We may squirm at the appearance of imperfect apples, but local apple trees that aren’t sprayed with chemicals can still make delicious applesauce that is quite nutritious. If you have a food mill or a Kitchen Aid with the proper attachments, you don’t even have to peel and core them. Here’s how:
- Cut apples in quarters, leaving the skins and cores intact. Leaving the skins on enables you to enjoy more flavor plus helps retain a bit of the color. Best of all, it saves loads of time.
- If necessary, cut out browned, damaged or wormy portions of the apples.
- Using your biggest pot, fill the bottom with between half an inch to an inch of water and then fill it to the top with the apples.
- Turn your stove to high and cover with a lid until it boils.
- Upon boiling, lower the heat, remove the lid and stir occasionally, ensuring that apples from the bottom don’t get scorched. When the apples become soft enough to easily pierce with a fork and appear mushy (30-45 minutes depending on the size of the pot), they are ready to be processed.
- Process the apples in a device that will separate the skins, seeds and cores from the remainder of the apples. Years ago I used a Foley Food Mill that didn’t require electricity, but now I use a KitchenAid with the food grinder attachment combined with the fruit and vegetable strainer parts attachment that completes the job in a fraction of the time. It processes the apples in minutes!
- The remaining applesauce is usually sweet enough to serve as is, but if the apples are a bit tart, you can add brown sugar and cinnamon to taste. When served warm, it tastes like a dessert, but it can be a lovely side dish to accompany a savory meal.
Note: Applesauce freezes beautifully, so I make huge batches and freeze my applesauce in one-gallon Ziplock freezer bags and defrost them as needed. My goal is to make 12 gallons each year so that I can defrost one per month and enjoy homemade applesauce year-round!
When my children were babies, I used the pure applesauce without brown sugar or cinnamon as baby food, thus enabling us to save a tremendous amount of money. I froze them in smaller units (within an ice cube tray overnight, then I popped the cubes out into a Ziplock freezer bag for longer term storage).
In my 25 years of making applesauce, I haven’t yet had to buy apples for this annual harvest project. Living in New England, there are plenty of neighbors or fellow church members who have an apple tree in their yard who have allowed me to pick for free, though since they don’t spray them, they have warned me that they have worms. Surprisingly, even when we lived in Utah we had a neighbor with an apple tree! Though cutting away the worms can feel daunting at first, it has yielded an abundance of free delicious applesauce. Each year I have praised the Lord for His provision through apples.
Happy apple saucing, and enjoy the autumn harvest!
Psa. 65:11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. (ESV)
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