Today, I got an email from a dear friend who noticed that we had apple slices at our brunch<\/a> this weekend and she asked for tips on how to keep apple slices from browning. Such a great question, because a brown apple slice just isn’t the same, is it? Especially for little ones but I know some big ones who avoid oxidized apples. (It’s the reaction with the oxygen in the air that leads to the brown discoloration.)<\/p>\n

<\/a>My answer to keep those apple slices looking fresh and lovely: lemon juice.<\/p>\n

But of course, it’s not quite that simple.<\/p>\n

If you use too much lemon juice or a slice takes a direct hit, that bite can have some pretty serious pucker power due to the lemon. I try to go light on the lemon.<\/p>\n

The better way to do it is to have a bowl with water and lemon juice and you put the apple pieces into the water and submerge them (like in the photo above). I admit that I’m not always good about doing this because, for some reason, getting out another bowl seems complicated to me. Typing that sentence, I realize that it’s not, and this way keeps the apples pieces from getting too lemony.<\/p>\n

One bonus to that is that you can toss around the fancy phrase “acidulated water” instead of calling it lemon water, as Martha Stewart does in this video<\/a>. I’m convinced that more syllables equals better cooking technique.<\/p>\n

It takes just a little bit of lemon juice – a tablespoon to 4 cups of water will do the trick.<\/p>\n

<\/a>I’ve also read that Sprite or other lemon-lime, also “acidulated” beverages, will do the trick, but haven’t tried it. That’s a little too pricey for me. If it works for your budget, though, I’d love to hear if it is effective.<\/p>\n

My other tips is that, as you slice, dice or cut your apples, keep them together and touching, with the cut side down. The less surface area that’s exposed to the air, the less oxidizing and thus the less browning you’ll have.<\/a><\/p>\n

When packing lunches, I keep the apples this way and my daughter, who is not a fan of brown anything, said that they really don’t brown much this way.<\/p>\n

This is a timely question because I bought this large box of honeycrisp apples at the final farmer’s market of the season this weekend. I may have forgotten that I’ll be able to buy apples elsewhere throughout the winter, but, well, these just looked so good. Also, I’m addicted to the with the amazing Pumpkin Caramel Sauce from Trader Joe’s. So good!\u00a0 There will be a lot of sliced apples in my future.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a great way to keep the apples you use as garnish on a Caramel Apple Martini<\/a> looking beautiful the whole night long.<\/p>\n

You can also turn this into a very cool science experiment to do with your little and see which liquids are best at keeping apples from oxidizing. Check out instructions on that at education.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:<\/strong> Facts about apples so you can answer all of your kids\u2019 questions<\/a><\/p>\n

Please like Mom Factually on Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong> You can also find MF on Pinterest<\/a>, Twitter, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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