I'm one who did things differently. While I cut the apple into quarters, I never took off the skin and I never made any effort to soften it. She was having it from about 7-8 mths. DD loved and still loves raw apple. I stopped cutting it into quarters when she was about 18 mths so she would wander around eating a whole apple at that young age. She never, ever choken on apple. The one and only time she had a real choke was on mandarin pieces. She got a stringy bit lodged and after a few hearty splutters she brought it up, held and looked at it for a minute and then stuck it right back in! Went down the second time without any problem.

As long as you're around and know how to respond in a choking situation I can't see any problem with giving her apple just as it comes. That's part of the fun of BLS!