where I drew the line at "not sweetening".I honestly think you have to add some sugar. To minimise the amount, maybe mixing with some sweeter fruit (such as pear) and some dried fruits (such as sultanas) - but try it and see what you think yourself first - I wouldn't give my baby anything I wouldn't/couldn't eat myself.

cinnamon, raisins and a splash of maple syrup make a lovely combination. Or Vanilla. Or use as a base for making purees with other fruits like strawbs or blueberries, as these are expensive and it can eke them out a bit.

There's nothing wrong with a little refined sugar in an otherwise healthy diet. Better that than the poor baby pulling a face like a sucked lemon !! You could seek out some fructose sugar if you wanted to feel a little more virtuous.... you need less of it than granulated and it's the same sugar that is present in fruit.

Thanks for the ideas. Tried it with some dried apricots (the only thing I had in my cupboard) and he seems very keen on it with a bit of yogurt! And I've been eating some too - not sweet as such but not too tart either. Will look out for the fructose and do some experimenting.

Just add some brown sugar. Seriously it'll be fine, Honey, fructose etc will still rot teeth.