Golden Apple

The golden apple is a special food item that bestows beneficial effects.

The enchanted golden apple, enchanted apple or the Notch apple (in an achievement), is a rare variant of the golden apple that has stronger effects.

Usage
To eat a golden apple, press and hold while it is selected in the hotbar. Both restore points of hunger and 9.6 hunger saturation.

The regular golden apple provides Absorption I for 2 minutes (providing points of absorption health) and Regeneration II ( every 25 ticks,  × 0.4 per second) for 5 seconds (long enough to heal  points of damage).

The enchanted golden apple provides Absorption IV for 2 minutes (providing points of absorption health), Regeneration II ( every 25 ticks,  × 0.4 per second) for 20 seconds (long enough to heal  points of damage), Fire Resistance I for 5 minutes and Resistance I (20% reduced damage from all sources except the void) for 5 minutes.

Golden apples can be eaten even when the player's hunger bar is full.

Curing zombie villagers
A regular golden apple and a potion of Weakness can be used to convert a zombie villager into a villager.

Horses
Both types of golden apples can be used to improve the chances of taming a horse by 10%, for breeding horses and for speeding up the growth of baby horses by 4 minutes.