Lazy homemade applesauce is the easiest and the best
bakingwithtradition.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for websites to earn advertising revenues by advertising and linking to recommended products. Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
Homemade applesauce with nothing but apples cooked down to perfection is one of the easiest things you can make yourself.
And you should. Homemade applesauce is a million times more flavorful than anything you can buy. This recipe will shock you too with its simplicity. This is a LAZY people’s applesauce recipe. With almost zero prep work and a few minutes of turning the crank on a food mill, you can make unsweetened applesauce at home that preserves the very best taste of apples.
You cannot buy anything this good. The good news is that it is fall off a log easy to make with whatever apples you can find.
So go grab some apples and let’s put them up.
Lazy homemade applesauce
True confessions of a former applesauce hater
I used to despise applesauce. I took me years to figure out why; store-bought applesauce is soulless. It barely tastes like apples and it has no texture whatsoever. Baby food deserves better.
Then I started making my own applesauce and I realized how much better applesauce could be. Real applesauce will make your house smell like a Fall breeze. All the warm coziness of cinnamon and pumpkin picking is near at hand when you make a batch. A cup of this is an actual treat instead of a tasteless puree.
What you’ll love about this lazy applesauce recipe
- Almost zero prep: There’s no peeling. By cooking the apples with the peels, you gain more of the nutrients and color from the apple skin. Plus, you save a ton of work by not having to bother with coring and peeling the apples.
- Pure apple essence: by slowly cooking down the apples, the apple flavor gets concentrated in the best possible way.
- No babysitting the pot: Putting up jam can be a sweaty kitchen-splattering affair. In this case, we simply let the apples gently cook down and deal with them when they’re tender. Stir them when you think about it, but otherwise, you can do many things around the house while the applesauce is cooking.
What you need to make homemade applesauce
- Apples: try to avoid sour varieties like Granny Smith, but otherwise, most apples make good sauce. Good varieties include:
- Pink lady
- Macintosh
- Jonathan
- Jonagold
- Ginger gold
- Gala
- Honeycrisp
- Liberty
- Golden delicious
- Fuji
- Apple pie spice: optional, but nice if you want to spice your applesauce. You can also use plain cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or even chai spice blend.
The best apples for making applesauce
- Organic if at all possible: since we’re cooking the apples in the skins, it’s best to make sure you’re not concentrating down anything the apples were sprayed with during growing. If you can only get conventional apples, wash them with vinegar or in a baking soda solution, carefully scrubbing them to remove as much of the bad stuff as possible.
- A variety: I’m lucky enough to get a couple bushels of apples from my uncle’s apple orchard most years. As such, we usually get several varieties of apples, making for a much more interesting flavor in the final applesauce.
- Imperfect or old: Because you’re going to reduce the apples down into a loose puree, you don’t need beauty queen apples. If you have an orchard near you, talk to the farmer and see if you can collect windfalls. You’ll probably pick them up for a song! They may not be perfect, but you’ll likely get a wide variety of apples and they’ll be perfect for applesauce. Likewise, check your grocery store’s discounted produce bins. Bruised up apples always find their way there for much less money.
Equipment for making applesauce
- Large pot: A stock pot or Dutch oven is best here, but use the biggest pot you own.
- Food mill: A food mill allows you to separate the skins and seeds away from the apple pulp. It forces the apples through small metal holes, leaving the skins, seeds, and stems behind. If you don’t have a food mill, you will have to peel and core the apples (annoying!).
- Baking spatula or wooden spoon: helpful for scraping down the sides of the food mill and stirring the apples periodically.
Lazy homemade applesauce
- Total Time: About 90 minutes
- Yield: varying
Description
The simplest and the best way to make applesauce. Homemade applesauce is a true treat, and it couldn’t be simpler to make.
Ingredients
- Apples, any amount, any variety except extremely sour types like Granny Smith
- Apple pie spice: optional, to taste; you can also use pumpkin pie spice or chai spice blend
Instructions
- Prep your apples: Wash all the apples. Cut away any bad spots, but don’t bother peeling them. Cut them into quarters and toss them into a stock pot.
- Steam: place a small amount of water into the bottom of the stock pot. 1 cup in a large pot is good. Bring the pot to the boil, then reduce down to low. Stir the apples every 20 minutes or so until the apples are tender and the skins are starting to break down. A small batch may take only 20 minutes, and a full pot might take an hour or more.
- The apples are ready to strain when you can easily stick a knife through them. You will see the skins starting to shrink down and you may see particulates of applesauce towards the bottom of the pot.
- Set up a food mill over a large bowl. Fit it with a disc just smaller than the apple seeds.
- Scoop the apples into the food mill. Turn the crank letting the apple puree fall into the bowl. Scrape down the bottom side of the mill occasionally as it can get clogged. As you get down to the bottom of the batch of apples in the mill, be sure to turn the mill both clockwise and counterclockwise. This will help push the rest of the apples through the bottom more easily. Scrape down the sides of the mill frequently and move chunks of apples to the space under the blade. This will force more of the apples through the holes more quickly.
- Keep repeating milling the apples until you’ve pureed the whole batch. Toss the apple waste into the compost.
- After you’ve milled all the apples, check the consistency of your applesauce. If it seems too thin, place the strained applesauce back into the pot (clean it first) and cook it for a few minutes, stirring frequently to evaporate any excess water.
- When the applesauce is at the consistency that you like, add apple pie spice to taste. For the gallon of applesauce I made, I added about 1 teaspoon.
- Place applesauce in sterilized jars or in Ziploc bags. You can process the applesauce for canning if you like, following directions in a book like the Ball canning book, or simply freeze your applesauce.
- Homemade applesauce is best eaten within a year.
Notes
- I don’t have a food mill: If you don’t have one, that’s okay (but put one on your wish list because it’s such a cool tool!). Simply peel and core your apples before you make your applesauce. Do not leave the peels on as apple peels get tough during cooking, leaving you to have to overcook the sauce for them to break down at all. If you’re really opposed to peeling the apples, you can process your sauce in a blender or food processor, but the texture will not be the same.
- Chunky applesauce: If you’d rather have chunky applesauce, you can do one of two things: 1)Core the apples and use a food mill: this will let you use the coarse disc on the mill. This will strain out the skins, but give you a coarser texture. Alternatively 2): Peel and core the apples. Once they start breaking down, mash them with a potato masher roughly until they cook down to the consistency you like.
- More cinnamon, please: I tend to use applesauce as an ingredient rather than eat it plainly. If you prefer more of a true cinnamon applesauce to enjoy it on its own, keep tasting as you add cinnamon. Stop when there’s enough spice to your liking.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes for cutting and straining the sauce
- Cook Time: 20 minutes-1 hour
- Category: Baking building blocks
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
