I'll be very interested to hear, too, and also your experiences. I use (commercial) apple cider instead of water and sugar in my applesauce, but that doesn't count. :)

make some apple brandy ... apples raisins sugar layered crushed; repeat in a big jug. stick in a cool dark place and check on it much much later ...

You couldn't eat the ones here but perhaps yours are sweeter.

I would happily cook with them, but since they're small they'd be a pain to peel. If you want to peel. I often put apples under roast pork, in a casserole with pork or sausage, or they'd make a good jelly. Mint jelly for roast lamb is made using apples.

btw when you say ’cider’ apples do you mean ’hard’ cider, which is what they'd be used for here. Or the US meaning of non alcoholic juice? A cider apple here is a very tart thing and, as Islay says, not good raw eating.

Re American non-alcoholic cider vs. juice: https://www.southernliving.com/food/drinks/what-is-the-difference-between-apple-juice-and-apple-cider

So the local apple juice I buy would probably be called 'cider' in the US. It's just apples pressed and bottled. It's unsweetened, unfiltered and made with mostly eating apples.The variety is named on the bottle. It is pasteurised for storage. https://www.drucesjuices.co.uk

'Cider' always means an alcoholic beverage here.

I asked about the meaning of 'cider' in the OP because it would affect the type of apple being talked about.

Indeed. Just offering up specifics because there are so many flexible words involved.

My father helped his grandfather make applejack when he was young but I think that was from sweet apples.

Since applejack is far more alcoholic than cider perhaps the extra sugar in sweet apples helped. The more alcoholic portion would remain liquid after freezing the cider.

Floral-UK - my dad did that ln late Fall with our eating apples when I was a kid. That was 65 years ago in New England. Left it on the back porch over night when dropped to below freezing.

I’ve made wonderful pies from assorted drops (apples). Pies, applesauce…

I ended up making a bunch of applesauce. I added spices and a bit of molasses. I usually just make sauce with apples. It is delicious. I saved enough to make an apple crisp.

I had seriously reduced my pile of produce I needed to use (or compost) - I also made tomato sauce and caponata. And then found a bag of Black Oxford apples on my porch - a gift from a generous friend. Sigh.

As far as the definition of cider - here in Maine I think it means hard cider and sweet cider. Sweet cider is fresher and cloudier than apple juice. Infinitely preferable to me. And if unpasteurized easily turns into hard cider.