Making homemade applesauce

Making homemade applesauce is one of the easiest things you can do in the kitchen, it is quick, simple and inexpensive. Buying applesauce with added ingredients that nature never intended is absolutely unnecessary. When you make your own applesauce, you can control exactly how much sugar is added and you will impress your family and friends with your results. The texture and flavor of homemade applesauce are so vastly superior to anything that you can buy that you will delight even the harshest critics.

Buy your apples

While you can use handpicked apples, it isn’t necessary. Check out the reduced stand at your favorite grocery store and buy several variety packs of past their peak apples. Almost any combination works but the flavor will be different as will the color. Purchase about six pounds of apples or 12 apples. Try to make sure some of the apples are Macintosh, they give the applesauce a nice pink color.

Prepare apples

Rinse the apple and remove the stem. Cut the apples in half, cut the half apples in half and then cut the quarters in half. Place the apples into a large saucepan. Place the saucepan in your sink and then add water to almost cover the apples.

Cook

Place the pan on a large burner and turn the heat to high. Keep an eye on the pan until it comes to a boil. Place a lid on the pan and lower the heat to medium-low. Simmer for thirty minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit until it cools.

Food mill

Get out your food mill and place it over the lip of a large mixing bowl. Using a soup ladle put the boiled apples into the mill. Turn the handle and start the milling process. Continue to ladle and mill until you have milled all the apples. If you notice that nothing is coming out of the mill, clean out the apple peels and seeds from the inside of the mill. Turn the mill on its side and use a knife to scrape off any applesauce attached to the bottom of the mill.

Season

Stir the applesauce in the bowl and add 1/2 cup of white sugar. Taste to make sure that it is sweet enough for your tastes. If you like cinnamon, you can add a teaspoon to the applesauce. You can adjust the amount of sugar and cinnamon to suit your tastes or add a zero calorie sweetener.

This makes enough applesauce to eat some now and to freeze some for later. You can keep the applesauce in the freezer for up to one year, just store it in plastic containers and freeze immediately after making.

Applesauce is the perfect accompaniment to any pork dishes that you plan to make. It can also be used in place of fat in many baking recipes. This is a process that even a novice cook can handle and the results are worth every minute.