More Power!

Yesterday I got loads of apples from next door's apple tree. Today I wanted to make apple sauce with them.  Obviously the first job is to peel the apples.

This can be a pretty straightforward and quick job. Grab an apple in one hand, the peeler in the other and get to it. But why do it sensibly if you can mess about and make a colossal mess?

I saw someone use an electric drill to peel an apple on YouTube once. Despite my power tool aversion, it just looked too fun not to try. So here I am, fearlessly attempting it:

My daft and apple-strewn experience suggests a steady rate of rotation, an apple of a nice even shape (rather than a lumpy windfall one) and a good sharp peeler would make a huge amount of difference to the outcome. I had none of these. My first attempts resulted in apple juice and chunks of peel shooting pretty much everywhere, but it settled down after a couple of goes.

I wouldn't recommend it as a smart and efficient way to peel apples, but I STRONGLY recommend it was an entertaining way to try.

Once the apples were peeled, cored and chopped I cooked them down to a puree to which I added sugar and a small dash of cinnamon. That apple sauce went inside triangles of puff pastry painted with egg wash and granulated sugar to make apple turnovers.  Then I used a further 2 cups of it to make some lovely apple sauce muffins. The recipe is here, although I swapped walnuts for pecans because I much prefer pecans.  The recipe filled 27 large muffin cases. I'll pop most of them in the freezer to grab as lunch box treats for the kids, but a good few didn't make it off the cooling rack. They were so good I couldn't resist...