Just in time for apple picking season (according to Google it’s from about now to November) – I’m so happy to have Heather L from The Healing Homemaker here today to show you a super easy and super yummy way to make homemade applesauce. And when she say applesauce, she’s not talking about that no-sugar pale stuff that her kids like to eat. She is talking about dessert applesauce that is so rich and decadent it should be inside a pie or under a crisp or covered in whip cream. It’s just that good!
For this recipe you will need:
13 tart apples (I recommend Granny Smith)
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp – 1tbsp cinnamon
First wash all your beautiful apples:
Then you will want to peel, core, and slice them. I would recommend getting an apple peeler, corer, slicer tool because it makes it so fast, plus it’s a ton of fun to use. They sell them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond as well as through Pampered Chef. All my kids fight over getting a turn to use it, so it’s really very little work for me!
The finished apple:
I also cut my apples in half so that it disconnects all the layers of slices. Otherwise you have a big spiral cone shaped piece at the end.
Next layer all the apples in the crockpot, followed by the sugar, then the cinnamon, and lastly the water. Mix everything. Now a word about the cinnamon. These pictures show it with 1 tsp. worth and I personally like that amount but I am not a huge cinnamon person. The next time I made it I did 1 tbsp. of cinnamon and it made the applesauce even darker and richer. My family loved it even more, but I felt like it was cinnamon overload. So I would suggest starting with less and then adding more until you find the perfect amount!
It takes about 3 hours on high to go from the apples above to the applesauce below. Unless of course one of your kids sees the light on the crockpot and decides to push it, effectively turning it off for 2 hours. Then it takes longer and everyone gets to eat it at 9 at night instead of during dinner. Not that that happened to me or anything since my kids are all perfect angels 🙂 I try to stir it around the 2 hour mark. Some of the apples will already be very smashed; some will still need more time. By the 3 hour mark, everything will pretty much crumble at any pressure. I used a potato masher in these pictures, but a large wooden spoon works just as well.
And voila! You are done. Add a dollop of whip cream and enjoy your heavenly creation. My dad used to crush graham crackers over applesauce then add the cool whip and that is delicious as well. A note of caution though, this applesauce will be boiling hot!! Make sure you give it some time to cool before feeding it to your little ones. It’s also super yummy the next day after it’s been chilled.
