Help with Apples in Taiwan, cooking/baking?

Cuisine Food & Drink
#1

Hi, I have a lot of monster sized Taiwan Apples. They are the ones that come in gift boxes. Just what kind of apples are they anyway?

I’m not an expert cook but I’d like to do some baking. What is the difference between apples for eating and apples for baking. Can I use my giant apples in the recipies?

I don’t see much choice when it comes to apples where I live in Taiwan. If I want to use the eating apples for baking, how should I adjust the recipe?

Or am I heading for disaster?
Things I’d like to try to make would be one or two of the following: apple bread, unsweetend apple sauce, baked apples.

#2

Are they apples? aren’t they yellowish and taste like pears … if so they are not apples but nashis … nashi pears to be precise … and when they are apples they are not good, make apple sauce of them …

#3

[quote=“Taiwan_Student”]Hi, I have a lot of monster sized Taiwan Apples. They are the ones that come in gift boxes. Just what kind of apples are they anyway?

I’m not an expert cook but I’d like to do some baking. What is the difference between apples for eating and apples for baking. Can I use my giant apples in the recipies?

I don’t see much choice when it comes to apples where I live in Taiwan. If I want to use the eating apples for baking, how should I adjust the recipe?

Or am I heading for disaster?
Things I’d like to try to make would be one or two of the following: apple bread, unsweetend apple sauce, baked apples.[/quote]I think BP’s right. The ones you’re looking at are probably a kind of pear.

As for using apples in cooking, I’d say regular eating apples are fine for apple bread and apple sauce, but for baked apples I think cooking apples are better. They’re fairly sour, a bit bigger than most eating apples, and I think the structure holds up better in the prolonged heat. I’ve never seen them sold here, though, so you might have to try your luck with eating apples. You’re going to core them and stuff them with brown sugar and raisins, am I right? I love baked apples but haven’t had them for ages.

#4

You can use ‘local’ apples or imported ones but keep it small for cooking or baking … huge apples are … well not good for cooking or baking, not enough ‘structure’

#5

[quote=“belgian pie”]You can use ‘local’ apples or imported ones but keep it small for cooking or baking … huge apples are … well not good for cooking or baking, not enough ‘structure’[/quote]Obviously you’ve never tried baked cooking apples. Don’t they have them in Belgium?

#6

More than you can think of … we have more and older varieties than in Taiwan …
… but here I add some lime or lemon juice and a little calvados or other liquor, like Grand Marnier, caramelize with some sugar and cinnamon and dress my pancakes with it …

#7

[quote=“belgian pie”]More than you can think of … we have more and older varieties than in Taiwan …
… but here I add some lime or lemon juice and a little calvados or other liquor, like Grand Marnier, caramelize with some sugar and cinnamon and dress my pancakes with it …[/quote]Sounds lovely. But I’m not sure if you know the dish I was referring to.

In the UK you can get big, sour, firm-fleshed apples that are suitable for cooking only. You core them, stuff them with brown sugar and raisins (maybe pre-soaking the raisins with calvados would be a good idea!), and bake them for quite a while – around an hour I guess, though to be sure about that I’d have to ask my mum.

#8

As far as I can remember my grandmother and my mother -even I did- used the Cox variety, a smaller rough skinned cooking apple … but hey ther are so many varieties out there … anyways we make appleballs (apple filled pastry) with them … take a whole apple, core, sprinkle with brown sugar, add butter and cinnamon, optional some liquor and wrap in puff-pastry … bake in oven … delicious

#9

The best variety you can buy in Taiwan (sometimes) is the golden delicious … good for eating and cooking, baking but bloody expensive … up to 40-50 NT$ for one apple at Wellcome …

#10

joesax, I think you mean ‘Bramley’ apples. I think they are a British variety. Never seen them in Asia.

#11

[quote=“Buttercup”]joesax, I think you mean ‘Bramley’ apples. I think they are a British variety. Never seen them in Asia.[/quote]Right. Those are the ones. I haven’t seen them here either.

I know some people use Bramleys for apple pies too but I find them just a bit too sour. I prefer to use regular eating apples, and that way I don’t have to use so much sugar, and don’t have to precook them either. (Well, I mean “didn’t have to” – back in the days when I had a decent oven).

#12

Most of the eating apples go soggy and are much too sweet for baking. Golden delicious are vile – watery, soft and tasteless just like at home.
I cook apples fairly often and by FAR the best I’ve found are the bright green Granny Smiths. Still not even close to a nice Bramley, but much much better than any other variety you’re likely to get here.

Those huge gift box ones I wouldn’t cook – what a waste, at least if they’re those large Fuji ones. They’re delicious raw and will render down into an over-sweet sauce if you cook them.

#13

Granny Smith in Taiwan are worse than golden delicious, they are too sour and often been on the shelf too long … tasteless, hard … take a small everyday apple in Taiwan and add lemon or lime when cooking …

#14

Nonsense, IMO. Apples for cooking need to be sour. The Bramley’s used in the UK are so sour, for example, that they’re actually inedible when raw. Granny Smiths tasteless compared to Golden Delicious? Are we even talking about the same varieties here? Hard? Of course they’re hard – that’s why I choose them. I like some texture in my cooked apples, not a syrupy slimy gloop. You’re the very very first person I’ve ever met who has rated Golden Delicious as anything other than “totally crap, but at least they’re cheap.” I know you’re a pro and I’m not trying to start a fight. I’m just really, really surprised.

#15

Cheap? 40-50 NT$ for an apple is cheap?

#16

Dunno what they cost here, but in Wellcome they’re pretty much the same as any other apple – the granny smiths, golden delicious or those dark red ones that look so good but half the time are cotton wool inside.
I was meaning “home” as in the UK, where golden delicious are like the “big mac of the apple word” and people who like apples would tend to avoid them like the plague.

Nope. Granny Smith for cooking and for eating, wait till autumn and eat those little local “honey apples” from the mountains. They’re REALLY good apples.