Apples (Pommes)

Best Apples for Baking, Apple Tarts and Pies

For French apple tarts, I often use Golden Delicious or Granny Smith - or mix the two for a balance of sweetness and acidity.

• Golden Delicious - one of the best all-round apples for cooking and French pâtisserie, especially as it keeps its shape after baking. It's crunchy, naturally sweet and mild in flavour. Great for apple tarts, pies, crumbles and Tarte Tatin. For pommes flambées, roast at 220°C in a little butter and sugar, then flambé with Calvados. You'll also find Golden Rosé.
• Opal - a cross between Golden Delicious and Topaz. Use it much like Golden for apple tarts and other baked desserts.
• Granny Smith - firm, tart and much less sweet. Perfect for baking and particularly good mixed with Golden. Use for apple tarts, pies, crumbles, baked apples and savoury dishes.
• Reine des Reinettes and Canada - aromatic, acidic and not too sweet. Excellent for apple tarts, Tarte Tatin, pies and baked apples.
• Boskoop - sweet with a little acidity. It cooks down particularly well for apple compote and sauces but also works in tarts, pies and charlottes.
• Pink Lady - crisp with a little acidity. Good for crumbles, pies and compote.
• Jonagold - sweet-tart and juicy. Good for crumbles and pies, although they don't keep as well as some other varieties, so use them while they're fresh.

Which Apples should You Avoid for Baking?

For pies and tarts, I avoid Gala and Fuji apples. Gala is naturally sweet and much better for eating fresh or adding to fruit salads. Fuji is wonderfully crunchy for snacking but, in my experience, doesn't give the flavour or texture I want from a baked apple dessert. Any time I used them, they turn mushy.

Save both for eating fresh and choose a firmer, more acidic apple for baking.

What are the Best Apples to Eat?

The best apples for eating fresh are crisp, juicy and full of flavour. My favourites include Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, Jonagold, Fuji, Opal, Chantecler, Pixie and Cox's Orange.

Chantecler is a cross between Golden Delicious and Reinette.

Enjoy these apples simply as they are, or slice them to serve with cheese and walnuts.

How Do You Stop Cut Apples from Turning Brown?

Once cut, apples quickly start to brown as the flesh reacts with oxygen. For apple slices and salads, squeeze over a little fresh lemon juice and toss gently - the acidity slows the browning.

If preparing them ahead, you can also dip the slices briefly in cold water with a little lemon juice, then drain well.

Apple Season in France

Apples are available almost year-round in France, but the fresh harvest begins in late summer and runs through Autumn.

Early varieties appear from July and August, with September and October prime months for French apples at the market. Later and storage varieties continue through Winter and Spring.

Popular Apple Varieties in France

Around 50 apple varieties are commercially available in France, although thousands of different cultivars exist worldwide.

Some of the varieties you'll regularly see in France markets and shops include:

Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Reine de Reinettes, Pink Lady, Gala, Canada, Boskoop, Fuji and Jonagold.

There are plenty of older French apples too. At the Potager du Roi in Versailles, created under King Louis XIV in the 17th century, varieties included pommes d'Api, de Reinette, Calvilles, Fenouillet. Pommes d'Api even has a French song that most French kids learn at school - I loved my kids singing this on the way home. It's so cute!

France remains a major apple producer: the 2026 French table-apple crop is forecast at around 1.52 million tonnes.

La pomme du Limousin is the only apple to have quality status of Appellation d'origine protégée since 2005 and European AOP status in 2007. No wonder they call it le grand cru de la pomme! Every Tuesday and Thursday in July and August, it's possible to visit the orchard.

How to Choose and Store Apples

To choose the best apples: avoid over shiny apples as these are often polished with wax!

How to best store: for the utmost flavour, keep apples in a cool, dark place and avoid the fridge if possible as chilling them dulls their full flavour.

Like bananas, apples release ethylene, a natural gas (plant hormone) that helps fruit ripen. So ripen avocados or pears faster by placing them together in a bag, although this doesn't work below 5°C, so do it out of the fridge.

Are Apples Good for You?

According to Aprifel for the French Ministry of Agriculture, apples are a good source of potassium, fiber and polyphenols.

Polyphenols may help to reduce the risk of heart disease, improve digestion and reduce blood sugar levels. Other polyphenol rich fruits are flaxseed, almonds, hazelnuts, pecans and chestnuts.

