ThisNext Blog

There’s something about the turn of the season, when summer wanes and fall begins to unveil its multicolor coat, when there’s a new crispness in the air and the scent of spice rides on the breeze. It’s this time of year that I truly crave apples. (And I don’t mean the computers or the iPods – I crave those all year long.) Evidently, I’m not alone. Perhaps it’s apt the apple is the symbol of original sin, for apples clearly inspire passion and lust among their devotees.

If it’s apple season then it must be apple pie season, but not just any apple will do. Janinemaclachlan narrows her focus even to one grower, Seedling Fruit Farms. “His staff coined the term ‘holy trinity of pie apples’ and now my crisps feature Golden Grimes, Ida Red and Northern Spy as long as the season holds.” Expat Brit überfoodie Sam of Becks & Posh got her knickers in a twist when she found Bramley cooking apples at her local farmer’s market. Known all too well to English cooks, Bramleys retain their robust flavor and firm texture when cooked, making for “the best apple pie you’ve never yet had.”

Baking is an apple’s best friend, and pie is just the tip of the iceberg. The inimitable Chockylit at Cupcake Bakeshop concocted some crafty caramel apple cupcakes, filled with cream cheese frosting and glazed with caramel icing. I’ll take that over a real caramel apple any day. Contrasting with Chockylit’s diminutive delicacies, Hungry Magazine hunkers down on a hand-sized apple fritter from Chicago’s Old Fashioned Donuts, “dotted with toothsome hunks and an orchard’s worth of apple perfume.” 

I’m sweet on apples, and apple sweets definitely catch my eye. Our favorite Japanese snack food maven maki chomps on the various flavors (apple included) of Hi-chew taffy. The yogurt base makes it “not as sweet as American chewy candies.” Pauladelacruz also picks a Japanese treat, the Kasugai Gummy Apple, at least in part for the Engrish on the label: “Every drop of fresh apple juice, carefully pressed from the reddest apples, shinning in colors of the cheeks of a snow-country child, is yours to enjoy in each soft and juicy Kasugai Apple Gummy.” Candy connoisseur Faith Kramer at Sugar Savvy weighs in on See’s Candies Red, White and Apple Pie Truffle. While perhaps a tad on the sweet side, she found “the apple pie buttercream filling was one of the most exciting” that she’d had. And cupcake interlopers aside, there’s still no replacement for a genuine caramel apple. Dioverton settles for nothing less than the best, setting her sights on the Dean & Deluca caramel apples. Sweet!

But what to wash all this down with? Jack and Joanne of Fork & Bottle hoist a glass of their favorite local (to Sonoma county) organic apple juices, Nana Mae’s 100% Gravenstein and Solana’s Gold Autumn Harvest, whereas vangie opts for a lovely cup of Fauchon apple tea, soothing on a chilly autumn eve.

Personally, I prefer something a little stronger to swig with my sweet stuff, and as apple aperitifs go, the Canadians do it best. My favorite, Quebec’s ice cider is made much like ice wine — the apples are left on the tree through the first frost, intensifying the flavor but resulting in a lower yield. Of the ones I’ve had Domaine Pinnacle pleased me the most. Beyond the expected sweet-tart flavors, it has a complex earthy funkiness. Pairs excellently with a cheese platter at dessert. From the opposite coast, Elephant Island is an all-fruit winery in the up-and-coming Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Their Crab Apple Wine is wonderfully sweet-tart yet complex. It’s a fabulous dessert wine, not sickly sweet like so many others.