Have Always Wondered

[jennyjoan]

Over the years my aunt (who was a fabulous baker) my mother (who was just ok) and cookery lessons, friend who baked apple pie - all of them used cooking apples which are very sour and so you have to use loads of sugar to sweeten them (for apple pie).

Have just watched an American reality show where the young lad just used ordinary apples - ie red apples etc.

What is the difference between cooking apples and loads a sugar and using like sweet apples.

[ummmm]

I think they are firmer.

[Mamyalynne]

Sweet eaters go to mush very quickly,tart cookers hold their shape better.

[jennyjoan]

well I mean - would the apple pie be just as nice with the sweeter apple.. My sister and I do love our apples completely like slush - no hard apple.

[calmck]

I use cooking apples for baked apples only. Crumble and pies I mix whatever apples available

[jennyjoan]

If I had have known that about the sweet apples I sure would have made more apple pies over the years but was always unsure regarding the tart apples and loads of sugar. Very bad for diabetics

[Mamyalynne]

If you like them like slush then just use the apple of your choice.

[ummmm]

You need to think about the cooking times for the pastry.

[jennyjoan]

Have wasted a lifetime of no apple pie baking. I really have. Am talking about when there was 8 of us in the home.

[gingejbee]

...I'm wondering what makes those sweet apples taste so sweet.
Could it be they contain loads of sugar?

[douglas9401]

Tart cookers???
A tad judgemental. :-)

[woofgang]

mamya I find its the other way around. Cookers go to mush and eaters stay in pieces. I never cook with cooking apples.

[jennyjoan]

Wish I had have known that Woof as I sure would have baked with the eaters cos all my family like slush. Ok - you learn a little every day.

[jennyjoan]

Ginge - cookers (tart) need loads of sugar, eaters (natural sugar) think I like the eaters best.

[Mamyalynne]

Sorry if I got it the wrong way round, long time since I did sweet baking now.

[roopower]

I use cooking apples but add virtually no sugar, if any. If husband and son want them sweeter they add it later but I haven't noticed they do. Can't bear the apple filling over sweet . I used to eat bramleys in preference to an eating apple anyway.

[dancecaller]

Different varieties 'fall' differently. Bramley, the most popular cooking apple, falls easily, eating apples tend to stay firmer. And how much sugar you need depends how ripe the apples are, as well as variety. When I use early windfalls from my Bramley I do need sugar. By the time they are ready to pick they are a bit sweeter, no sugar needed (I'm happy with a little sharpness). As I store them they get sweeter. For some reason they seem to taste sweeter cooked than raw, though some eat them raw too.
Commercially they may be picked early and stored refrigerated so never get properly ripe.
But I also cook with my eating apples.
Cooking apples are also bigger, so less faff peeling them. Some varieties that grow big are classed as dual purpose - James Grieve, Crispin - neither particularly sweet, but nice.
Experiment. At the moment I am cooking with Granny Smith as that lasts the longest stored in my porch.