I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought store-bought applesauce had all the depth and flavor of a glue stick.    It is hard to believe that the stuff is actually made from apples.  That’s why I turned to making applesauce at home and let me tell you that there is no applesauce available for purchase that tastes anywhere near as amazing as homemade applesauce.

Possibly the best part about homemade applesauce is that you’d have to be Romeo Crennel to mess it up.  Forgive me, I had to. You can you just about any kind of apples, cook it short or long, even puree it if you don’t like chunks.  It’s all about you.

Homemade Applesauce Recipe

I don’t get too fancy with my applesauce because I like to taste apples when I eat it.  You can spiff yours up about a thousand different ways, but I suggesting trying a basic recipe first before you go putting orange peels and raisins in it.

3 Pounds of Apples (Any kind of cooking apple.  I used Idareds and Macintosh.)
1 Cup of water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon brown sugar

First thing is first, you need to peel and then break the apples down into small pieces.  I usually try to mix up the sizes a little bit so that I have some texture variation in my final product, but if you want to be exact, aim for 1/2 inch cubes.  I generally cut off all four sides and then slice those.  That leaves you with a core that I’m sure someone knows what to do with so you don’t have to throw it out.

Once you’ve got your apples chopped small enough, place them in a stock pot.  Pour in the water, cinnamon and brown sugar.  If you’re lucky enough to have some very sweet apples, you might want to wait on the sugar as you can always put it in near the end to sweeten things up.  My apples were incredibly tart, so I used a bit more than one tablespoon.


Now it’s time for the stove.top.  Put it on medium to low heat for 15 minutes and stir well to combine everything.  The apples should be turning color and starting to break down a little bit.  I like to cook mine with the lid off because it makes the house smell freaking awesome and it allows some of the water to evaporate concentrating flavors.  After that 15 minutes, it should look like this:
 
From that point on it’s a waiting game.  As the apples cook, they will break down even further and in about 45, you’ll see what you would recognize as apple sauce.

You can see from the side of the pot there that these particular apples cooked down by almost half.  You may also notice that some of my apples didn’t break down, I believe it was the type of apple I used, but not a problem, they still tasted great.

Storing Homemade Applesauce

I can’t help but eating some of my applesauce right away, it’s hard for a fat man to wait on fresh food. 

Believe it or not, I didn’t eat it all, so I needed to store it.  Knowing that I would be taking it for lunch, I stashed some in a Tupperware container and popped it in the fridge. 

The rest I put in Ziploc freezer bags to store for the long-term.  Homemade applesauce freezes great and when thawed, you’d never know it was frozen.

If you’ve got kids, you can freeze some in small containers to put in their lunches.  Not only will it keep their lunch cool but by the time they go to eat it it will be thawed. They’ll never eat that Mott’s crap again.

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