You don’t peel the apples?!
No, I don’t peel the apples! That’s the secret to easy homemade applesauce. Peeling the apples is time consuming and strips the final product of valuable fiber and vitamins. Skip it!
To make homemade applesauce, simply wash a whole lot of apples. Slice them into chunks, making sure to cut out any bad spots. I move faster with my apple wedger
Fill your largest stock pot full to the brim with sliced apples. Mix about ½ cup of lemon juice with about 1½ cups of water, and pour it over the top.
Put the lid on and cook the apples on medium heat until they are soft. 30-45 minutes, maybe?
Once the apples are soft, I attack them with my immersion blender
I’m not a canner, so once the applesauce cools, I scoop it 3 cups to a quart bag, flatten and freeze.
We prefer natural, no sugar applesauce, and find it to be plenty sweet, but feel free to add sweetener and/or cinnamon to yours! For chunkier applesauce, mash the apples with a potato masher or simply blend for a shorter amount of time.
Applesauce can be made in the crock pot, also. Follow the exact same process, but cook the apples for several hours or overnight.
yum! We just finished apple sauce, apple butter and apple pie filling on Saturday. It’s just lovely having all the apple goodness put up for enjoying over the next several months.
I desperately need to get some apple pie filling made before all my apples are gone! I’ve done 40 cups of sauce and several apple crisps and other desserts that we’ve eaten, but I have no pie filling put away. Oops!
I cook my apples in the slow cooker. Then because I like my sauce a little chunky, I use a hand held potato masher on them.
I never thought to use an immersion blender. Duh.
Like Carole, I use a potato masher to keep it chunky….but I”ll remember the blender next time!!
The potato masher is a great way to keep it chunky. You’ll see/feel the peels a little that way, but that doesn’t bother me.
Thank you for this post! It sure is coming at the right time for me. My husband called me from work this morning and said he has 2 huge boxes of cooking apples for me. So, I will be making and canning applesauce for the 5 of us. And, I’ll get to use my trust boat motor on it (immersion blender).
Lisa
Boat motor. Yes! Ha!
I made this with the 20 apples (tiny ones) from our own tree that I picked on Friday. It worked great! So, I’ll be making much more with the 2 boxes of apples hubby is bringing home! Thanks again for posting this great tip!
Tis the season, eh? I love this time of year! I make mine in the crockpot, and like you, this year, I will be making it without sugar due to a new way of eating (no gluten/sugar/dairy). For those who dont want to spend a fortune on apples and dont have their own trees, you can ask an orchard in your area if they have “deer apples.” These are apples that have fallen on the ground, but can be purchased at a fraction of the cost. We have an orchard who is selling their deer apples for $3/bushel. With these apples, we may have a few bad ones that get fed to the chickens or put into the compost pile, but for $3/bushel, we dont mind! I plan on getting 3-5 bushels this year for apple pie in a jar as gifts, applesauce and apple butter. Yum.
$3/bushel is an amazing price! Another great reason for no sugar in the applesauce… then you can use it as an oil substitute in baking.
I grew up with the home made unsweetened applesauce and I rather have it then store bought any day. Only thing I do differently with mine is I use my grandma’s apple grinder thingie instead of a immersion blender.
Is that one of those cone-shaped things with little holes in it? My mom mentioned using one of those and I told her it was too much work. LOL I don’t even wash the immersion blender. Just rinse and put it away.
Yup, it is.. I just think of it as a mini workout.
Thanks for sharing this recipe Amy!! I had always stayed away from making apple sauce because (a) I’m lazy and didn’t want to peel all of them and (b) it seemed wasteful not to use the peels when they are full of vitamins and fiber! So gad to know this secret!
You’re welcome. A lot of my good ideas stem from laziness.
I love the no-peel method, but I hate the little tiny pieces of peel in there. I cook mine the same way without peeling them, but then I put them through a food mill. I love, love, love the consistency of them! Just like store bought, except made with local, organic apples with no added sweetener! Can’t beat that! I’m working my way through a bushel of apples this week, and I’ll be ordering more next week! Love the healthy snacks!
I honestly don’t even notice the peel, but maybe I just blend the heck out of it? lol Good luck with your bushel of apples! It’s worth it!
What variety of apples do you use? Also, would a standard mixer work?
I use whatever is on my neighbor’s tree.
He says they’re some kind of “delicious” variety, but they are NOT red delicious. I think they taste more like a gala, but I’m really not sure. There are actually two different trees in his yard. I just mixed the apples. My mom was going to try it with her mixer. If she does, I’ll let you know how it turns out. My *guess* (just a guess) is that a mixer won’t chop up the peels as well as a blender, but if you don’t mind a little peel, it should probably be fine.
Good to know! Clearly, applesauce is very flexible.
Thanks!
Now that I have an apple wash that I use to make sure I get all the wax off my apples, I could totally see myself making use of this approach. The DIY apple wash is super simple – http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2012/09/kitchen-tip-removing-apple-wax.html. Yea for applesaucing!
I was ready to not peel the apples last time I made applesauce but hubby said no and he would peel them. I am going to try this sometime. I usually put them in my crock pot for a few hours with no water and then mash them lightly with a potato masher – we like ours chunky!
LOOOOOOOOOve this
first time saucer here
freezing sounds so easy
MY ONLY Suggestion is – especially for our kiddos
take timeto get the organic apples
to avoid pesticides,
online co ops have bulk organic on the cheap
sometimes food pantries do toooo
Yes! I buy all of mine from Azure in 20 pound boxes. Well, except for the ones I used for the applesauce. Those were off of our neighbor’s tree, so I know they were safe.
How much cinnamon would you add for a pot of apples?
Oh, gosh. I’ve never measured. A few tablespoons, for sure.
Okay thanks! I used about a teaspoon per blender-ful (made 3 blenders full) and it was perfect! It’s delicious! How long does it keep in the fridge in a covered glass container?