A couple of weeks ago I had to take either a salad or dessert to a ladies dinner/program. The dessert I was going to take didn’t work out, so I had to come up with something on the fly. I grabbed some apples out of the fridge and sliced them.
While I love plain sliced apples, I knew they wouldn’t stay nice if I didn’t add something to them. So, I added some cinnamon and sugar. I made sure they were all coated and that was it.
I was hoping that the cinnamon and sugar would act as a preservative and that the apples would stay crispy and not turn brown, and that is exactly what happened.
To make these apples I cored and sliced 6 apples then I placed them in a bowl. I added 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and gave them a good stir. I served the apples and refrigerated the leftovers. If you wanted to just try it with one apple I would suggest using 1-2 teaspoons of sugar and 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.
I didn’t experiment with exactly how long the apples would stay crisp and not turn brown, but 24 hours later the apples were still crispy and hadn’t turned brown. Since Julia likes baked apples better than raw, I put the apples that were left into a pan, added a little water, and baked them like I do when I use my baked apple slices recipe.
Next time I am going to try just using cinnamon like Super Healthy Kids did. Eliminating the sugar would definitely make the apples healthier and the cinnamon apparently is a preservative by itself. I have tried lemon juice and water before but that usually makes the apples too tart. Other methods of preserving apple slices I have read about but haven’t tried are ginger ale, apple juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, and salted water.
Have you ever cut apples hours before serving them? What did you used to preserve them?
