When I stumbled upon an awesome deal on apples ($10 a bushel!), I decided now was my chance to try my hand at homemade applesauce and apple butter. It was easy, frugal, delish and sugar free! Since then, I've picked up 2 more bushels, although these were higher, and I'm ready to stock my pantry with homemade applesauce!
This is all there is to it:
I peeled, cored and sliced my apples just like I did when I was making the apple butter. This time, I placed all the apples into my biggest stockpot and added about 2 quarts water. Instead of water, you can add apple juice instead. I didn't have any, so I used water.
It wasn't until I was finished with the batch that a light bulb went off. If you have a juicer, throw the peels and cores that were leftover into the juicer--and Wa-La! You've got juice! You may still need to add a smidge of water to get enough, but atleast most of your liquid would be juice.
After I had my water and apples in the stockpot I brought it to a boil. When the apples started softening up, I added in about 2 Tbsp of cinnamon and cooked for an additional 5 minutes. If you want a chunky applesauce--remove from heat before the apples are translucent. If you are going for a smoother textured applesauce--cook until completely soft.
Once your apples have reached the desired doneness, process them in a food processor or food mill, juice and all.
Your applesauce will keep in the refrigerator for 2 months, or you can home can it for longer storage, using the water bath canning method. We prefer ours in quarts, which should be processed for 25 minutes. If you are canning them in pints, process for 20 minutes.
Homemade applesauce is perfect for after school snacks, a side at dinner, or even as a substitute to oil in baking. With it being sugar free, there isn't any guilt, either. :)
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11 comments:
That looks delish! I need to learn to can, again, I tried it eons ago and not again since.
Thanks again for inspiring me!
~Liz
I used to make this for my son when he was a baby. I should get back into it!
I've always wanted to do this but haven't gotten around to it yet. Great tutorial!
If you don't have a juicer, you can throw the peels & cores in a pot with a *tiny* bit of water. Cook until all soft. Strain and use that juice to make jelly or syrup. Practically free, and it was going to be tossed in the trash anyway. :)
I have a pile of apples that I need to use up and I lost my appleasauce recipe, which is ok because I wanted one without sugar. Thank you for sharing! I have a Kitchen Aid attachment that processes all the apples for me so I really have no excuses, just need to find the motivation!
I have a steam juicer. Rather than add water to my applesauce, I use the steam juicer. After they have stoftened, I put them through the food strainer-that gets rid of the peelings and any seeds I may hacve missed. Then we put them in pints because my children don't eat applesauce-we substitute it for oil in our recipes. No one has noticed. Luckily my parents and we have apple trees so our apples were free. I love free!
That looks fabulous! Thanks for sharing with TATT. :-)
We adore homemade applesauce! Last year we had enough apples from our trees for several batches. Our trees tend to produce every other year, so I'm hoping to find a good deal sometime soon.
This is really good made in the crock pot as well. It sounds like you had a successful savings and a delicious one to boot!Come share a slow cooker favorite for Crock Pot Wednesday whenever you get a chance.
You inspired my recent applesauce making fest. I don't think I got the apples for as cheap as you did, but it was a good price for Dallas, about 67 cents a pound. I used gala apples to keep the applesauce sweet - I didn't add any sugar or sweetener either.
I couldn't believe how good it is. It makes store-bought applesauce seem like a watered down imitation.
Thanks so much for linking to Slightly Indulgent Mondays!
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