Old-Fashioned Apple Recipes

Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.

From The Rural Cook Book, by the Rural New-Yorker, 1907.

Apple! Apple! Call for Apple!
Everywhere you go!
Closely watch the bill of fare,
And if apple is not there,
Then proceed at once to pare,
Cook and landlord down with care.

Since apples play a large part in farmhouse economy, it has been thought well to group recipes for their use together, rather than separating them in various chapters. A few other apple recipes will be found, however, included among jellies and preserves, cakes and pastry.

Baked Apples

Pare and core cooking apples; put in a granite pan; put over them a cupful of sugar, butter the size of a walnut; cover; bake until almost done; take the cover off and let them brown. When apples are baked in a covered earthen dish or casserole flavor and appearance are at their best. Pare and core the apples, sprinkle them with sugar and a little powdered cloves and cinnamon. Add a little water, cover the dish, and bake a long time in a slow oven. The apples cook to a deep red, and are very tender and rich in flavor. Honey is a desirable addition to baked apples. Wipe or peel the apples, and remove the core without running the knife clear through. Into this hollow put a bit of butter and a teaspoonful of honey, and bake after the ordinary manner.

Baked Apples in Jelly

Peel, core and quarter a quart of apples, add half a cupful of water and three-fourths cupful of sugar, put in a covered earthen dish and cook three to four hours in a slow oven, when they should be dark red in color. Then mix with the apples a cupful of liquid lemon jelly, and set in a mold to harden. These baked apples are also very nice eaten warm without the jelly.

Fancy Baked Apples

Peel and core medium-sized tart apples. Put them in a baking dish and pour half a cup of water over them. Set in a hot oven, and when the apples are heated, sprinkle with enough sugar to coat each and bake until tender. Make a syrup of one cup of water, half a cup of sugar, the juice of half a lemon, and a teaspoonful of the grated rind. Add two tablespoonfuls of chopped raisins, two of chopped candied cherries, two of chopped candied pineapple, and two of chopped almonds, and when the sugar is dissolved set at the back of the stove and let cook slowly for half an hour. When the apples are done put in little glass saucers, taking care not to break them. Fill with the cooked sweets and pour the syrup over them. Serve cold with whipped cream.

Boiled Apples in Syrup

Rub the apples clean, but do not peel, and stick four cloves into each. Put in earthen dish, half cover with cold water, and add otie cup of sugar to each pint of water. Place upon stove and cook until apple skins crack; remove apples, then boil down syrup until it is like jelly, and pour over the fruit.

Apple Butter

Apple butter should be made from new cider, fresh from the press, and not yet fermented. Fill a porcelain-lined kettle with cider and boil until reduced one-half. Then boil another kettleful in the same way, and so continue until you have sufficient quantity. To every four gallons of boiled cider allow a half-bushel of nice juicy apples, pared, cored and quartered. The cider should be boiled the day before you make the apple butter. Fill a very large kettle with the boiled cider and add as many apples as can be kept moist. Stir frequently, and when the apples are soft beat with a wooden stick until they are reduced to a pulp. Cook and stir continuously until the consistency is that of soft marmalade and the color is a very dark brown. Have boiled cider at hand in case it becomes too thick, and apples if too thin. Twenty minutes before you take it from the fire add ground cinnamon, and nutmeg to taste. It requires no sugar. When cold, put into stone jars and cover closely.

Apple Dumplings

Pare, quarter and core tart apples. Put one tablespoonful of baking powder in one quart of flour, add one cupful of lard and half a teaspoonful of salt and mix with sweet milk, make stiffer than for biscuits, roll and cut in squares and put around the pieces of apple. Into a deep pudding dish put one quart of water, one cupful of sugar and a small lump of butter. Set it on top of the stove and let it come to a boil. Then put in the dumplings and bake in a brisk oven one hour.

