Homemade Applesauce

So my apple tree just keeps dropping apples, but I can’t keep making pies with them. So today I decided to make my first batch of homemade applesauce! It turned out excellent!

Sharon’s Homemade Applesauce
About 15 apples – peeled, cored, chopped
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

Combine ingredients and cook over medium heat for about 10-12 minutes. Turn off heat and stir/mash any large chunks and let cool before enjoying! 😋

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I love homemade applesauce so much that I don’t think that I will buy store bought applesauce anymore. That is a LOT of cinnamon!

We drove down to La Crescent yesterday and hit the apple stands. Carole got her caramel apple and I got a nice bag of apples for some sauce/pies….I love them both. Sharon, Carole has a thing about cinnamon and won’t add it to sauce but I doll mine up after the fact and just before digging in. Really though apple sauce is great both ways.

You must be getting really good at peeling apples! And for the record, your Dad will happily dispose of any extra apple pies you don’t want

Dad

I don’t think it’s too much cinnamon. I mean, it’s mixed with 1/2 cup of sugar so it mixes well with all the apples. 😁

I’m making a cinnamon apple bread now!

Ok, just got done eating some of Sharon’s applesauce. It was excellent!

If you did this can you freeze the sauce, or just refrigerate it? DK.

You can definitely freeze it. This made about 3 pint jars (plus a bowl for sampling!) and I put them all in the freezer for future use.

Thanks a bunch, going to the orchard next week. DK.

Did I hear apple pie. apple crisp isn’t nuttin to sneeze at either.

Looks great. Don’t forget to try some for ice cream topping or for vanilla Greek yogurt.
Can’t go wrong with some homemade apple butter, great for biscuits or toast. Homemade is good. I see our tree is starting to drop some now also.

Warm some applesauce up with vanilla ice cream. HMMMMMMM!

leinieman wrote:

Can’t go wrong with some homemade apple butter, great for biscuits or toast. Homemade is good. I see our tree is starting to drop some now also.

Sharon….put the peelings in a saucepan with some water maybe two cups] and simmer for a half hour. Strain the liquid and discard the peelings. Then add back a quart of that seasoned, sweetened applesauce and cook until its dark and thick. Using a table knife or spoon that’s been placed in the fridge for a while to get real cool, dip it quickly in and out of the sauce once. If the sauce sticks to the spoon or knife without sheeting, its ready to jar up. Apple butter is intense in flavor and makes for some super toast on cold winter mornings or for a mid-day snack. Cooking the apple peelings will get the pectin needed to help thicken and gel the butter. It’ll take quite a while on a medium low heat to get it browned down and thick and it’ll need to be stirred often as it gets thicker to prevent scorching but the time and fuss is well worth in the end.

Looks delicious Sharon! I love warm apple sauce on pancakes, toast, cornbread, or ice cream!

I make my apple sauce with the least amount of water I can – maybe a half cup or less. Using just enough water to help the apples to start cooking will give the sauce even more “apple flavor.” : )

Dan

P.S. I also make rhubarb sauce in spring for the freezer. So good!

Looks fantastic!

Thanks for the tips and ideas guys! My mom actually suggested making an apple jelly too, but I don’t eat jelly (or apple butter) very often.

I ended up making a cinnamon apple bread yesterday since I was in a baking mood and that turned out pretty good! I’m sure I’ll have more apples to pick this week – they just keep coming!

Do you folks use (please forgive my complete lack of knowledgeable terms) normal apples or the smaller apples typically used for apple pie? Our new property has one tree with apples you’d eat like normal, then another tree or two with the smaller (maybe more tart?) apples. If I remember right growing up on the farm, the normal apples (like you’d buy in a store just to eat) are just picked and eaten, but the smaller apples are what are used for pies, applesauce, jam, etc.

Honeycrisp apples I think fall into that pick/eat category, but a friend left five nice bags full of the honeycrisps here a week ago and I have been peeling 5 pounds every few days and making the darnedest applesauce a person can imagine. I add maybe 1/2 cup of sugar to 5 pounds peeled and sliced plus about 1/4 cup of water. No need for more sugar than that. Cover the pan and simmer for an hour, then take a potato masher to the apples if needed. I haven’t needed the masher yet.

I’ll add cinnamon to my sauce right when I dish it up. Ma’s not crazy for the cinnamon so we don’t add it to the cooking apples.

If someone gives me a bunch of apples I like to buy a few pounds of a different apple to blend the flavors.

I think you can pretty much use any apple for eating/baking and it will turn out fine – it’s more of a personal preference. My tree is a McIntosh apple tree and they’re on the tart side although they’re usually in the med-large size. Here’s a handy chart on apple varieties. I enjoy eating Granny Smith’s but some people find them too tart to eat plain, so they’re more commonly used for baking. But pair a slice of Granny Smith with a wedge of brie cheese and whole wheat crackers and you’ve got yourself a perfectly paired snack! 🙂

Often times the sweeter the apple is the softer and less crisp they are too, which means they could end up too mushy in baked goods like pies and turnovers.

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Sharon, I planted a McIntosh last year and it is still too young to bare fruit. It is one of my favorite eating apples. I also have a Granvenstein and a Zestar apple trees.

That time of year again! 😁🍎🍏😋 I love making homemade applesauce from my apple tree! It’s super easy to make and the house smells like fall! 🥰🍁🍃🍂

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Looks great Sharon. This weekend is going to be a nice fall temp for baking too.

Sweet Tango isn’t even on that list of apples. #Shameful

Red Delicious apples are the worst. They are completely tasteless and look like they’re made of plastic.

I just bought a bag of Sweet Tangos yesterday. They are excellent.
I also like crisp cortlands and macs but not after they get too ripe.
I grew up around apple trees. I still start eating them right after the flowers fall off! Probably why I dont like any fruit that is really ripe.
That applesauce looks delicious. I can taste it from here!

Sharon if you made a 55 gallon drum full of your apple sauce, I’d eat the whole thing at one sitting. It’s really good

Still a couple years from our trees being grown enough for any meaningful harvest, got one off the zestar last year, this year 10 survived to be edible. Sorry far the honey crisp hasn’t blossomed (year 3, not sure how old they were when we planted but were about 6′ tall). Thinking we may add a third tree this fall more in the same pollination timeframe as the honeycrisp. But when they do really start producing I will definitely be making sauce also.

My mom has one of these to really smooth out the sauce, been a while since I’ve been around when she makes it but pretty sure it goes straight from the stove into this thing.

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Looks good Sharon,
I’d mix in a little Bourbon and put a shovel or 2 on a waffle.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Looks good Sharon,
I’d mix in a little Bourbon and put a shovel or 2 on a waffle.

EPG.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Looks good Sharon,
I’d mix in a little Bourbon and put a shovel or 2 on a waffle.

My mother put a little brandy in her applesauce. Unfortunately she cooked it a few more minutes after adding it so the alcohol evaporated.