The apple does everything. We eat it raw, bake it into pies, and rarely think much further. But spend enough time cooking with apples and you start to see how far this one fruit can stretch. Sweet, savoury, spiced, fermented, or put into a bag and gifted straight from the tree.
Over the years on this blog, the apple has quietly appeared in more recipes than I realised. Sometimes they are sharing the spotlight, but they’re always there front and center; a crumble made from freshly picked mountain apples, a birthday cake born out of lockdown, a syrup made so we wouldn’t throw away the peels. Looking back, the apple has been here all along.
Here are 7+ recipes from the archives that prove one fruit really can do everything.
1. The Zero-Waste One: Apple Peel & Core Syrup
Before you throw those peels and cores away — don’t. Simmered with sugar, cinnamon, and cloves, they turn into a gorgeous golden spiced syrup that tastes like autumn in a bottle. It’s the recipe that started this whole apple obsession, and it remains one of the most satisfying things to make from what most people bin without a second thought. This recipe is still one of the most viewed recipe on this blog from September to December, apple season, and for a good reason.
2. The Crowd Pleaser: Autumn Apple Crumble
Made from Lebanese mountain Granny Smith apples picked fresh during camping trips in the hills, this crumble was brought to a friends’ gathering one autumn night — and it was gone before the pie even got a look in. Spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, topped with an oat crumble, and served warm with vanilla ice cream and caramel. Simple, generous, unforgettable.
3. The Festive One: Plum & Apple Salted Caramel Pie
Blood-red plums, a lone Granny Smith apple (my sister took the rest), and salted caramel doing all the sweetness work — no extra sugar needed. Decorated with pastry stars and baked at Christmas season, this pie is the kind of thing that makes people go quiet when they eat it, only to interrupt the silence with mmm’s and grunts for how good it is.
4. The Gift: Sugar-free Roasted Apple Butter
Ten large red apples, roasted until completely falling apart, then blended with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves into a silky, vegan, completely sugar-free spread. Made as part of an initiative to use and celebrate Lebanese apples at a time when farmers were struggling to sell their harvest. Spread it on toast, stir it into pancakes, or jar it up as a Christmas gift.
5. The Unexpected One: Apple, Ginger & Chicory Salad
Nobody expects a salad on an apple recipe list. But this one earns its place. Bitter chicory, crisp sour Granny Smith (I always use local Granny Smith, or the fat donut-shaped green apples with the red smudges we call Mwashah), and a punchy ginger-garlic-lemon dressing pounded together in a mortar until smooth. It’s fresh, bold, a little feisty — and it pairs beautifully alongside roast chicken.
6. The Balcony Garden One: Rose Geranium & Apple Syrup
Saved apple cores from the butter recipe, a big bunch of rose geranium leaves grown on the front porch, two cinnamon sticks — into the pot they went. The result is a fragrant, floral syrup that’s as beautiful in a cocktail as it is drizzled over ice cream or gifted in a small bottle. This is what happens when your balcony garden gets out of control in the best way.
7. The Personal One: Apple Molasses Birthday Cake
Sugar-free, vegan, made alone during lockdown in Beirut for my own birthday. The batter is built on molasses, tahini, cinnamon, and grated apple — earthy, warm, and deeply satisfying. The filling is a molasses-labneh cream that somehow makes the whole thing taste both Lebanese and completely its own. Of all the recipes on this blog, this one carries the most weight.
Bonus recipe: Halloween Candy Apple without Corn Syrup
A recipe from the earlt days of the blog, 2014, and it is always a hit. I see it popping up in the search results around October. And here it is again. Hard sweet candy complimenting the tart granny smith apples. For an easier way of eating them cut them into moon, as my grandmother used to call them, or wedges and poke them with the sticks and dip them. They will break your teeth less. Still, make a few whole apples for decoration.
Seven recipes, one fruit, years of cooking. Pick the one that speaks to you — or start at the top and work your way down. And if you make any of them, I’d genuinely love to know. Leave a comment, tag me, or just tell me which one you tried. The apple deserves the recognition.
Whenever we are going camping, it’s always “Hisham, what are you feeding us?”