Polyphenols are concentrated in the skin so, to get their benefits, it's best not to peel them - as long as they are organic and not treated with chemicals.

A Fun French Expression Using Apples

Elle est tombée dans les pommes"
means she fainted. Literally translated? She fell into the apples.

Familiar French expression

One of those wonderfully odd French expressions that makes absolutely no sense translated word for word!

Fun Fact - the Darkest Apple

The cultivar with the darkest skin is the Arkansas Black Apple in the USA. When I first saw them at a Farmers' market in California, I thought they were nectarines! Considered a good storage apple, this is at its crunchiest when freshly picked. The more it's stored, the flesh has a floral aftertaste and is excellent used for cooking in crumbles.

Savoury Apple Recipes

Apples work particularly well in savoury French cooking, especially with pork, chicken and sausages - fry them in butter to accompany traditional boudin noir and boudin blanc sausages.

A tart apple also adds freshness and crunch to salads and sauces. The following are our favourite savoury apple recipes.

This pork roast recipe is such an easy dish to throw together in advance, cooked in apple cider. Just 20 minutes before the end of cooking, chop up your apples and toss in butter to serve on the side.

We love a crunchy, tart apple added to salad. Perfect in this Roast Beetroot Salad with smoked mackerel. With added orange zest and a wee spice kick, this winter salad is made in just 30 minutes.

Serving smoked salmon? Grate a Granny Smith into this easy Apple and Horseradish sauce. It's excellent as a festive starter or appetizer and also works with cooked cabbage or beetroot.

If you have a little more time, serve the sauce with grated apple in these savoury choux buns with smoked salmon. Great for entertaining dinner parties.

Add a tart apple to this Shrimp Cocktail with Dragon Fruit. Not only does it add extra acidity but great texture too.

Add a tart Granny Smith or sweeter Golden Delicious apples to this German Red Cabbage recipe, there's no need to add any sugar. I use a minimum of 2 big apples, but add 3 or 4 smaller ones. The apples, once cooked, disappear but give a beautiful glaze to this cabbage dish.

French Desserts with Apples

Apples feature in so many classic French desserts, from the simplest compote to a proper caramelised Tarte Tatin. Here are some of my favourites.

Apple Compote or apple sauce is widely used in France for either savoury or sweet dishes. Serve with boudin noir (black pudding), boudin blanc (especially popular at Christmas) or on top of crêpes, our favourite thin French pancakes.

As apples contain pectin, they keep the perfect moisture with coconut when added to coconut macaroons (rochers coco).

This quick French apple tart is so easy and made using ready-made puff pastry. Serve with a calvados cream for the ultimate appley taste.

If you love apples and custard, you need to try this French Apple Custard Tart from Alsace. Together with the vanilla, this is heaven on a plate!

Apple Nougat Tart - this is a real showstopper, particularly during the festive season topped with toasted nuts.

As with many of the tarts, serve with a jug of warmed salted caramel sauce (caramel au beurre salé).

A classic French Tarte Tatin is the ultimate apple dessert baked in caramel.

Serve a slice with a dollop of real crème fraîche (or Greek yoghurt) or homemade ice cream such as this Whisky ice cream (or replace the Drambuie with Calvados).

Apple Oat Crumble - healthy recipe with reduced sugar and deliciously crispy with toasted oats topped on vanilla tossed apples.

French apple crumble cake is something a bit different. Made in advance, it's served chilled and has a scrumptious, toasted crunch to it.

Mini Apple Rose Tarte Tatins - for that special occasion to show someone they're the apple of your eyes (couldn't resist that one!) Ideal as a Valentine's Day dessert.

Last but certainly not least, is Sticky Toffee Pudding with Apple. This is my favourite treat from Britain (as well as these carrot cake muffins) so no trip back to my parents is the same without it!

I add an apple to this classic pudding. The result means it's extra moist and feels slightly less indulgent.

For that ultimate holiday dessert, this is easy made with leftover pain d'épices (French gingerbread). This gingerbread trifle with apple and caramel is particularly rich in apples, so it feels less wicked.

The ultimate comfort food in winter? This French apple cake. This slightly reduced sugar recipe for gâteau aux pommes is by Joël Robuchon, the most starred chef in the world.