Apple Slices Recipe {Chicago Bakery Style Apple Squares} (2024)

FAQs

What are the best apples for baking apple squares? ›

Best Apples for Apple Pie Bars

Here are some I suggest: Sweet apples I love: Jazz, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Gala, Fuji, and Cortland. Tart apples I love: Granny Smith, Braeburn, Jonathan, and Pacific Rose.

Fuji has a sweet flavor and incredibly crisp texture that makes it perfect for slicing. It adds a great crunch to salads and sides. Gala has thin skin and tender flesh that allows it to add a tang to salads without leaving stringy skin behind. Honeycrisp is an all-star apple.

Classic apple pie is made with sliced above, as shown above. However, if you prefer to dice them into cubes, feel free! If you do so, I recommend cutting them into½in thick cubes.

For the best pies, crisps, and other baked treats, apples need to be firm enough to hold their own during the cooking process. We call these apples “baking apples” and to namedrop, they include Braeburn, Cortland, Honey Gold, Jonathan, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Haralson, and Newtown Pippin.

There are a few apples that don't make the cut. While great for snacking, Gala, Fuji and Red Delicious are the most common apples that won't hold up in the oven and will give you a watery-mushy pie, tart or cake.

A Salt Water Brine Keeps Apples Unbrowned for Days

Then simply soak apple slices in the brine for 10 minutes, shake them dry, and put them in airtight containers in the fridge. The apples will look like the moment they were cut, even four or five days later.

Opal apples aren't the only ones resistant to browning. There also is the Arctic apple produced by the Canadian company Specialty Fruits, Inc. — but they're genetically modified. Specialty Fruits uses gene silencing to produce an apple resistant to browning.

The longer the enzyme is exposed, the browner each slice will become. Lemon juice contains citric acid, which is a natural anti-oxidant. Therefore, when you apply lemon juice to apple slices, it helps to prevent the oxidation process.

Why are McDonald's apple slices so good? ›

McDonald's Apple Slices are a wholesome, tasty side made from real apples. Specially selected varieties mean our apple slices are always crisp and juicy, making for a tasty snack with 15 calories per labelled serving.

It's best if you slice apples about 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick. Any thicker, and they won't cook through by the time your crust does. Any thinner, and they'll dissolve and leave you with a soggy bottom crust.

The one trick with this apple pie recipe that makes all the difference? Baking the apple slices first. It's the magic key to a crispy base, superior flavour and perfectly-cooked-and-never-mushy filling. It's also how you get a generous amount of pie filling without the dreaded giant empty cavity under the lid.

Add 1 teaspoon of salt for every 1 cup of water, stirring to dissolve the salt. Make just enough of the salt water solution so you can fully submerge the apple slices in it. Peel (if desired), core, and cut the apple into slices of your desired thickness. Remember, the thicker the slice, the less the apple will brown.

Granny Smith.

Firm and very tart, this variety is the go-to for many when it comes to pie because it keeps its shape extremely well. But it isn't exactly known for its flavor, so Granny Smiths are best used in conjunction with sweeter and/or more flavorful apples.