In harvest years, even experienced Housewives find themselves in difficulty – what to do with fallen apples. A hit barrel, a wormhole – you can’t store them, but you can put them in the blanks. Jam, compotes, jam, wine from fallen apples turn out no worse than from removed from a tree. I offer you 6 recipes for processing fallen apples.
1. Apple compote with vanilla and cloves
Fragrant compote will be useful for the New year, birthday, after the bath or just for lunch.
2. Dried apples
There are many ways of drying, I will tell you only about two – the most, in my opinion, practical and easy to perform.
First method: outdoor
This method was suggested to me by my husband: he lived in Central Asia for a long time and saw how the locals dried fruit so that it would remain marketable. In a box covered with a mosquito net, thinly sliced Apple slices are placed on trays made of fine mesh. The design is carried out in the sun and leave the apples in the open air. At the same time, direct sunlight does not fall on the apples (the upper part of the box is a profiled sheet). This smart design is not found in every summer resident, so you can do it easier.
- Wash the apples, wipe them dry, or let them dry naturally.
- Slice the apples and place them on baking trays, trays, or mesh boxes.
- Cover the apples with double-folded gauze. This will protect them from insects.
- From time to time (at least once a day), the slices need to be turned over. To dry the fruit for the winter, it takes 5-6 days.
This method is suitable for dry Sunny weather. And if the summer is cold and rainy, or you started harvesting in the fall? Send the apples in the compost? Well, no!
Second method: in the oven
- Wash the apples, wipe them dry, or let them dry naturally.
- Place the sliced apples in a thin layer on a baking sheet. Place in oven.
- First, keep the temperature at 75-80°C. When the apples give up most of the moisture, reduce the temperature to 50-55°C.
Drying takes about 6-7 hours, but this is on average. I advise you to determine the readiness not by the hour, but by the condition of the apples – from time to time you need to take a sample, so as not to spoil the preparation:
- properly dried apples are light yellow, with a light cream tint;
- the slices should be moderately elastic, if they have become brittle and crumble in your hands, then you have overexposed them in the oven.
Some pieces may not dry to the desired condition (slightly larger cut, got another variety, and so on). They need to be removed, because in closed banks they will quickly become moldy. Store the Apple drier in glass jars covered with plastic lids.
I told you only two ways to dry apples, in fact, there are many more.
3. Apple juice
Juice with the pulp of its own preparation is much tastier than store-bought, and certainly more useful. If you have a large Apple crop this year, you can see for yourself.
Ingredients
- Apples of sweet or sour-sweet varieties – 1 kg
- Water-0.7 l
- Sugar-200 g
Preparation
- Wash the apples and cut them in half. large apples can be divided into 4 parts. In a saucepan with apples, pour 0.5 liters of water and boil for 10-15 minutes.
- Rub through a sieve.
- Add the syrup to the puree (200 g of sugar per 200 ml of water), put on a low heat and boil for 5-7 minutes.
- Pour the finished juice into sterilized jars and roll up with metal lids.
- Turn the jars over and leave to cool completely.
It turns out very tasty, try it!
4. Apple cider vinegar
You can talk endlessly about the benefits of Apple cider vinegar for health and beauty. Many people buy it in stores, but I prefer to make it myself – this is the only way I can be absolutely sure that the product is natural. And it is quite easy to make it.
Ingredients
- Apples – 1 kg
- Sugar-40 g
- Water – 1 l
Preparation
- Cut the apples into several pieces. The skin and seed pods do not need to be removed.
- Fill the apples with water and leave for a few days at room temperature.
- Then drain the liquid, strain, and add sugar. Cover the jar with gauze and leave to ferment for a few days.
- Determine readiness by the sediment: when it has sunk to the bottom, the vinegar is ready. Pour into clean bottles or cans, seal and store in a cool place.
5. Apple Jam
Jam made with your own hands is the best filling for pies or buns. And how delicious hot toast with fragrant jam! For it, you can use any apples, including fallen ones.
Ingredients
- Apples of the same variety – 1 kg
- Sugar-800 g
- Water – 200 ml
Preparation
- Wash the apples, remove the broken barrels if necessary, cut them into halves and put them in a saucepan. Add water and put on fire.
- When they soften, remove from the heat and RUB through a fine sieve.
- Add sugar to the puree.
- Put on a small fire and boil so that the jam thickens, stirring it with a wooden stirrer or a large spoon. Be careful not to get burned: at the end of cooking, it will strongly gurgle and “spit”.
- To check the readiness of the jam, look at how it flows from the spoon: if a trickle — a little liquid, you need to cook more. If it falls in large drops or chunks, it’s done. It takes about 1 hour to boil.
- Ready jam spread out in clean dry jars and sterilize: half-liter cans – 20 minutes, liter-30 minutes.
- Seal with metal lids and store in a cool place.
6. Cider
In autumn, you need to take care of the upcoming winter holidays. Why buy wine of dubious production when you have a lot of fallen apples? They can be used to make a great light hop drink-cider.
Ingredients
- Apples – 1 bucket (about 10 kg, it is desirable to take one part of sour and two parts of sweet)
- Sugar-1.5 kg
- Water
Preparation
- Do not wash the apples (!), so as not to remove the natural yeast from the skin, but wipe with a clean cloth and remove the stalks. Then grind in a meat grinder-you do not need to clean the skin and seeds beforehand.
- Fill the resulting mass (wort) container a little more than half. The rest of the tank is needed for foam and gas.
- Add sugar (100-150 g per 1 kg of wort) and mix well.
- Cover the container with gauze and leave to ferment for 3-4 days at room temperature (approximately +20 … 25°C) in a dark place.
- Every day, the contents must be mixed to prevent mold from forming on the surface.
- After 4 days, squeeze the wort, pour the liquid into clean jars. Put a rubber medical glove on each jar. In each need to pierce a hole with a needle, so that it does not burst.
- The cider will ferment for another 45-50 days. You can determine the end of fermentation by the glove: when it falls, it means that the fermentation is over, the wine is ready, you can taste it!
I hope that you can now easily find a use for fallen apples. And if you have your favorite recycling methods, share them in the comments. The year turned out to be Apple, your advice will be useful to many.
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