My husband brought me home a bag of apples from the local orchard recently. The man knows the way to my heart. If you add up all the apples I’ve eaten in my lifetime as after school snacks or in my grandmother’s apple dumplings, I’m sure the number is in the thousands. I love apples and they are a regular part of my diet.

A healthy obsession with apples can benefit our health in several ways. Apples are one of the best sources of polyphenols, which are powerful anti-oxidant nutrients that can prevent or reverse damage in your body’s cells caused by aging, the environment, and your lifestyle. They are also a good source of fiber and vitamin B7 or biotin, an essential nutrient that assists in breaking down fats, carbohydrates, and proteins in food.

When I was a kid, I can remember getting together with family members to make applesauce in the fall. We’d spend hours peeling apples. These days I leave the peels on, even when making apple sauce, because one of the anti-oxidant nutrients in the apple, quercetin, is concentrated in the peel. Quercetin can help reduce inflammation, allergy symptoms, and blood pressure

Although I eat a lot of raw apples, there’s almost nothing that smells better to me than apples cooked with cinnamon and other spices. My grandmother’s apple dumpling recipe is famous in our family, but it’s a decadent treat better saved for holidays. Luckily there are many healthier recipes that can be enjoyed more frequently. Here is one example:

Baked apple rings

• 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup apple cider
• 3-4 tart apples – cored and sliced crosswise into 1/4 inch rings.
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar combined with ½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray the paper with cooking spray. Add the flour and baking powder to a shallow bowl and whisk to combine. Add the apple cider and whisk, just until there are no lumps. Using a fork, dip the apple slices into the batter mixture on both sides. Lift and let excess batter drip back into the bowl. Place apple slices onto parchment paper. If desired, sprinkle sugar and cinnamon mixture over the slices. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden. Enjoy warm.

If you love apples as much as I do, you can also find my recipes for applesauce and chai spiced baked apples at the CGH YouTube channel: https://www.cghmc.com/health-resources/youtube-radio-interviews/

Sherry DeWalt is the healthy lifestyles coordinator for the CGH Health Foundation in Sterling.