I’m having my annual cider-pressing party in a few weeks. I’d like to have some kind of snack or dessert with apples, but it should be easy to make in bulk and easy to serve on a napkin and eat without utensils. So things like apple pie or apple crumble don’t work well.
Anyone have a favorite recipe you’d recommend?
I love apple slices with honey for dipping. It might be a Jewish thing (my mom was Jewish and I learned it from her).
Caramel for me. You can also buy the caramel dip in little pods good for about one apple at most grocery stores.
Like this (just one I found on a Google search…never had this brand myself):
See, I think caramel is cloying or something, while honey is not. (maybe I’m nuts)
To each their own. I think honey sounds great too!
Use a Granny Smith apple which is very tart and combine it with something sweet (honey or caramel or chocolate) and it is yummy.
That may be a fun way to present it. Apple bits with various dipping sauces (not limited to the ones above…like maple might be good). If you are adventurous maybe some spicy powders to dip in (never tried it but I can see it working…maybe…experiment to find good ones beforehand).
Also, could put out different chocolates for people to dip in (melted of course). Loads of different chocolates out there to try that taste very different.
Smily shaped slices of apple on a tooth pick with a cube of cheddar cheese
I’ve been digging apple slices with barbecue rub sprinkled on. Ok, applied liberally. Layered on. Caked.
The salt and flavors of cumin, chile, garlic, black pepper really compliment the sweet & tangy juiciness of the apple.
The apple cubes or slices on a toothpick sound like a good idea! If you go the raw apple route, you’ll need to spray or dip them in something to keep them from browning - I like lemon juice for it, but it would have to for the flavor profile of your dip.
If you’d like to do apple pie but for the mess, you could make bite-size apple empanadas or a galette with a thin enough layer of apples that slices would be firm enough to pick up.
ETA: Oh, hey, “easy to make in bulk.” Apple cake or bread might work better. Can you tell I just really like apple pie?
Make apple bread - just like zucchini or banana bread, but using apples. Slices of those are easy to eat with little fuss or mess.
Apple fritters - apple rings dipped in a batter and fried (cider batter is good it’s like a beer batter but made with sparkling hard cider) - it’s a medieval recipe.
For visual effect, keep all of an apple’s slices together and restack after frying.
Here’s one version I’ve more-or-less followed in the past, but I fry in neutral oil like sunflower or canola, not lard.
Great suggestions, thanks all. I’ll definitely have some slices around, so thanks for the ideas of how to spice (or sweeten) them up.
I have a recipe for apple coffee cake, but it can be a little loose and I’m not sure it would hold up to narrow slices. I’ll look for a recipe for a denser cake.
The fritters idea is awesome. I have a plug-in deep fryer that doesn’t get much use, and this is a good excuse to rectify that.
Apple and cheddar was going to be my suggestion too. There’s something magical when you put them together. It’s very easy to prepare (you’re just slicing and assembling) and yet feels kind of sophisticated (since it’s not something people do all the time).
Yeah, a quick bread will be denser and less crumbly than a coffee cake, so less messy as a finger food. Here’s a recipe I just found on line that looks a lot like one I used to make all the time.
I’ll third sliced apples. I will also be serving them with honey this evening (erev Rosh Hashanah), but usually i prefer them just plain.
For easy, go with an apple bread.
(Fritters sound delicious, but will be more work.)
I seem to remember something about bacon slices wrapped around an apple slice (maybe with cheese?) on toothpicks, but I don’t know how to prepare those. Hey, I’m a fudge man!
So what you do is slice an apple, then take a cooked rasher of bacon (one that’s fully cooked but still floppy), and wrap it around the slice of apple. You can hold it in place with a toothpick. If you really want to be fancy, put a thin slice of cheese on the apple slice before wrapping it.
There you go!
(And yes, I basically described how to prepare it by repeating what you wrote. 
)
I bet it would be even better if you used prosciutto.
Wasn’t sure about the bacon, cooking the apple seemed contraindicated, but leaving the bacon raw seems to invite trichinosis – thank you for saving the day! Now, WHERE’S MY FUDGE? 
[John Cleese voice] Oh, bacon isn’t good enough, eh? Her majesty, Ms legal needs the Italian meats for her delicate palette, say what? [JCv]
No, it does sound like a very good idea.
You could put tablespoon size dollops in a small, disposable plastic cup (like condiments in restaurants) and people could “shot glass” them.
I live in Portland. I can’t imagine what would happen to me if I served something in disposable plastic. 
Maayyybe I could get away with little paper sample cups. But I don’t think a sticky crumble would work well as a shooter, compared to something like jello.