Yummy Applesauce

Last week I went apple picking with the family and it was so much fun (you can read about it in the Out 'N About section)! We bought a bushel of apples, which, equates to... a lot of apples! They have been sitting in a box in the living room, and except for a few apples I dried and some we just ate, we still have a lot of apples left. So today I made applesauce with them and I must say it turned out great!

If you have never tried homemade applesauce I would recommend giving it a try because, well, it is just better made fresh. My grandma's applesauce was always my favorite so today I tried to copy it. I didn't quite get it perfect but I came close and hopefully close enough that my kids will say, "My mom's applesauce is my favorite".

If you want to give applesauce a try here is the recipe I used. I did modify a few things. I used regular cinnamon because I didn't have a stick of it. I also used half a cup water and half a cup cranberry juice for extra flavor. I also put the sauce through a food mill because I do not own a potato masher. I think the potato masher would be easier and a bit more rustic for homemade sauce. When I was done I put the sauce into cupcake tins and froze it so the kids would have portion sizes for school snacks. Enjoy!

(For those of you following my 30 day challenge, I did eat some of this. Is that cheating? Is applesauce a dessert?)


Homemade Applesauce
from Simply Recipes

3-4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (use a good cooking apple: Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
4 strips of lemon peel
lemon, juice of (3-4 tbsps)
3-inch cinnamon stick
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar (approximately – depending on how sweet you want it and how sweet the apples are)
1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt

Place everything in a large pot (one large enough to hold all of the apple quarters… ahem) over high heat. Cover the pot and let the contents come to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and let cook for 20-30 minutes. Turn off the heat and remove the cinnamon sticks and lemon peels before mashing the apples with a potato masher. I prefer mine to be chunky, so I don’t go crazy mashing the apples. Serve hot or cold.