How to cut...Apples

I'm fairly certain that everyone is familiar with Apples, and they're a huge part of the menu at ChildRoots. Thanks to Christina's friends at Kiyokawa Family Orchard we have had a wide variety. These are the Granny Smiths and I'll be using them to demonstrate the cuts at CR. During this discovered that my camera does not like taking pictures of peeled Apples. 

Start by rinsing and drying. 

 

Lets start with the cuts for the real little friends. For them the apple and peeled and stood stem side down. (sorry blurry)

 

Using a sharp knife cut around the core. More about core and peels at the end of the post.

  

Stand a piece on a side and slice it thin. (sorry blurry)

  

Roll the piece to another side and slice into long sticks.

  

Pinch the sticks together and chop into a tiny dice.

  

The next step is small batons the friends can pick up and bite. Start by slicing a piece of the apple.

  

Turn the apple and slice down into the small batons.

  

Once the friends get the hang of biting they move onto peeled and extremely thin.

  

Now once the peel gets introduced, again stand the apple stem end down.

  

Cut around the core.

  

Depending on the age of the kids in the room the thickness of the slices varies.

  

Upstairs in the Pre-School they're ready for hand held. Yet again, stand the apple stem down.

  

Cut apple in half, rotate and cut again. How many cuts you can do depends on the size of the fruit.

  

 As for the cores and peels, they can be saved in a bag in a freezer. I've put apple cores into stocks, they add sweetness and a floral accent.  They can be stuffed into chicken or turkey with herbs, garlic and onions.Or they can simply be composted.