Homemade Applesauce

Jacob, my fiance, LOVES apples in all forms. Perhaps, this stems from the cases of apples his grandparents in Buena Vista buy from a local orchard for the family to enjoy. His favorite way to eat them- on his truck's tailgate cutting it with his leatherman. I, on the other hand, am a little more apprehensive. I love the flavor of apple but not the texture. In other words, I eat apple everything except fresh apple. Over the summer, I began eating lots of all-natural canned fruits and applesauce as it was a healthy and worry-free alternative even with my hectic work hours. I vowed then, that when I had more time, I would try my hand at making my own.

I started with a basic recipe I found on my favorite recipe site Allrecipes. I used Sarah's Applesauce as a starting basis as it was highly rated by over a thousand people. For my apples, I chose to used Cameo apples since they were on sale. (Kroger fans check it out- $0.99/lb this week!)

Cameo apples are a thin-skinned apple that have a sweetness level of 5 with Granny Smith, the most tart, being a one and Red Delicious and Fugi, the sweetest, ranking in at 10.

I decided to quadruple the recipe so I would have plenty for the week, so I began by peeling, coring, and chopping 16 apples. Normally a chore, I actually looked forward to this process thanks to the awesome new chopper my grandma got me for Christmas.

I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quality slicer/chopper/corer. Here's its link at Williams-Sonoma.

This baby cored these apples with ease. As with any corer, I had to go back and touch up some slices but it definitely cut down on my time and effort significantly!

After coring, I cut the apple slices into large chunks and put them into my pot. Yup, it is from the Paula Dean collection. I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a nice basic set of pots on a budget. My tequila swigging comrade, Kaley, also has the same pots in black and also loves hers.

 Next, I added 3 cups of water, 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar, and a spice mixture of 3 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger. It doesn't seem like this is enough water but remind yourself that fruit is mostly made up of water. I reduced the amount of sugar significantly because Cameos are a sweeter apple and I normally buy the no sugar added applesauce. This amount could, of course, be increased for personal tastes. I also like my applesauce with plenty of cinnamon so I increased this amount by quite a bit and added in nutmeg and ground ginger, keys in any cinnamon mix, to round it out.

 Then, I covered my pot and cooked the apples on medium. The recipe calls for 18-20 minutes but, of course, with a pot this large, it increases the time a bit. I cooked my apples for about 30 minutes, until tender when pierced with a fork.

Once the apples are done cooking, they should look something like this. I let mine cool for about 10-15 minutes before I started mashing. You will definitely need a potato masher for this. Jacob has a nice one like the one in the link that came for who knows where. You could pull out your food processor or blender to get a smoother texture, more like the store variety, but I opted to leave mine in the more rustic state (that dirtied less dishes!)

Yum! Enjoy your freshly made applesauce! It's absolutely delicious warm and got the seal of approval from Jacob and his friend Josh, who is a rather picky eater. It's a great recipe for a rainy/snowy day and left the apartment smelling amazing! Stay hungry my friends!