Welcome RayRay. Are you more Austin Central Texas, San Antonio Central Texas or Texas Hill Country Central Texas? I’m in Central Texas too, but where I’m at it’s a low spot, so I’m more zone 7 than 8.
I second what SethDoty said about apples being “low effort”. They aren’t. But they aren’t impossible to grow either. Check out fire blight resistant southern apples, and go from there. Kuffel Creek ( WEBSITE) has a good southern apple list, though I have my doubts about “Sierra Beauty” on there, and my Jonalicious still has green leaves…but it’s it’s first year, so it’s still trying to figure out the Texas weather.
Williams Pride and Akane have fruited for me (Akane has yet to have good fruit).I have seen Gala’s and Fuji’s fruit. Love Creek Orchard in Medina used to have apples like Crispin(mutsu) and Mollie’s Delicious. Golden delicious produces here too too. There was an apple guy in Mason, and he had luck with “Goldrush” a few years. I did not. If you aren’t afraid of fireblight risk, “Wickson Crab” has bloomed for me, but I don’t have a pollinator nearby, so it hasn’t set.
TAMU recommends M111 rootstock, but I’ve found it’s rather sluggish and slow to grow here compared to the geneva roostocks. I’ve started to play with seedling rootstocks, because I want a bigger root system and I don’t think they will get as big here as they would elsewhere.
The blanco crabapple is pretty rare and grows super slow. There are colonies of it around Johnson City. There was a Master Gardener there that I’ve spoke to before about them, but I don’t remember his name. Natives of Texas in Kerrville has had Blanco Crabapples before.
I would like to point out that the Blanco Crabapple I planted died. My apple trees survived.
Also, you should check out these threads for Texas apple info:
@JerrytheDragon is another Central Texas apple grower. He knows good stuff too.