Desserts

Dessert apples were eaten fresh all during apple-harvesting season.  Several bushels of the smaller, sweeter, late-ripening varieties would be stored in bins to be

eaten through the winter and into the spring.  Good winter keepers included Hall, Yates, Shockley, Arkansas Black, and Winesap.

Apples with a firm texture and a tart flavor were made into a variety of cooked desserts.  In addition to traditional pies, cakes, cobblers, pancakes, and fritters were commonly made of fresh apples.  A cobbler is made in a baking dish with raw fruit on the bottom and a soft dough poured on top, then baked in the oven.    Fritters were made of batter mixed with chopped apples and fried in lard.  Bessie M. Kerr of Yadkin County, a nineteenth century farm wife, recorded her fritter recipe in a scrapbook: “Make a batter, not very stiff with 1 qt. milk, 3 eggs and flour to bring it to a right consistency.  Pare and core dozen large apples, and chop them to size of peas.  Mix well with batter.  Fry in lard.  Trim with powdered white sugar.”  Fried pies, small pastries cooked in a pan of hot lard on top of the stove, were made with dried apples as the filling. 

Dessert Varieties: Virginia Beauty, Sugar Apple, Chimney App