Monday, August 8, 2011

Apple Sauce From Scratch



My good friend had a couple of apple trees with ripe fruit ready to pick, so I packed up my daughter and grabbed some beautiful apples. They were very tart, but now that they've rested a bit, they are much sweeter. The taste is between a yellow and a green apple, so they are very delicious. The only drawback with the apples is that they will not keep as well if left for long periods of time. Since I had two other generous friends who let me pick fruit from their trees, I gave them some of the apples, and decided to try and preserve some of my apples for future use.  Following the advice of another brilliant friend of mine, I decided to make my own applesauce and keep it safely in the freezer. It was surprisingly easy to make, and it tasted like apple pie filling!
Here's all you need:
Apples, sugar, and cinnamon

First, I peeled the apples. Then, I sliced them up into chunks and dumped them into a large pot. I don't mind the natural brown color that cut apples get, so I left mine as is, but if the color is a problem, a bit of lemon juice will stop the color change. On low heat, the chunks became soft enough to release juice and soften up for mashing into a beautiful, chunky applesauce. Then I used my potato masher and carefully mashed the apples, making sure to not burn myself on the steam or rogue bits of apple that shot out of the pan from the movement. To finish the applesauce, I added sugar and cinnamon. I like mine a little tart, so I used a little sugar and a little cinnamon. I just added a little bit at a time, and tasted it until it was just right. Not bad for my first time making applesauce!

This is when I added the chopped apples.

As they heat, the color becomes a gorgeous golden brown.
This is when the apples start to get soft and begin to release juice.

The finished product. Pure bliss!

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