Stewed Apples

This morning I made stewed apples for breakfast. Oooh, oooh, was it yummy. This is a very versatile dish. You can eat it alone, like we did, or do any number of things:

• mix into hot cereal
• serve over ice cream
• spoon into precooked pie or tart crusts
• serve over shortbread, shortcake, or bread pudding
• mix with saurkraut and cook a pork roast in it (which is super good, tangy, tart, and sweet)
• serve with cream or whipped cream (hot or cold)
• you could probably also mix it into bread for stuffing or dressing, but I've not tried it yet.

Here is the recipe:

8-12 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup water
1/2-1 cup brown sugar, sucanat, turbinado, etc. (honey may be used, but gives a different taste use no more than 1/2 cup, unless you like it really sweet)
1/2-1 cup raisins
1/2-1 cup walnuts
1 TBSP Cinnamon

You simply chuck it all together into a pot and cook it until the apples are slightly mushy and the liquid is thickened. If necessary you can add a pinch of cornstarch, arrowroot powder, etc to thicken, but don't use much. You could also put it into a crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or overnight.

I used Jonathans in mine; they are especially tart, so if you use a sweeter apple you may find you can use less sugar (or none at all). If you like it a little tart, but don't have any tart apples on hand, you can add 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar. Also, if you use sucanat you may find you have to add more water, as it is dryer than other sugars.

This will make 1-2 quarts of stewed apples, so you can freeze it to use later.

A tip for keeping the apples from browning-submerge them in a bowl of cold water. They will float to the top, but if you give them a dunking every time you add apples, they will stay fresh.