Homemade Applesauce the Easy Way
Chop, Boil, Puree. That’s it.
1) Chop.
My dad worked in a slaughter house for years to put himself through school. He still likes to answer his phone with phrases like “City Morgue. You stab ’em, we slab ’em.” Or, “You slice ’em, we dice ’em.” I don’t know that there’s a correlation between the former employment and the City Morgue (animals v. humans, not such a big stretch), but I always think of those phrases when I’m chopping a bunch of anything. As an aside, my dad will eat any meat product, despite the fact that he knows what nasty stuff goes into those no-brand hot dogs. Sigh.
I worked with a bag of organic apples from the Coop, and just washed, sliced, and chopped them. You don’t have to go too small, but the smaller it is, the smaller the peels will be. I don’t peel the apples at this stage for J as he doesn’t seem to choke on the occasional peel piece. Younger kiddos, definitely peel them because no amount of blending or even ricing can completely get rid of the peel.
2) Boiling water.
You can add the apples before or after the water boils. Whichever you prefer. Just go until the apples are soft.
3) Puree!
I added a little bit of water from the stockpot to ease the softening. Usually I use a food mill (which produces better applesauce, in my opinion), but today was a Vitamix day. (I.e., easier.)
4) Serve! and freeze easily.
Great post! I am definitely going to make this. Thanks for the excellent recipe. Stop by and say hi 🙂
Awesome blog! Love the pics of your adorable dog. My sister lives in NYC–I’ll send her your electronic way.
If you do have a foodmill, the applesauces is better. If you don’t feel like cleaning your foodmill (me!), then a blender like the vitamix works too. Hope you enjoy what you make!
Sounds great thank you! Thanks for checking out the blog 😀
Looks delicious. It always is…
How can something so simple be so good??
As the recent recipients of this deliciousness, I can attest that it is AMAZING warmed up and poured over vanilla ice cream! (I promise I shared some with the little one, too!)
OOOH! That sounds so good. I might need to go and do that right now!!
C loves loves loves his homemade apple sauce (and so do mama and dada)–his particular fave for breakfast these days is a mixture of apple sauce, whole fat ricotta cheese, whole fat yogurt, ezekial 7:9 whole grains of some varietal, and a dash of cinnamon. It’s delish (mama likes to sneak a bite or two–ahh, full fat dairy is so very tasty)!
I also like to mix a bit of applesauce in C’s veggies–it’s a surefire way to make sure he noms them all–especially the more bitter ones like collard greens and swiss chard (huzzah for iron rich dark leafy greens for a babeh who won’t eat meat).
Um. YUM! I want C’s breakfast!!
Excellent notion on mixing with the dark greens. I was mixing mine with yogurt but then realized that the iron & calcium cling together in some scientific way and don’t get digested as completely. I will go with applesauce now. Thanks, lady!
[…] We had a massive garden last year. See post here. We also got really into composting. See post here. Now that it’s March (though there is lots of snow on the ground still around here in the Metro area), I’m contemplating our garden for this spring and what will be in it. J has a little book on gardening that he likes to paw through and point & name his favorite garden items. You guessed them: blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Luckily we have all those in the ground already from last year. We also planted two apple trees for his birthday in late summer last year. Hoping to get some to make apple sauce! […]