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.

Applesauce Cake

I don't like those little individual servings of applesauce. I don't like them because they are so watery. So when I'm jonsing for some applesauce, I have to buy the big jar. Then I eat a little of it and that's enough and I don't know what to do with the rest.

I read somewhere that you could use applesauce in place of oil in any cake. But how often do you make cake? Then I had it, autumn is eminent, why not make an applesauce cake? I used Google Blog Search to find a recipe and came up with a golden ticket. As luck would have it, I had some extra buttermilk lying around too!

Unfortunately, I made an error in cooking time..or perhaps there is a misprint in the recipe? Either way, this is what happened. I cooked th cake in an 8x8 glass cake pan for the listed time, I tested it with a toothpick and it came out clean. I let the cake cool. Late into the evening--around 11, I decided to cut the cake into squares so that I could bring it to work and not eat it all myself. The edges were done, but unfortunately, the middle was not. It was completely raw, but it had been cooling for so long. I salvaged the edges and the bottom and threw the remainder away.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. allspice
½ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. salt
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
½ tsp. vanilla
1 cup applesauce
¼ cup buttermilk

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour the bottom of an 8x8 pan (next time I will use 2 regular circle pans)
2. Sift together the first seven ingredients
3. Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and applesauce.
5. The mixture at this point is very wet. Alternate flour mixture and buttermilk with the mixer at very low speed. Be sure to start and end with flour.
6. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

This was a big hit at the office. Thanks for the recipe, Kristen!