I dry my own apples like my grandma taught me! The dried apples are the best for making fried apple pies! These are a favorite during the holidays.
Rehydrate the apples by putting them in water and boiling them until rehydrated. You can then strain off the excess water and add sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice. Let the mixture cool completely.
While mixture is cooling, make your pie crust or use canned biscuits and roll them out to make the pies with. Put filling in the crusts and fry them. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar when they come out of the pan!
Besides what PIKKA said, you can also use dried or dehydrated apples in most any recipe that calls for apples. To rehydrate, I'll usually soak them overnight in the liquid in the fridge with a plastic-wrap covering the bowl.
They are also great stewed: (serve as a desert or over vanilla ice cream) To make stewed apples, in a small pan, add just enough water to barely cover apples & sugar with cinnamon & simmer on the stove for about 10 minutes... to avoid using sugar, use apple cider or apple juice & a sprinkle of cinnamon in place of the water & sugar. Dehydrated apples can also be stewed in the microwave as well as on top of the stove. For extra "punch" (& to turn the apples a pretty pink) add a handful of dried cranberries to the apples before stewing.
These apples are great in blended smoothies as well, just add any other fruit & milk. I like to eat them dehydrated for snacks. You can also chop them up (dehydrated) & put them in any breakfast cereal or make a trail mix by adding nuts & grains. They are wonderful added to granola! You can even chop them up finely & add them to any vanilla or spice cake mix. Yummy!
A small warning to those who love to eat these yummy dried apples. If you eat to much of any dried/dehydrated fruit, it tends to swell up in your tummy & can give your a stomach ache if you eat to many. These are great for lunch boxes & for kids snacks, just make sure your & your kids know when to say when! This warning doesn't apply for the ones you re-hydrate... just then ones that re-hydrate in your stomach! I know this because when I was a young child my mother would buy these for me to eat as healthy snacks, & I always ate way too many!
You can rehydrate them with water, or a bit of apple juice, or apple juice and water, half and half..If you're going to make a pie, I'd make the crust, put aside.
Take your apples, mix liquid as above maybe 1/4 cup water for each handful/cup of apples. Put in stainless pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Dissolve 2 tablespoons cornstarch in 2 tablespoons water and add to pot and stir until cornstarch thickens. Add sugar to taste, and cinnamon. Cool a bit to lukewarm, put in pie crust, add top and seal, pop in oven and cook maybe 10-15 minutes less than recipe says, however long you simmered on stove, subtract from cooking time. Obviously, if mixture looks like it's too dry, add liquid 1 tablespoon at a time and observe.
For applesauce, probably add a bit more water or apple juice, maybe 1/3 cup liquid to 1 cup of stacked apple rings, simmer and season with sugar and cinnamon to taste, and throw in blender after simmering say 10 minutes and letting sit 20 minutes. You can always season after blending too; that would work maybe better.
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