When I make apple crumble (it's a British variation on apple pie I guess), I use a mix of dessert/eating apples (say Pink Lady) and cooking apples (say Bramley). The cooking apples give you the structure, whereas the eating apples give you sweetness. I chop the eating apples up into tiny cubes, so they basically dissolve.
Are Bramleys readily available in the US? - I was surprised not to see them mentioned. (I live in the Uk with a Bramley tree in my garden.) EDIT: Apparently they are Uk only. Wow.
Having moved from Ireland to the US, I usually can't stand the apple desserts people make and eat here. They are all far too sweet and I realised it's because there are no cooking apples available anywhere. Not only do people not use cooking apples when baking, they also dump way too much sugar and often obscene amounts of cinnamon in with their sweet apples.
I got curious, I live in Oregon and could grow them but never seen them but it sounds like some people grow Bramleys. Of course there are about 10 million varieties here and probably some similar thing exists, people get very particular about their varietals.
In the Uk, at least in terms of what’s available in normal shops you have all the varieties of “eating apples”, (which you pick up and bite into in the normal way) and then the “cooking apple” which is roughly twice the size of an eating apple and is too dense and tart to be eaten in the normal way but is used in apple pies with lots of sugar and maintains much of its density through the cooking process. There is only one readily available variety- the Bramley.
As far as I know the UK is the only place that has special varieties of apple for cooking. Cooking apples are usually large, tart and cook to a pulp. There are many varieties but Bramley is by far the most common.
I have a Bramley tree in my orchard here in Massachusetts, so they are available. I have never seen them in a store or otherwise commercially available.
Look at this as an opportunity to grow your own food!
