Apples in the kitchen: which variety for what, baked apples and a charlotte with no soggy middle

Variety names differ from country to country, so it's more useful to look past the label at two things: acidity and flesh density.

Firm apples hold their shape when heated — use them in pies and tarts and for baking whole. Soft, mealy apples collapse quickly and make a silky purée or apple butter. Acidity gives a bright flavour and stops bakes being cloying.

Apples brown because an enzyme oxidises compounds in the flesh when it meets air. You can stop the reaction with acid, cold, or water that keeps the air out.

A classic Russian charlotte is a butterless sponge batter: 4 eggs, 200 g sugar, 160 g flour and about 1 kg apples for a 22–24 cm tin. It all rests on the air in the whipped eggs, so the main mistakes are under-whipped eggs and too much apple juice.

Whip the eggs and sugar for 7–10 minutes until pale and thick enough to hold a trail. Fold in the flour by hand with a spatula in two or three additions, no mixer. Cut the apples into 1.5–2 cm cubes, and toss juicy ones with a spoon of flour or starch — the juice goes into that, not the batter.

Bake at 175–180 °C for 40–50 minutes and don't open the oven for the first 30. It's done when a skewer comes out dry and the crust springs back.

For baking you want firm, sweet-tart, medium-sized apples. Core them without cutting through the bottom so you get a "cup" for the filling. Score the skin around the middle so the apple doesn't burst.

Bake at 180 °C for 20–35 minutes depending on the variety and size. Add a little water to the dish so the juices don't burn. A finished apple is soft but still holds its shape.

For purée, peel and chop soft apples, add 50–100 ml water per kilo and simmer covered for 15–20 minutes until tender, then blend. Sugar is optional — it often isn't needed.

Apple butter is the same purée cooked down slowly until a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a clear track. That takes 1–2 hours, with more frequent stirring towards the end.

Unsweetened purée with a pinch of salt, mustard and thyme makes an excellent sauce for pork, duck and sausages.

A tart apple freshens anything rich or sweet. In a salad it stands in for lemon, in braised cabbage it adds gentle acidity, and in a stuffing for duck or goose it soaks up the fat.

For crisps, slice apples as thinly as you can — 1–2 mm, ideally on a mandoline — and dry them on baking paper at 90–100 °C for 1½–2 hours, turning once. They crisp up as they cool.

For fruit leather, cook apple purée down until thick, spread it 3–5 mm thick on baking paper and dry at 60–70 °C with the door ajar for 5–7 hours, until the sheet is no longer sticky.

Apples give off ethylene, a gas that speeds up ripening in everything around them. Keep them away from other fruit and vegetables, especially potatoes and leafy greens.

At home, the bottom drawer of the fridge is best: at 1–4 °C firm late varieties keep for 1–3 months. In a cellar, in crates with paper between layers, winter varieties keep until spring. Summer varieties don't keep long — use them straight away.