Little Green Apples

If it's July, it's Summer Apple Pickin' Time.

The first apples of the season are Yellow Transparent and the child it had when it crossed with Montgomery. They named their baby "Lodi". Both are thin-skinned and extremely tart. And they don't last long.

So...what good are they?

SAUCE!

And yesterday I baked an apple/raisin/nut quick bread with Lodi apples for the first time to check out how the apples would hold up (they did) and it is fantastic! More about that later.

First: to make sauce. For this blog post I used one quart of apples. It took 20 minutes from start to finish and yielded a pint of sauce.

Begin by rinsing the apples under running water.

Next, quarter and core the apples. No need to peel them as the skins are very thin and will separate from the flesh when cooked. Plus, there's a lot of good nutrition at skin level. :)

 

Cook with about 1/4 cup of water over low heat. As the apples begin to cook down you can turn up the heat to speed up the process. Stir often to make sure the apples are not sticking to the bottom of the pan. If the sauce gets too thick before the apples are cooked down, add another splash of water. The cooking time takes about 12 minutes.

 

The apples nearly sauce themselves when cooked. When done, run the apples in a food mill or sieve, like this one, to remove the skins and make a nice, smooth sauce.

 

 

That's all there is to it! I added 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg. Honey is also an excellent sweetener. For Lodi and Transparent, I do not recommend using maple syrup, which is really tasty on other varieties of applesauce such as yellow delicious.

Now for that apple bread!

Lodi Apple Bread

If you don’t have time to make Lodi applesauce you can substitute commercially prepared apple sauce.

Directions

Dry mix:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. apple pie spice or a combo of cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg and allspice
2 cups white sugar

Wet mix
1/2 cup Lodi applesauce
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups peeled, cored, diced Lodi apples
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 cup golden or regular raisins
1/3 cup chopped dates

Whisk together all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together applesauce, oil and eggs.

Add remaining ingredients to wet mix. Add wet mix to dry, stirring just until combined. The batter will be very dry. Place in 2 small bread pans that have been well greased and floured.

Bake in 350 degree oven for about an hour. Allow to cool in pans for at least 1/2 hour. Remove from pans very carefully.

Marcheta *the "Apple Lady" strikes again!