Millions and millions of apples

[Lifeinthepit]

What do I do?? Cooking apples mostly. The wind last night has brought a lot down and so I'm not sure how well they will store. This year's crop is bumper too.

Usually I do crumbles until it's coming out of everyone's ears. Or just stew them for breakfast but I don't think it's going to cut it this time. I like cooking so would love any recipe ideas!

Same boat. We do a big pan of stewed each week and the kids have it on porridge/yoghurt. Mad an apple tart and apple cake so far. I like the idea of drying them but don’t have a dehumidifier thing, has anyone tried in the oven?

I'm making all mine into apple sauce to freeze and use later for puddings, sauce for chops etc. You can add extra slices of apple to the sauce before you freeze it so you have more options.
I did make a mint apple-jelly years ago but none of my family would eat it!

Some air fryers have a drying programme, but I guess that a fan oven would work at the same temperature. I've checked my Ninja booklet for dehydrating apples and it says "Apples Core removed, cut in 3mm slices, rinsed in lemon water, patted dry, 60°C, 7–8 hours". Sadly my apples are Bramleys so I don't think they'd be great dried.

I’ve just tried making the apple and olive oil cake - it’s delicious, thank you for sharing!

Yes, this year is certainly a mast year.

I've got 3 different varieties of apples, all on dwarf rootstock. All really heavily laden.

Have made cake, muffins and crumble.

Got a couple of bags of stewed apples in the freezer, the DC love those on their porridge, on a cold morning.

This coming week, I'll make chutney and jelly. Might even try apple butter in the slow cooker.

For pears, we have two trees, which are supposed to pollinate themselves/each other. However, the years we left them to it, we had no fruit at all. In the spring, when blossoming, I pick a couple of the blossom, and then smoosh them against the blossom remaining on the trees. Got two heavy crops now.

The branches of my apple trees are across the path creating a tunnel nearly, and are so heavily laden that if you look up, the roof of the tunnel looks like it's made from apples. Never seen so many!

So many brilliant ideas on this thread!

Where I live neighbours put them in a basket and leave them outside with a sign saying "free apples help yourself"

Yes, we pruned our huge bramley tree some years ago and have had no decent sized fruit since, until this year. I've never had a crop like it in almost 40 years.
Our pears are also meant to be self-fertile but are on dwarfing rootstocks and grown in large pots so we don't expect much. This year I tried as usual to fertilise with a soft brush and quite a decent number of fruits set, but only one pear on one tree!

The pear trees in the ground have set huge amounts of fruit, but mostly quite small. I did try to thin the fruit out a little but obviously not enough, and I can't reach the top of the main tree, despite it being on dwarfing root stock. We've had no plums at all!

@BishopOakAntiques isn't it good?! It's my go-to gift for new mums round our way as it lasts forever and it's something to be able to offer people when they come round. I hoard cake tins the right size so I can give the new family the cake in a tin and they can just park it on the side.

(I remember the nightmare of trying to get nursing established, totally sleep deprived, house in chaos, well-meaning visitors dropping by to "see the baby" and then, having duly viewed the baby and handed over an adorable clothing set that would get worn precisely once, sat there expecting me to rush around making them cups of tea and never having anything to offer to eat).

Anyone got any suggestions for a job lot of small, hard, pears?

You could make some pear crumbles and send to me!

Poach in wine?

sadly I don’t think any crumble top would survive by the time these rock hard pears had started to cook..

DD and I made this Pear and chocolate almond cake yesterday with some small and still pretty hard pears. It is lush.

Wow thank you very much that recipe looks gorgeous! I’m going to try it- family coming at the weekend. By then they might have gone from diamond hard to I don’t know maybe.. granite hard?
The rest I will stew with booze which is a good tip also, thank you.

one more question- how many people does that elegant looking cake serve as a pudding, do you think? Greedy family people I mean. And what would you put on the side with it? Cream/vanilla ice cream/creme fraiche ?

Well after reading this I made apple butter today. I don't really get it 😆. Six jars and I'll eat on my porridge. We have a chest freezer full of apples. I'm meant to be planting a plum and pear this autumn but definitely not sure after this bumper crop!!

amazing, I’ll have to remember this trick - I’m currently expecting my first! I guess I’ll just have to have a cake on standby every week towards the end 🤣

@RobustPastry I found that pears ripen best off the tree, so pop them in your fruit bowl for a few days (up to a week) and they may well ripen. If not, the spiced apple & pear chutney I posted up thread is lovely!

There’s a very funny TicToc woman who does bits about hiding the apples she has accepted from neighbours from her husband while she makes them into things. Once he opened the washer and it was full of apples….

@Lifeinthepit

https://www.themediterraneandish.com/apple-walnut-salad/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EMAIL+-+Wednesday+9.24.25&_kx=pd1dztL1RLZTW1ypkeONrvs6js1cinEP3ksaupFHytc.RMuL9Q#search/q=Apple%20recipes

I’ve just had an update on Apple recipes from Suzy mediterranean, the salad sounds very nice

Mincemeat?

That looks lovely. I might have it for supper as I've got all the ingredients (one ingredients in particular!!!). Thank you

Good idea. How long does it keep? Could you freeze it until Christmas do you know?

@Lifeinthepitif you put it in sterilised jars it can keep for years unopened.