Applesauce

I love applesauce. I love eating it. I love making it. And I really love how it makes my house smell. Cooked apples with cinnamon …mmmmm… nothing really beats that.

The other major plus for me is how many apples it takes to make applesauce. If you have an apple tree you know what I am talking about. When you get a big crop of apples there is just no way that you can eat them all before they start going bad. This is what we were dealing with this year.

Applesauce is a great way to use a lot of apples and make them shelf stable. Then you can enjoy the lovely flavors of apples and cinnamon all year long.

I have fond memories of making applesauce with my mom, grandma and aunt. All us kids would run around making messes and eating apples. Maybe that is why I like applesauce so much.

My methods are a little different than what my mom and grandma did back in the day. I have technology and engineering on my side. But the smells are the same.

Obviously the first step is getting some apples. If you grow your own, then this part is easy. If you don’t have an apple tree I highly recommend planting one. Or, you might get lucky and have a neighbor who is trying to get rid of extra apples. Otherwise, you can always buy some from a fruit stand or a farmers market. But if you do that I doubt you will be making a huge batch of applesauce like we did. I use a different method when I am making a small batch. If you are interested leave a comment and I will give you the details.

I have always heard that when it comes to apple products (juice, sauce, pies etc.) you always get a better flavor when you mix at least two different varieties of apples. I have to say that I agree with this.

We happened to have two of our trees produce really well this year. One of them is sweeter and the other more tart. The balance worked out really well. The ones in the picture below are the more tart variety. We had more of those by far. We did end up doing some applesauce with just this variety and we like it just fine. But having both was nice as well. So, don’t be afraid of mixing apple varieties.

We don’t really spray our fruit trees for bugs. So we end up with quite a few. They don’t hurt anything, we just plan on cutting out the bad parts of the apple. If this bothers you then either buy your apples or be sure to spray your tree(s). It is what I grew up doing so I don’t think much about it. It is still my grandma’s orchard at this point, so we try to do things her way.

I start by throwing all the apples into a clean sink with cold water to give them all a quick scrub. Then I quarter each apple and remove anything that looks gross. I am eventually going to run everything through a food strainer so I leave the seeds and the skin. I am just removing bruises and blemishes at this point. This also makes them a nice size for putting through the strainer.

Then I like to give all my apple quarters a quick rinse. This both cleans them and adds just a little water to help the next step, which is steaming them until they are soft.

I throw all the apple quarters into the biggest pot I have and put a lid on it. If it seems really dry I add just a tiny bit of water so the bottom doesn’t scorch. I usually leave the temperature somewhere between medium and low and just keep stirring it every few minutes until the apples are soft enough that pushing on them with my spoon breaks them. Here is a quick video I put together that might give you a visual of how soft to let them get. It also shows the food mill in action, as well as my cute little helper.

It is interesting to me that the color bleeds out of them as they cook. These were all red-ish when they were raw.

I didn’t get a good picture of my KitchenAid set up, but the video above shows it in action. You can also see from the video that my three year old loves helping out with that step. You may not be able to understand what he is saying but he is giving the apples encouragement to get into the hole. If that doesn’t make you smile then I don’t know what would.

The food mill basically presses the cooked apples through little tiny holes so just the juice and a pulp comes through. All the bigger stuff like the seeds and the skins come out the other end. My kids call it “poop”, so original, I know, and they think it’s hilarious. I go back and forth between laughing and getting after them for the bathroom humor. Mom dilemmas.

I usually run this stuff through a second time to get every last bit of goodness out of it. This picture below shows what that looks like going in the second time. You can see it’s already pretty dry but I can’t rest unless I know I got everything out of it that I could. (yes, I realize that I am a bit crazy)

Out the other end comes the glorious applesauce. I dump it into a pot to keep it warm until I am ready to put it into jars. I also like to add a little cinnamon, it’s totally optional but I just love how it tastes. Not to mention that it kicks the smell in your kitchen to a whole new level of yum. At this point I recommend tasting it. You may want to add sugar, but I’m betting you won’t need to.

Once you get all your apples cooked and run through the food mill it is time to bottle them. I forgot to mention this but I usually try to have my bottles sanitized already by the time I get to this point. If you have a dishwasher it is pretty easy, just run your jars on the sanitize setting while you are doing all the other stuff. I don’t have a dishwasher so I have to get creative sometimes. I have done them in the oven, but usually I just wash them with soapy water and load them into my steam canner and steam them for 10 minutes.

Because I can only fit 7 quarts in my canner at a time, that is usually the amount I shoot for when I am doing a batch of applesauce. I have found that about half a box, or two times filling the sink (I know, precise measurements) will fill my two biggest pots, which then results in about 7 quarts. It is pretty hard for me to get more precise than that. And honestly I always kind of like to get just a little extra so I can have a jar or two of applesauce that I don’t process. Then I can just stick it in my fridge and eat it. Once the jars have been sealed I have a hard time opening them for at least a few months. So, I always shoot for a little more than I think I will need. It’s a little sad to go through all that work and have to wait months before you can enjoy it.

The bottling process is pretty much the same as you would do with other things. Transfer your hot applesauce into your clean and sanitized jars. Leave 1/4 inch head space (the space between the top of the jar and the sauce. Then wipe all the rims with a clean cloth or paper towel. If there is anything on the rim you may not get a proper seal. Wash and rinse your lids and rings in warm soapy water, then place them on the jars.

Put everything into a steam canner, water bath canner or pressure canner and process according to the manufactures guidelines. Be sure you adjust for altitude if you fall in that category.

That’s it! You too can enjoy the flavors of apples and cinnamon all year long.

I bought some reusable applesauce bags that I can fill for my daughter to take to school. We both really like that. She likes the flavor of homemade applesauce best. I like the price. It’s a win/win.

I also use it in my granola recipe. It can be used in exchange for oil in a lot of baking applications. The possibilities are endless. I hope you enjoy making it, and eating it as much as we do.