Homemade Applesauce

After picking over 300 free apples, I started researching how to make and can applesauce. I found a few different methods, and recipes, and just kind of winged it and made a batch. And it was pretty good! My goal was to use no extra sugar or anything, so it would be as natural as possible. I tried it out on my taste testers (aka my kiddos), and they gobbled it right up. So I think this method works pretty well.

Homemade Applesauce

(makes 4 quarts)

What you will need:
About 12 pounds of apples (about 36 medium sized apples)
5 cups water
1/4 lemon juice

1. Fill a large pot with the water and lemon juice.
2. Peel, core, and slice your apples. Add them to the pot of water as you slice them. Stir occasionally to coat with the lemon juice.
3. When all the apples are chopped, place pot on the stove, bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes, or until apples are tender.
*While your apples are simmering, is a good time to get you jars sterilized and ready
4. When apples are tender, spoon apples and some of the water into a blender. Puree apples to the consistency you want for your applesauce (my kids like it really smooth, so I puree it thoroughly).
5. Ladle the applesauce into hot, sterilized jars, leaving about 1/2" head space. Process the jars for 25 minutes. Let cool on the counter for 24 hours.

You can also freeze the applesauce, if you prefer.

Resources used:
heavenlyhomemakers.com
freshpreserving.com
pickyourown.org

Apples, Apples and More Apples!!

Yay for apple season!

There were a lot of things I wanted to try making with apples this year, so I was ecstatic when my father-in-law stopped by one Sunday morning and said his neighbor had 2 trees full of apples I could come pick for free! So I spent the afternoon picking tons of apples and researching recipes.

I started with 1 batch of each recipe I wanted to try. So I made up 6 quarts applesauce, 3 quarts of apple pie filling and 3 pints of apple butter, which barely made a dent in my apple supply! So then came more applesauce, more pie filling, and a different apple butter recipe to try. With plenty of apples still left, I had my mom dig up some of my grandmas old recipes, and I made 2 batches of apple crisp for the freezer. At this point I was running out of ideas, time and good apples, so I just made more applesauce (I had found a lot of recipes that use applesauce in them, so I figured I would be able to use it up) and chopped and froze some apples to make more apple crisp with.

After I used up all the apples I had picked, I found a recipe for apple chips that sounded yummy. Since apples are so cheap this time of year, I had a bunch in the fridge, so I baked some up. They were pretty good too! The boys ate them up like crazy! They are weirdly addicting, so they didn't last too long around here.

Final count: 16 quarts of applesauce, 2 quarts of cinnamon applesauce, 6 quarts of apple pie filling, 5 pints of apple butter, 2 apple crisps, 12 cups of chopped apples, and a couple cups of apple chips. Needless to say, I won't have to buy applesauce for a LONG time, and we will have lots of yummy apple treats to eat this winter!

I did the math, and I used over 270 apples!!! And they were all free!