Golden Apple

Golden Apples are rare items found in dungeon chests. They can also be attained through crafting red apples and gold blocks together. Eating one completely restores the player's health, which no other food does. They are very hard to find, so they are mostly attained using an inventory editor. They are not very practical, as consuming multiple porkchops (or other food) can have the same effect, without the need for 72 gold ingots. A golden apple is still useful if in the night you need to restore health immediately due to mobs.

Crafting
A golden apple is crafted from a red apple with 8 gold blocks surrounding it:

Advantages

 * As of 1.8, they are the only food that restores health directly, and they restore all of it.
 * As of 1.8, they grant a temporary health regeneration effect, which is shown by your hearts bobbing up and down in a wave like fashion, every full wave will heal half a heart.

Disadvantages

 * As of 1.8, Red Apples, a necessary ingredient, can only be found in Strongholds. The Golden Apple may also be found directly in a Dungeon chest, but with a mere 1/125 probability. Golden Apples are, as such, incredibly hard to obtain.
 * Golden Apples are not time or resource efficient to craft; making just one requires 72 gold ingots.
 * For restoring hunger points, Cake is much easier to make, and restores 6 units to the Golden Apple's 5.

Trivia

 * Golden Apples have a 1/125 (0.8%) chance of spawning in a Dungeon's chest.