APPLE SAUCE

[Linda in San Diego]

Wow, I love the question and all the answers! I love the idea of the crockpot recipe - of couse it is all gone - after the smell fills the house all day!

I am tempted to take my crockpot to school so my students and I can smell it all day!

Has anyone used a sugar substitute like Splenda? How did it turn out? And what kind of apples are best?

I can't believe it it November already - here in San Diego County we had temps high enough to cause heat stroke in one of our girls at the parade and feild competition I was at with my daughter's band. Low 90's, today our high was 70, so it switched around a bit, but it can still warm up again.

Thanks again for such a great question - I am going to have to subscribe to this topic!

 

[skeeter9]

I haven't tried any other sweeteners, but I"m sure Splenda would work. I live by an apple farm that grows many different kinds of apples. I've tried them all and have found them all to make great applesauce. The only kinds of apples I never use for anything are Red and Golden Delicious. I prefer apples with more flavor than these - even the freshly-picked, farm grown ones are not my favorite.

Edited to add: I'm making applesauce in my crockpot right now (it's close to being done) and I can hardly keep my kids out of the kitchen!!!!!

 

[quercus21]

Our method:
Core, peel and chunk the apples. Fill a pot with the chunk apples, add water to approximately half the volume of the apples. Slow cook the apples with a lid on the pot. Monitor the water level and stir during the cooking. Sometime we don't cook the apples all the way down so we have a "chunky" sauce, or continue cooking till you have the sauce you like. After we have cook the apples down to the way we like it, we'll add some flavoring. Some of the flavoring we have tried are (flavor to taste) honey, vanilla, cinnamon. I want to try it with Frangelico. A lot of times, we'll freeze the sauce "unflavored" and add the flavoring when we are going to consume it. We love our apples warm. We did a little over a bushel this year.

 

[chiknwhisperer]

I put my apples in my crockpot this morning. Do I really just let them stay there until they look like apple sauce? I don't need to use a blender? I had no idea there were so many ways to make apple sauce1

 

[sara]

I just did 4 bushels of apples with my sister. Quarter the apples, put in pan with a little water in the bottom to keep them from sticking in the bottom. Cook until soft. Put apples through squeezo. This removes skind and seeds. You can add sugar to taste, but I find it's usually sweet enough. Put applesauce in canning jars and can according to directions. I use 20 min in water bath canner according to the Ball blue book of canning.

 

[patandchickens]

I quarter them if they are organic apples, or if they have been sprayed I peel them (on my hand-cranked peeler which also cores and slices them) and put 'em in a big pot, NO added water, then cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, til it's applesauce. Time varies from like 30 min to like 2 hrs, depending on various things. Then run thru a food mill to remove peels and seeds, or if you peeled/cored your apples first you can just stir it a bit with a spoon and leave it slightly lumpy. DON'T use a blender, it removes the better qualities of the texture IMO. You can add sugar or lemon juice or spices to taste, at this point, but I virtually never do, I think it's tastiest with just plain ol' apples and nuthin else.

The peel and core add excellent extra taste, nutrition, and color, but IMO aren't the swiftest idea to leave in there for apples that have been sprayed (not everything washes off). The worst spot for spray residue is in the crevices around the stem and around the blossom end.

I think a mix of at least 2 different kinds of apples gives the best applesauce -- using Gala as one of 'em gives excellent taste and texture. You can make applesauce out of anything (even red delicious in combination with other varieties, if for some reason you have access to a free supply of them), but very hard cooking apples like Northern Spy will take an unprofitably long time to get soft.

Golden Delicious is, btw, utterly totally unrelated to Red Delicious. Golden Delicious is actually quite a good all-round apple, especially good for pies, but also tasty for fresh eating and applesauce and all that sort of stuff. Don't mistakenly hate the one just cuz the other is lousy

Have fun,

Pat

 

[chiknwhisperer]

I did it!!

I made my first batch of apple sauce and DH liked it and said it turned out great. It wasn't exactly the way I wanted it to look , but they liked it ! Yeah!! Thank you guys so much!

 

[debilorrah]

OK, here's mine. My recipes are simple and over 100 years old.

8 granny smith apples
1 cups of sugar
fill the pot with water until you can see it
cover the top with cinnamon
1 slice of lemon - generous slice

Boil until the apples are soft enough to mash with a potato masher, cool and enjoy.

This recipe is over 100 years old and it is the best I have ever found.

 

[chiknwhisperer]

That one sounds great. I'll have to make that my next try. Well four out of six of us like my applesauce. So I guess I'm not doing to bad.

 

[debilorrah]

That recipe has never had anyone say eewww. Unless they don't like cinnamon....