Abby’s Apple Sauce
I didn’t used to like applesauce, it just reminded me of baby food – mushy and bit sweet, but without a lot of real apple flavor. But that was apple sauce from a jar. Homemade applesauce, cooked slowly with warm winter spices, is a very different thing.
The trick to making really good homemade applesauce is to use several kinds of apples. A mix of sweeter and more tart apples, particularly heritage varieties, will give you deeper apple flavor. Combining softer apples that will break up easily to provide a smooth sauce, with firmer apples that will hold their shape and provide some ‘bite,’ creates an interesting texture. But you don’t have to research the characteristics of the different apples, just use a few different ones and it’ll work out.
If you don’t like chunky apple sauce, you can save some time by leaving the peels on the apples. When they are cooked, let the mixture cool a bit, and then blitz it with an immersion blender, or in a food processor or countertop blender. You don’t even need to take out the cloves, they’ll just blend right in.
Abby Schweber
Ingredients
4 pounds of apples*, mix of different varieties (I used delicious, Stayman, and Rome)
½ lemon
1 cup water
1 stick cinnamon
¼ tsp. grated nutmeg
8 cloves
½ cup light brown sugar
*These ingredients can be found at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market
Method
Zest and juice the lemon into the water in a bowl large enough to hold all the apples.
Peel and core the apples, then cut into bite-sized pieces (whatever that means to you) and toss in the lemon water.
Mix the brown sugar and 2 Tbs. of water in a large pot on medium heat. Stir occasionally for 6-8 minutes until caramelized.
Add apple mixture, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, and cook covered, stirring occasionally, 40-50 minutes or until apples are starting to break down.
Remove cinnamon stick and cloves.
Use a potato masher to get the level of chunkiness/smoothness you want.
