Golden Apple

Golden Apples are moderately difficult to obtain, but are the most beneficial Food item. They are extremely rarely found in Dungeon and Stronghold chests, though they can also be obtained by crafting a Red Apple and eight Gold Nuggets together. Eating one not only restores, but grants "enhanced regeneration" for 4 seconds, healing up to health over that time. They can be eaten for the regeneration even if you are full.

Golden apples formerly were far rarer and more powerful, indeed they were often kept as a kind of trophy. After 1.1, they became more common, cheaper, and less powerful. However, 1.3 is introducing an Enchanted Golden Apple, even more powerful than the original. Up to 1.2.4, when in the Player's inventory, Golden Apples shine purple, much like enchanted tools and armor. As of 1.3, only Enchanted Golden Apples will shine like this.

Crafting
Normal Golden Apple: Enchanted Golden Apple: (added in 12w21a)

Advantages

 * They are the only food items that cause temporary constant health regeneration that is not dependent on the player's hunger. This is indicated by the line of hearts bobbing up and down in a wave pattern, with each full wave restoring half a heart.
 * Compared with potions of regeneration, golden apples are available for fighting monsters before the player is able to brew or even go to the Nether in single player mode. (Brewing requires Blaze Rods and Nether Wart, both found only in the Nether.)
 * Golden apples also are stackable up to 64 (like other food), whereas potions take up an inventory space for each potion.
 * Golden apples are the only food that can be eaten when the player has a full hunger meter.
 * Although red apples have a low chance of dropping from oak leaves (0.5% per leaf block), tree farming can produce a good supply of them.
 * Golden apples are technically renewable, but see below.

Disadvantages

 * Golden apples have an extremely slim chance of appearing in dungeon chests: 0.7%.
 * Golden apples are technically renewable (for advanced players), because the gold they require can be "harvested" by attacking zombie pigmen. In practice, they will require mined (non-renewable) gold.  There are 9 golden nuggets in one golden ingot, and 9 ingots in one block of gold.  Therefore, it will take most of one ingot to make a normal golden apple, but it will take 72 ingots (648 nuggets) to make an enchanted one.

History
Golden Apples were added on the first Infdev version (February 27, 2010), after the addition of Red Apples themselves. They healed a full ten hearts of health when eaten prior to the Beta 1.8 update, making them the single best food in the entire game-at the expense of being near unobtainable.

Since Beta 1.8, due to the addition of hunger, Golden Apples were changed so that they only healed five hunger points, but also gave the status effect of regeneration for 30 seconds.

Since Beta 1.9 pre-release 2, Golden Apples gained a purple glow when viewed from the player's inventory, and its name tag was changed from the standard white to a magenta color. However, Potions of Regeneration were also added, the effects of which lasted longer than that of the Golden Apple, but it is far easier to Craft a Golden Apple than to brew a Potion of Regeneration.

In the second weekly build, 11w48a, Gold Apples became easier to craft. Red apples became able to very rarely drop from Oak Leaves, meaning that players no longer have to venture into Strongholds/Dungeons to find one; this caused the golden apple to decrease in value, but also made them easier to obtain.

Before 1.0.0, golden apples were the only food item that could completely refill the player's health, without a full hunger bar.

In Minecraft 1.1, Golden Apples were changed so that they only healed two hunger and only gave 4 seconds of regeneration. Their crafting recipe was also modified, requiring Gold Nuggets instead of Gold Blocks to craft. Although its natural spawn is rare, it is easier to obtain through crafting. With now common availability of apples and a cost of 1.25% their former cost in gold, they are for the first time a practical source of healing in Survival. All of these factors make the Golden Apple's value decrease greatly.

Before 1.1, crafting a Golden Apple took 72 gold ingots (8 Gold Blocks). But after 1.1 it only takes 8/9 of an ingot (eight Gold Nuggets).

On 22 May 2012, Jeb tweeted that he has "decided to restore Notch's old Golden Apple and give it an effect proper for its crafting cost". On Reddit, he clarified that this will be a new item; the existing Golden Apple and its recipe will not change.

As of 12w21a, a new Golden Apple was added, it highly resembles the Golden Apple prior to 1.1, having 30 seconds health regeneration, along with some new features like much faster health regeneration, 5 minutes of resistance and fire resistance. This Golden Apple, crafted with gold blocks, has a purple tooltip and shines like an enchanted item. The other one, crafted with gold nuggets, has a blue tooltip and no shine.

Trivia

 * Due to this item previously being able to heal the player a large amount, they are commonly found as rewards in custom adventure maps made prior to version.
 * However, a similar version of the previous Golden Apple was reintroduced in Snapshot 12w21a and Minecraft 1.3 as a separate item. This version has more features than the original Golden Apple.
 * Golden Apples can also be found in the Xbox 360 Edition, although they are VERY rare and only can be found in dungeons.