Freezing Apples

Posted by on Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Apple-Peeling

We’ve made apple chips and apple pie and enjoyed the taste and aroma of all things apples. We’ve had fried apples and we’ve frozen several bags of apples to use through the long cold winter. There really isn’t anything complicated about peeling, slicing and freezing apples. Here’s how I prepared our winter stash from those Wine saps we got at the orchard.

First I washed the apples well. If the apples are organic, a good rinsing will suffice – otherwise you can add a cup of vinegar to a sink of water to help remove some of the pesticides and wax. If you prefer to peel the apples, as we do, just quickly rinse the apples before peeling.

I gave my peeling knife a good sharpening first. It is fun to get the older kids or the whole family involved in the peeling party. The kids like to see if they can peel the whole apple without breaking the peeling.

Use an apple corer/slicer to core and slice in one step.

Apple-Coring

I sliced each slice again.

Toss sliced apples into a bowl of water with the juice of one lemon added. This slows down the oxidation of the apple juices – keeping the apples from turning so brown.

After slicing about 4 apples, I had enough apples prepared to place in a Zip-Lock quart freezer bag.

You can purchase one of those gadgets to remove the air from the freezer bags. Or you can go about this the frugal, red-neck way. I zipped the bag almost all the way to the corner, inserted a straw, and sucked all the remaining air out. Then I quickly removed the straw and finished sealing the bag.

Apples-in-bag

Then the apples went straight to the freezer until someone gets a hankerin’ for some fried apples or apple pie.

Apples-in-bag-2

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Freezing Apples

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Filed in Canning,Healthy Cooking | 5 responses so far

5 Responses to “Freezing Apples”

  1. Tiffon 30 Oct 2010 at 3:47 pm 1

    Thanks so much for this information. I was getting really sick of canning apples after two bushels. It is hard to do when you work full time. So I took a half a bushel of apples today and prepared them just the way you said. Only a a few hours worth of work and they are done! And I can do whatever I want with them later.

  2. Taraon 02 Nov 2010 at 5:13 am 2

    Good luck with the apples Tiff. I need to make some more apple chips already.

  3. Michelleon 27 Jul 2012 at 12:36 am 3

    Thanks so much for sharing this idea. I am going to try this in small snack size bags so my girls can take for school lunches. Can other fruits be frozen in the same manner?

    Thanks again.

  4. Taraon 30 Jul 2012 at 11:06 am 4

    Hi Michelle,

    I freeze apples, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and grapes this way. Then we just pull the bags out and put frozen fruit pieces in our breakfast shakes.

  5. Karenon 20 Oct 2013 at 4:51 pm 5

    I have one of those great peelers that also slice the apples at the same time. They work great and make quick work this job. I also put the amount of apples needed for one pie, add the sugar, spices and butter, and enclose in a zip lock bag and freeze. When you want an apple pie, dump the frozen apples into a prepared pie crust and bake. Works like a charm.