Apple Dumplings with Bread Dough

Take out about a pint of bread dough in the morning when it is ready to go in the baking pans, more or less according to the size of the family; add shortening half the size of an egg, mix through the dough and set aside until an hour and a half before dinner. Then cut the dough into as many pieces as there are persons to serve and roll out. Pare and core good, tart apples, set one on each sheet of dough, putting a teaspoonful of sugar and a small lump of butter in the place of the core, fold the dough about the apple, pinching it tightly together, set them in a deep earthen dish and let rise half an hour; then sprinkle a tablespoonful of sugar over them and pour on one cupful of cold water and bake half an hour in a hot oven. It may be well to cover them with a greased paper to keep them from getting too brown or crusty. Eat warm with cream and sugar or any sauce preferred. Also excellent steamed.

Boiled Apple Dumplings

Pare eight fine apples and cut them in quarters, remove the cores. Roll the suet crust out half an inch thick and cut into round pieces. Dust each piece of apple with a little sugar and cinnamon and place four sections on each round of paste. Gather up the edges and pinch them together over the apple. When all the dumplings are made, drop them into a kettle of boiling water and let them boil gently for an hour. Take them up on a hot dish and serve with plain, sweetened cream. If you want to serve the dumplings "just as grandmother did," sweeten the cream with "treacle."

Kenilworth Ranch Dumplings

Take a quart of flour, one cup of good lard and half-cup of butter; rub this into the flour after it is sifted with one teaspoonful of baking powder; add enough milk to make a soft dough. This is rolled cut quickly into a sheet an inch thick and then cut in squares. Into each square is laid a half apple, peeled and cored, and the crust tucked around it. Have ready in a dripping pan a syrup made of one cupful of sugar to one of water; lay the dumplings in; bake in quick oven 30 to 40 minutes. Serve with an old-fashioned molasses sauce.

Farmhouse Apples

Peel and core tart apples, fill the space from which the cores were taken with seeded raisins, bits of shredded citron, sugar and a little lemon peel; stand them in a baking pan, pour over them half a cup of water and dust with about two tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar. Bake in a slow oven until perfectly tender, then sprinkle bread crumbs over the top; dust again with sugar, and leave them in the oven for 10 minutes. While they are baking mix a tablespoonful of flour with a half cup sugar; pour over half a pint of boiling water, and boil a moment; take from the fire, and pour slowly over one well-beaten egg; add the juice of half a lemon. Pour over the apples and serve warm.

Apple Fool

Peel, core and quarter six large apples, cook them until tender with three or four cloves, a small piece of lemon peel, half a cupful of sugar and a teacupful of water. Remove the cloves and lemon peel, beat well with a fork and stir in one-fourth pint of thick, sweet cream. Cut any kind of delicate cake into rather thin slices and place a layer in the bottom of a glass dish. Pour over it diluted red currant jelly, then cover with a thick layer of the apple fool, then another layer of cake and currant jelly, and heap the remainder of the apple fool over the top. With each helping serve a large spoonful of whipped cream flavored with almond.

Hidden Apples

Butter a deep tin pan, cover the bottom with a layer of pared and quartered apples. In another dish beat an egg well, put in enough sugar to sweeten the apples, add a little water, thicken with powdered bread crumbs, flavor highly with lemon. Pour this mixture over apples and bake until the apples are done, which will take about 20 minutes in a hot oven.

Apple Johnny Cake

Mix two cupfuls of cornmeal, a saltspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of cream of tartar, a scant half-cupful of sugar, half a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little warm water and milk to make a thin batter. Stir in three sour apples that have been peeled and cut into thin slices. Bake in a shallow tin in a moderate oven for 35 minutes.

Apple Kisses

Select six small, smooth apples. Pare, cut in half and remove the core. Mix one-half a cupful of sugar with one-third cupful of butter. Place this mixture between the halves of the apples. Place in a baking dish with a little water and a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Bake till apples are soft. Serve with their own juice for sauce.

Apple Pancakes

Measure two cupfuls of sifted flour; add half a teaspoonful of salt and sift again. Then stir in gradually two cupfuls of cold water and the beaten yolks of three or four eggs, making a perfectly smooth batter. When well mixed, fold in the whites of the eggs beaten to a froth. Place a tablespoonful of fat in an iron frying pan and when hot pour in enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan quarter of an inch thick; have a few nicely-flavored apples, pared, cored and finely minced; sprinkle a layer of the apple over the cake (not too much, or the pancake is liable to break).

