Apple Sauce Recipe 

As shown by Professional Home Economist, Getty Stewart on MAHE’s Family and Home Segment on Breakfast Television on August 9, 2011

It doesn’t matter what size or type of apple you have, this recipe will turn any apples into a delicious, versatile apple sauce.  Once you’re done, read further for a list of inspiring ideas for how you can use your homemade apple sauce.

 Ingredients

6 lbs of apples (crab apples, apple crabs or eating apples)

1 cup of water

*This recipe works for whatever quantity or variety of apples you have.

Preparation

Wash apples and remove any leaves. (You do not have to remove the core, peel or stems.)

Cut apples into quarters or halves depending on size.

Pour water into large stock pot.

Add apples to the pot.

Cover and bring to boil.

Turn heat to low and let apples simmer until they are soft and mushy (20-30 minutes).

Stir every 10 minutes and add more water if mixture is too thick or dry (consistency will vary depending on your apples).

Take off heat.

Separate cores, peels, and stems from the sauce with a food mill or by squishing the mix through a strainer.

Enjoy your applesauce!

Apple Sauce Ideas

Now that you have fresh, homemade applesauce, here are some ideas for what you can do with it:

• Eat it!  Enjoy it as is for a refreshing snack or dessert.
• Sweeten it.  If you prefer a sweet apple sauce add a little sweetener.  Try sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave juice, stevia, sucralose, etc.
• Spice it up.  Cinnamon is perfect for apple sauce, but why not try adding something different like pumpkin pie spice, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, vanilla extract.
• Make it savoury.  Leave out the sugar and toss in some herbs like rosemary, thyme or sage to accompany pork or lamb.
• Top it up.  Use applesauce as a topping for granola, pancakes, ice cream,oatmeal, coffee cake, toast, cinnamon buns, etc.
• Freeze it.  Simply spoon into a container or freezer bag and freeze it to enjoy another time.
• Can it.  Place hot apple sauce in sterilized canning jars and process it in a boiling hot water bath for 15 minutes.
• Dehydrate it.  Make your own fruit leather (aka fruit roll ups) in a food dehydrator.  A delicious, take anywhere snack.
• Bake with it.  Make delicious apple sauce muffins, breads, loafs, cookies, bars, etc.
• Cook with it.  Use apple sauce in pancakes, soups and stews.  
• Lower the fat in baked goods.  Use apple sauce to replace the butter, margarine or oil in your favourite recipes.  A general guideline is toreplace half the amount of fat in a recipe with an equal amount of apple sauce.  For example if a recipe calls for 1 cup of oil, use ½ cup of oil and ½ cup of apple sauce.
• Lower the sugar in desserts.  Use apple sauce instead of sugar, honey or syrup to sweeten non-baked desserts.  You can even replace some of the sugar in baked goods with applesauce by 1/3 and decreasing the amount of other liquids added.