Remember those apples we picked last weekend? Well they didn’t all get nibbled on by Bean or eaten by TP (though they tried). I am happy to report that the majority of the apples were used for this years apple sauce reserve.
The first time I made apple sauce I was so nervous. I thought it would be a complicated process or at least take hours of active stirring and meassuring. But when I read the directions and found it to literally be 1 step, I felt a sense of relief.
Apple sauce starts out as amazing red apples. We chose to pick Gala at the farm but I don’t think the apple really matters. However, I wouldn’t use a sour apple. Peel your apples and cut them in to chunks. The size of the chunks don’t matter, just make sure there aren't any seeds.
Apples, a little water, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves is what I use. But you can put in allspice or nutmeg or really any kind of flavor you want. The beautiful part is you can put in as much as you want. There are no real measurements because the sweetness and flavoring of applesauce is so individual.
In our home we like it sweet with a lot of cinnamon.
Cook the apples on low heat for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. But you can literally leave them alone. I happened to go out with a friend an hour into my cook time and left TP with the responsibility of stirring them. When I came home they were cooked down to mush, the perfect texture for us. But if you like your applesauce chunky then cut down the cook time and don’t smash the apples.
Once it was done I put them in mason jars and a recycled Motts apple sauce jar. I put my jars in the freezer. When we need them I take a jar from the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge, this takes no time really just some juggling of when I think the old jar may run out.
If you don’t like applesauce make it anyway. It makes your house smell so good and they are great gifts during the Holiday time.