As the cake cooks, slip a flexible knife under it, lifting it so it will not burn, and shake the pan gently to and fro. When the pancake is a light brown on under side, slip it on to a hot plate, put a piece of butter on top of the apples, hold the frying pan over it and deftly turn the cake back into the pan and cover and cook until the apples are soft. Then slip it out of pan on to a hot plate; set the plate over hot water to keep the cake warm and continue frying up remainder of the batter in same manner. Serve them separately or piled, one upon the other. Serve with sugar sprinkled over them and oranges or lemons cut in halves for squeezing over them. This quantity of batter should make four cakes. Do not have your pan too large.

Apple Custard Pancakes

Beat four eggs light, adding to them a half pint of cream and a little ground cinnamon. Peel and core the apples, cut them in thin slices and fry them tender in a little butter. When browned slightly, turn them over, pour in the custard and fry to a light brown. Turn out on a hot flat dish and sprinkle powdered sugar over the pancake.

Apple Pie

As a variation from the ordinary pie with two crusts, slice apples into a deep earthen pie dish, sweeten and flavor to taste, and cover with a top crust only. The absence of a soggy bottom crust is usually viewed as an advantage.

Apple Custard Pie

Peel and cut apples very fine. Line a deep pan with crust, put in the apples; scatter over them small pieces of butter and a covering of granulated sugar. Then pour over all a cupful of sweet cream and bake until the apples are cooked. Serve just before it is quite cold.

Dutch Apple Pie

Make a rich puff paste and line deep pie plate. Core and cut into eighths as many rich tart apples as will fill the pie plate by laying each piece of apple with the curved side up, just as close together as can be placed; over the top sprinkle half cup light brown sugar, half teaspoonful cinnamon and tablespoonful flour. Dot bits of butter over the top and add half cup water; bake slowly and carefully until apples are tender and water absorbed. Serve warm with cheese.

Dried Apple Pie

Cook a large handful of dried apples quickly in a tightly-covered granite basin in a little less than a quart of water. Six halves of dried apricots are cut fine and cooked in very little water. Fill in the apple, then the apricot, together with water they were cooked in; add a small cupful of sugar, and nutmeg, making the pie with two crusts, and bake quickly.

Apple Pot-pie

Serve this with maple-sugar sauce. Half fill a deep dish with sour apples which have been quartered, pared and cored. Pour over them a little boiling water and place in a hot oven until tender. Make a crust as for baking powder biscuit, roll out an inch thick; lay it over the apples and return to the oven for about 40 minutes or until the crust is done. For the sauce cook together two tablespoonfuls of butter and one teaspoonful of flour, add half a cupful of maple syrup and a tiny pinch of mace, and cook until clear and smooth.

Apple Pudding

Make a dough as for baking powder biscuit; roll out one-quarter inch thick. Peel and slice good tart apples rather thin; put them in the middle of the dough, put on them half a cupful of sugar, tablespoonful of butter, and nutmeg. Wet the edges, lap over the apples well to keep the juice in, put over the apples a little water, put pudding in a cheesecloth bag, and boil two hours steady. Eat with good cream.

Baked Apple Pudding

Butter a granite or enameled pie tin and fill it with pared and quartered Duchess apples, cut in rather thick slices. Cover with a thick batter made from a cup of flour, in which a teaspoon- ful of baking powder, a saltspoon of salt and a tablespoon of butter have been well mixed. Add two-thirds of a cup of sweet milk, or sour milk in which a quarter of a teaspoon of soda has been dissolved; we prefer the sour milk. Only about half as much baking powder is required with the sour milk as when sweet milk is used, but we always use some and find that it makes the food lighter and better than where soda alone is used. When the pudding is done reverse it on a plate, spread with butter and sprinkle over it a half cup of sugar, add a few gratings of nutmeg. Eat with cream.

The Rural Cook Book. The Rural New Yorker Co., 1907.

The Rural New-Yorker

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