Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Homemade Applesauce

We headed over to my sister-in-law's house for New Years Eve and were privileged to taste hot, fresh homemade applesauce. There is something about that flavor that makes me crave gingerbread and think of childhood and this was no exception. Upon arriving home that next morning (A whole year later!), my husband insisted that I get the recipe and make it ourselves.

And so, this weekend we did make the sauce ourselves. As it is with this kind of thing, it never tastes exactly the same as the first time you have it. My husband tells me our sauce is sweeter and it should be tarter--but it is not bad, still delicious, just different. The thing is the recipe calls for 6lbs of apples, so reducing the recipe to 2lbs of apples is tricky--but a more manageable amount of sauce for 2. I'll tell you how we adapted the recipe this time...but likely next time we'll try a slightly different combination of ingredients--or just use 3lbs of apples!

Ingredients
2lbs apples (any variety, we used fuji and pink lady)
1/4 C apple cider (we used Simply Apple Juice from the refrigerator aisle)
1/4 C brown sugar, not packed trying to get something like 1/6 C
1/3 of a Lemon
1 cinnamon stick

Directions
1. Peel apples and cut into 3/4 inch chunks
2. Add apples and all other ingredients to a pot making sure to submerge the cinnamon stick in the flood of apples
3. Simmer for 30 minutes over medium heat stirring occasionally. Puree with immersion blender or mash with potato masher to desired consistency. Serve warm or refrigerate.

2 comments:

Jenny said...

A whole year later! LOL

It's interesting you used a cinnamon stick! Also, for the apple cider, I bought the kind that is in the produce section, which may (or may not be) more cidery, although Simply Apple does have a nice cider.

Nadine said...

A suggestion -- don't add the sugar until you have finished cooking the apples. That way you can taste and decide if it even needs sugar.

Come visit in the fall and we can actually can the apple sauce so you can eat when you want. I did a number of jars with a friend this fall. The apples have a reddish flesh, so the applesauce is naturally a pretty pink color.

A final note, when we were little, Grandma Bev added "red hots" to the applesauce she made to give it a prettier color and add a little zip.