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.
Tagged with: Homemade applesauce • How to make applesauce • Recipes applesauce
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October 24th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Cores are used by processing plants to make Cider.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
That’s what I was going to do with them, but I didn’t think that I would have enough of them to make more than a cup.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Your applesauce looks awesome! I want to dive right in with a spoon!
October 28th, 2008 at 8:28 am
They say that to make applesauce from scratch you first must recreate the universe
October 28th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Just found you from Problogger.
I make uncooked/raw applesauce – it’s fast and easy since you don’t have to cook it. I use maple syrup for a sweetener to avoid the refined sugar…a little bit more healthy that way. Tastes great, too. Like an apple pie.
I’m enjoying my look around your blog.
Kelly
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:53 pm
[...] Homemade Applesauce [...]
September 10th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I love the basic recipe and made this in my pressure cooker in 10 minutes. I used homegrown granny smith apples and they were delicious! I was curious about freezing applesauce so am freezing about half of the batch to see what it tastes like when defrosted.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Hi, Looks wonderful!!! I too make mine with a bit of chunks left in. I use the spiral cutter/peeler/corer. It works prefect and saves lots of time (since I do 200 lbs at a time). I put my sliced apples in the pot, then cover them and put them in the oven on 250′. This saves from sortched bottoms and little stirring is needed. Give it a try and you will never do it on the stove top again. Oh I use only macoun apples.
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Mark, just a simple tip to make your apple sauce that much better. Get rid of the water and the ground cinnamon. First of all, I prefer granny smith apples, but that is simply preference. Second, I use cinnamon sticks instead of ground cinnamon. The reason for this is that a cinnamon stick is like a peppercorn. Each one holds essential oils that contain most of the flavor. When you crack or heat a peppercorn or cinnamon stick the essential oils release and you achieve your highest and most pure level of flavor. Who knows how long that ground cinnamon has been sitting on the shelf. It’s essential oils were gone ages ago. The second recommendation is not to add the water, but instead to keep your temperature very low and cover the pot with aluminum foil. This keeps all of your flavors where they belong, in the applesauce. Also, it doesn’t dilute the pure flavor of the apples. Hope this tip helps.
December 29th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
How many apples in 3 lbs. and how much does it make??
September 30th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
I was just wondering about canning the applesauce and how?
July 31st, 2011 at 9:58 am
hi, i want to know how to can with regular pots i dont have a pressure cooker, how to do apple canning without cooking the enzymes out of the fruit or vegtable, i also made some sourkraut and i would like to can it for long term use. again my purpose is to keep the natural probiotic and enzymatic effect of fermentation i just don’t know how to can. as for the applesauce, i grate 6 – 8 granny apples, (after peeling) and immediately sprinkle a tbsp of fresh squeezed lemon on it to keep it from turning brown (thru oxidation), then i place in mason jars for consumption within a 24 hour period. (refrigerate) I would like to make large batches my family absolutely loves uncooked apples this way
October 13th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
thanx, good write up!