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I'm not gonna sit here and defend the mix, but I will defend Ms. Deen to the last. THE LAST, do you hear me?!

My new favorite this fall is jonagold for pies. Made a perfect tarte tatin this year: soft, cooked, and held its shape, though with tarte tatin, the apples are more cooked than they are baked. I have to say that in an informal crisp test I performed (I make dinner at a shelter twice a month) golden delicous outperformed granny smith by a mile. The grannies turned to mush while the goldens were sweet and held their shape. I'd think it would be hard to do an apple pie test without any apple pie seasoning though. Who's to say that plain apples in the presence of cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. would still perform the same?

wait, the mix for sweet potato biscuits doesn't contain any sweet potato? What makes it different than Bisquik then?

Bruce's Sweet Potato Pancake mix in the 1.5 pound bag includes a recipe for biscuits as well as pancakes. There is enough mix for (so far) 2 batches of pancakes, I think we'll get one more out of it. I'm not sure what I paid for it, but it must be less than $9.99 because I wouldn't pay that much!

I would personally never buy any product that has either Paula Deen or Rachael Ray on the items.
Cant stand either one of them.
You can make excellent biscuits at home with a minimal amount of effort.
And that effort will yield great results.

Winesaps! I had forgotten about them. Used to love them and think they were the best in pies! Haven't seen one in ages.

New England tradition demands baldwin apples.

Baldwin:
Raw: bland and uninteresting
Baked: Full of layered spicy notes

I'm down in VA where Baldwins cannot be found, so I'm experimenting tonight with a heirloom variety called "gold rush" which is an ugly beast, but crunchy, tart, and with a lot of layered flavors when raw. We'll see how it cooks up.

But she's so *southern* and *down to earth*! If she's charging $9.99 for a box full of 60% empty space and 40% flour, sugar, and sodium benzoate, then land sakes, there must be a good reason for it!

Empires----an improved descendant of the Macintosh-------tart and crisp to eat and great flavor in pies, applesauce whatever. (Although Honeycrisp are still my faves for eating out of hand fresh---for people who don't see them as special, consider the source was it a supermarket (yuck) or fresh off the tree or farmers market, they don't do so well at room temp so if they've been off the tree for a couple weeks they become pretty inferior unless kept cool.

Add me to the group who give affection to Macs and Cortlands--both are what apples are "supposed" to taste like, to my palate: like a great glass of fresh-milled cider! Both are great bakers, though I prefer Cortlands for pie and sauce and MacIntoshes for crisps or simple baked-apples...Yum.

I made a batch of applesauce this past weekend from Macouns, and was pleased with the results--an interesting fresh-sawed wood back note I've never experienced before. Not my fav, but an interesting twist.

Macs and Courtlands are my favorite baking/cooking apple. they bake down, yet somehow hold part of their shape during cooking. Maybe it's my new england upbringing, but they are the only apple I'll be using next week for my pies.

The best part of this article are the comments. It's amazing how different everyone's opinions are about apples, and how strongly they hold onto their apple beliefs!

The interesting thing about apples is that just 100 years ago, you could buy somewhere around 800 types of apples at stores and grocers, whereas today, you really can't find more than 80 types. Most of the heirloom varieties have almost totally disappeared, except for the stray forgotten orchard in someone's back yard. It does make you wonder what kinds of delicious flavors we're missing.

As for what I like, well, I guess it depends on the time of year. Year round, I love nothing more than to eat a lovely Gala. They're usually the cheapest apple in the store, stores easily and is pretty tasty. I love the soft skin. Later in the year, Macs and Cortlands are are top at my list, especially when the local orchard has pick-your-own. Lately I've been eating a lot of Empires, which are really good, sweet and crispy.

I hardly ever make pies, so the only thing I'm looking for in an apple is a pleasant snack.

This is a fabulous post!
@Kerosena, Macs have been in my apple pies for years! We'd go apple picking in Massachusetts every Fall and fill our bushels with Macs and Cortlands, and we'd mix those for our pies. I think there's nothing that signifies Fall to me quite like a crisp Macintosh pulled off a tree and eaten in the orchard. I get teary just to think of it. It's hard to find really crisp Macs down here in Atlanta, because it's not the most popular apple to grow in these southern orchards -- so by the time my grocery store gets them, they are past their crispy peak.
Given the choice, I'd do a mixture of Macs and Cortlands, but I've also enjoyed going the Granny Smith route and upping my sugar just a tad. I love the tartness of the granny and how it holds up in the pie.