What are?
Cooked apples are a food of basically vegetable origin, with moderate energy intake, sweet taste and beneficial / therapeutic impact, especially towards the "lazy" intestine.
We anticipated that the recipe for cooked apples tends to be vegetable. This adjective indicates that, in most of the formulas, no foods of animal origin are used; on the other hand, for some, honey can replace sugar and, at the end of cooking, a knob of butter improves the fragrance of the aroma.
Someone likes to combine distilled spirits with the recipe for cooked apples; among these, especially brandy, cognac and whiskey.
Cooked apples
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Ingrediants
The ingredients of cooked apples are few and easy to find:
- apples,
- sucrose,
- lemon zest and juice,
- water,
- ginger,
- cinnamon
- cloves.
For more information on the cooked apple process, I suggest you consult the video recipe of Alice, our personal cooker, which you can find by clicking on the following link: Cooked Apples.
Let's analyze them one at a time.
Apples
Apples are the edible fruit of the plant Malus domestica. These fruits ripen in the autumn summer months, depending on the variety.
The most suitable apples for the preparation of cooked apples are medium-grained, very sweet, between 120 and 180g in size, ripe but not "wrinkled" (unless you want to recycle those from home) and with or without peel in according to personal tastes (if with peel, better to buy them on safe supply lines).
Probably the most suitable apples to be cooked could be the golden of medium maturation. Alternatively, the renette, of variable maturation according to personal tastes.
Sucrose
It is the chemical name of table sugar (disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose). It is a sweetener that provides about 390kcal / 100g.
This product of beet or sugar cane processing is available in the form of white or brown crystals, depending on the original ingredient; the best is undoubtedly brown sugar.
In cooked apples, sucrose can be easily replaced by other calorie sweeteners, such as crystallized fructose or honey (non-calorie sweeteners, with a few exceptions, are generally avoided).
Lemon juice and zest
Lemon is the edible fruit of the plant Citrus x limon. It is a product that ripens in the spring-summer period, depending on the variety. The most important requirement, which it is always good to take into account using lemon zest (of which the flavedo, i.e. the colored surface portion), is that the fruit must never be treated with fungicides, pesticides and preservatives.
Ginger
It is the edible rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale. This food, considered a spice, if used fresh should be peeled and dosed accurately according to personal tastes; in fact, it can be combined with apples cooked in slices, pieces, grated or whole. The powder is certainly less intense and depleted of many nutrients and phytotherapeutic components.
CINNAMON
It is also a spice, it is the dehydrated wood of the plant Cinnamomum verum. It is a tropical product and can be found on the market packaged and already dehydrated, whole or in powder form. Cinnamon must also be used with care, as it has an extremely strong aromatic capacity. The powder is less intense and depleted of many nutrients and phytotherapeutic components.
Cloves
They are flower buds of the plant Syzygium aromaticum. Like the last two ingredients mentioned, cloves must be dosed accurately as they have a very high aromatic power.
Nutritional Characteristics
Baked apples are a food that can be framed among desserts. It is a product with a low energy intake, essentially supplied by simple carbohydrates; on the contrary, proteins and lipids constitute a marginal fraction.
Cholesterol is absent, while dietary fibers (consisting mainly of pectin) are abundant.
From a saline point of view, cooked apples provide an "excellent amount of potassium; as far as vitamins are concerned, although the initial content of ascorbic acid (vit C) is more than satisfactory, after cooking it is significantly reduced. Fair content of carotenoids (provitamin A).
Cooked apples are suitable for most diets, provided that the quantities for type 2 diabetics and obese are contained. They do not contain gluten and lactose, and are perfectly part of the vegan diet. The average portion of cooked apples is about 200g (around 115kcal).
Baked apples are also rich in chemical elements other than the classic nutrients; some of these, such as i polyphenols, have a rather significant phytotherapeutic power.
Beneficial Properties
Baked apples are excellent food for the nutrition of those suffering from impaired digestive systems, provided that they are not suffering from severe diarrhea.
In moderate portions, they can replace the sweet in the diet of the diabetic and obese.
Thanks to the richness in pectin (soluble dietary fiber), apples are suitable for regulating intestinal motility, in irritable bowel syndrome and, in general, in constipation. Among other things, they excellently play the role of prebiotic food, thanks to the affinity of the intestinal bacterial flora for the fibers contained in them.
Again thanks to the fiber content, cooked apples favor the modulation of digestion and intestinal absorption; if without added sugar, they lower the insulin index of the meal. Last but not least, they reduce the absorption of cholesterol thanks to the tendency to bind with fats, moderating their absorption.
Baked apples, thanks to the presence of ginger, can also promote digestion (stomachic effect, thanks to the stimulation of the gallbladder), peripheral circulation, the remission of the sense of nausea, vomiting and fever.
Baked apples also have other important metabolic functions; this occurs with regard to the presence of phytotherapeutic molecules contained in the apples themselves and in the other ingredients.
- Polyphenols of apples, ginger, lemon, cloves and cinnamon: they have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, preventive capacity against hypercholesterolemia and against hyperglycemia. They help prevent the onset of diseases and metabolic complications.
- Antibacterial and Vermifuge Molecules of ginger, cinnamon and cloves: these three ingredients have the ability to hinder the bacterial growth of some pathogenic microorganisms and the proliferation of intestinal parasites. Cinnamon, in particular, may also have a stimulating effect on some components of the immune system.
