Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 « A Mother’s Journal

Homemade Applesauce

By , on January 21st, 2009%

I have found that homemade applesauce is very easy and unbelievably quick to make. I love being frugal with our money and our food. Homemade applesauce has been a way to do this lately.

I have a dear friend who yearly brings me boxes of fruit for the holiday season. We appreciate it so very much. Sometimes it’s so much fruit that we cannot get through it all before some of the apples start to get a bit grainy.

I’ve come up with the perfect recipe for us to use about half a dozen apples at the time and have fresh, hot applesauce with some of our meals.

I peel about 6 medium to large apples and then slice pieces off, placing them into a heavy pot, discarding the core. I put enough water in the pot to cover only about 1/4 way up. Too much water will make runny, watery applesauce. :p

On medium-high heat, I bring the water to a boil and let the apples cook until soft and easy to chop up with a hand-held chopper. This really only takes about 15 minutes and then you can turn the heat off and let the apples sit for a few minutes to cool down a bit. I chop the apples up somewhat with the hand-held chopper, then add about 1/4 cup of sugar (maybe less, give or take), plenty of cinnamon (you can add to your taste), and a little bit of Smart Balance (a “butter” blend that we like, but this step is optional).

I then put the still-chunky applesauce into my blender and puree for a couple of seconds. From there it goes into a pretty jar for our meal and for storage in the fridge if it’s not all eaten. Rare.