Oops, I have too much is a blog series dedicated to the inevitable abundance of seasonal produce. Whether you grew it in your garden, got it in your CSA box or just couldn’t resist buying beautiful seasonal produce at the grocery store or farmer’s market, I’ll give you ideas for delicious ways to use your excess food, and tips to preserve it for later so it won’t go to waste.
What to do with lots of apples
Too many apples is another one of those positively DELIGHTFUL problems I love to have. For instance: Herbal Turtle Farms recently gave me three boxes of freshly picked apples from their orchard. Today I’m going to tell you what I did with them (and I still have one box to go!).
If you do come into a huge quantity of apples, I highly recommend investing in an apple corer/peeler/slicer. My parents have one that I borrow frequently, and it makes quick work of processing the apples—I couldn’t do all of these by hand, but this little helper makes it relatively quick (and works on potatoes too).
Storing apples
Short term:
Store apples at room temperature for a week or so, or in the crisper drawer of your fridge for 3 to 4 weeks.
Long term:
Apples freeze very well. After they’re frozen and thawed, they won’t retain their crispiness, so thawed apples are best for baking uses (but don’t worry—there are plenty of ways to bake apples). Another one of my favorite ways to preserve apples is to dehydrate them (although, we always eat them so quickly that “long term” is a stretch). Click here to get my tutorial on drying apple chips. When I have the slicer pictured above, I make them in rings instead, since they can be cut so quick.
Quick & easy
- Sliced apples + caramel
- Or, for a healthier snack, apples + peanut butter
- Make a hot sandwich
Layer thinly sliced apples with brie cheese in between two slices of bread, and make it like a panini or grilled cheese sandwich - Whip up an apple cake
This cake is a crowd pleaser, and comes together really quickly—especially if you’re using pre-skinned and chopped apples from the freezer. Picture is below; get the recipe here. - Use this method to pack a pre-sliced apple in a lunch, for you or your kiddos.
Recipe ideas to use apples
- This healthy muffin recipe uses grated apples, oatmeal, cinnamon and bananas.
- Autumn apple pizza, anyone?
- If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, make some DIY apple cider vinegar (then tell me how it went, because I’ve never tried it!).
- You can never go wrong with some good old fashioned apple crisp
- Make apple butter in the crock pot. I use a recipe from this cookbook. The crockpot heats it at just the right temperature without scorching, so you can mix up the ingredients then forget about it for several hours. AWESOME, I tell you.
- Or, if you don’t want to wait around, make applesauce (then maybe make some into applesauce freezee pops)
- Don’t forget the classic caramel apple
- This warm spinach & apple salad looks divine
- If you know how to make apple cider, that’s amazing (I’ve only done it once, and it was with brilliant people who had all the equipment.) Once the cider is done, make mulled cider spice bags.
- And of course, the classic apple pie. Here’s the best apple pie recipe I’ve ever made, the recipe comes from Country Home magazine. I once lost the recipe, then found it again, and experienced a rollercoaster of emotion and a pie-sized hole in my heart about it. This one’s a keeper.
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This falls in the category of aspirational for most of us (::raises hand::) but omg look at these gorgeous apple roses!
