Have you wondered how to process Bramley apples for freezing? I know you have. And you're dying to know. Really. I bet it keeps you up at night too. Wondering how you'll get it done. What steps to take. Do you need to add Vitamin C to keep them from turning brown? Should you use a knife? Just how do you get those seeds out? Well, have no fear, I'm here to show you how!
First, start with apples. Wash them. You don't need to dry them, just put them under the faucet and rub them with your hands. Then, set them on the counter on a towel (to absorb any water coming off) for the next step.
And as a side note - if you're thinking of getting new counter tops, don't get tile. No matter how great you think it looks. It only looks fantastic for three seconds after it's been installed. Because no matter how many times you clean it or what you use to clean it, it'll still look dirty until you whip out a toothbrush and some bleach and scrub every last bit of the grout down. And then it'll stay nice looking for about five minutes until your husband spills something onto it. So, just don't do it! now back to the regularly scheduled programming...
See that spotty one in the middle of the bottom row? That's really not a good apple. They should not be mushy or have dark spots. However, these were quite expensive, so I was determined to use as much as I could. Thus, I ended up trying to use the spotted ones and was able to use some of them, so long as they weren't also mealy. If they are mealy, then you need to toss them as they won't taste good.
Pull out your apple peeling contraption and secure it to the counter. This one has a suction cup on the bottom to help secure it to the counter. Then you push that little bar thing on the bottom down to the counter to make sure it's really on there.
Pick up an apple and spear that sucker with your "machine."
Now, crank that apple through the machine and let it peel, slice, and core that bad boy for you.
I just love it when machines do all of the work for me! You can peel, core, and slice your apples with a knife, but why bother?
Remove your peeled, cored, and sliced apple from the machine and slice the apple in half. I like to slice mine as they fit into the bags better and are easier to spread into a pie later too.
Put apple slices into a bowl and add Fruit Fresh. Now, I tried two methods of adding Fruit Fresh to them. Fruit Fresh is asorbic acid - aka Vitamin C. It prevents the fruit from browning. It does also add a slight bit of tartness to the fruit.
Method 1:
Sprinkle Fruit Fresh into the bowl. Add water and stir until the Fruit Fresh is dissolved. It's very finely ground so it dissolves quickly.
Here's a picture of the apples in the Fruit Fresh solution. If you use this method, you'll need to drain the apples prior to freezing.
Method 2:
After putting the apples into the bowl, generously sprinkle them with Fruit Fresh. I also flipped the apples around in the bowl and sprinkled their undersides to help get better coverage.
Then, once you have enough apples peeled, sliced, cored, and sufficiently Fruit Freshed, put them into freezer bags for freezing. Then freeze them until you're ready to use them. That's it! Easy peasy.
Here's a comparison of apples Fruit Freshed with Method 1 (on the left) and Method 2. As you can see, soaking the fruit in Fruit Fresh is more effective at preventing browning than sprinkling with Fruit Fresh.
And here's what happens if you don't use Fruit Fresh -
It took less than five minutes for them to reach this point. Moral of the story - use Fruit Fresh or crushed Vitamin C!
I like your experiment. BTW -- is that a Byeya bowl I see?
Posted by: Munchkin Mom | Friday, August 28, 2009 at 04:51 PM