Recipe: It's Applesauce Season

Right now is the perfect time to head to a farmer's market or orchard and buy lots and lots of apples. Sure, you can make pie with them, but applesauce is healthier, easier to freeze, and yummiful. Plus, it's really easy to make. My kids love it. I love it, too--especially with plain Greek yogurt and a bit of maple syrup!

The best apples for sauce are the ones that are tart, and too mangled to make good regular eating. Once, Eve and I found an old apple tree on our property from which we got a giant basket of the ugliest apples you ever saw--but it made the best sauce!

Here is my recipe for applesauce:

Maria's Applesauce

Ingredients:

4 cups water
24 (or so) apples
Juice of ½ lemon
6 whole cloves
2 sticks cinnamon
½ cup sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Put about 2 inches of water in the bottom of a saucepan (4 cups or so). Put the pan on the stovetop and turn the burner on low.
2. Peel the apples, cut them into pieces, and add them to the water. Make sure to cut out any bad spots!
3. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the mix to stop the apples from turning brown.
4. Add the cloves and cinnamon.
5. Cook on medium to low heat until the apples turn to mush--maybe a half hour to an hour.
6. Taste. If it's too tart, add sugar.
7. Pick out the cloves and cinnamon, and serve!

If you want to freeze it, put the applesauce in a container and stick it in the freezer. It tastes just as great when you thaw it.

 

 

Follow Maria Rodale on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mariaFCK

Comments

[jones]

NOOOOOl!!!! Don't peel the apple. put it thru a food mill or food processor with a fine blade to chop up the skin as much as possible and keep it in...its the best part and all the nutrition is in the apple skin. Other than that.... the recipe is okay.

jonesy... a big applesauce monger.

[princeza]

The recipe looks great! I'll have to try it. For me, nothing says autumn like apples from a roadside stand (if I can't pick them myself), and my mom and I in the kitchen making apple crisp- a little maple syrup and cinnamon goes a long way.

[josephebacon]

Nothing makes my taste buds applaud more than when they encounter fresh cooked applesauce with plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg! :-)

[Betsy]

You can peel apples quickly with a potato peeler instead of a knife. An apple corer is another handy tool but you have to put a little muscle into it. Place the apple stem side up on a cutting board, grasp the apple firmly and push the corer straight down until it meets the cutting board . Give the corer a twist and pull up.

[MaryMaine]

You're right about apple sauce being healthier than apple pie. BUT I would discourage the use of sugar. try healthier sweetners if sweeten you must. How about a drizzle of brown rice syrup, much easier on the blood sugar and delicious. ...

[Periwinkle]

The recipe is similar to the one I use, but I pump up the apple flavor by substituting fresh cider for the water. I love applesauce - great alone, great as a side and great as a baking ingredient to replace fat in a recipe.

[jade7243]

Just sat down after making a batch. It's so easy you can eyeball it.

12 apples, peeled, cored and diced.
1/4 to 1/2 cup honey
1/2 to 1 cup of sugar
Pinch of salt
1 to 2 cups of water

Add to all ingredients to pot, bring to rolling boil, when apples begin to soften,(after about 10 15 minutes) turn heat down to low simmer.Once apples begin to soften, give them a stir and use potato masher every few minutes to smash apples into chunky puree. Taste. Adjust sweetness, if necessary by adding more sugar and/or honey. Allow to simmer until all apples are soft and smashed.

[Trittydi]

We need a kick-ass Apple Crisp recipe. This makes quickly and freezes easily in foil pans for quick easy cooking. Save all the pans for next year.

Looking for the perfect heart-healthy recipe
*

[mommadona]

Here ya go...altho there's nothing to replace brown sugar/oatmeal/cinnamon/butter crumbles...

http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=67

[Angie Cordeiro - Huffpost Blogger]

Made my first baked apple last night! Lots of cinnamon and maple syrup with a little sprinkle of nuts and raisins. Doing it again tonight ;-)

[walks]

absolutely easy baked apples -- wash apples and slit skin all the way around up towards the top. stack six or eight small ones in a glass pie plate. microwave on high until soft -- 6-8 minutes. serve plain, hot or cold -- maybe with some ground cinnamon for dipping.

[antaeus]

HuffPost's Pick

Made my first batch last week. Life's too short for an October without apples.

But a food mill is a reasonable expense, and then you don't have to peel the apples.