Homemade Applesauce
I made applesauce this afternoon. I know it’s slightly out of season, but, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s always the season for Americans to throw out piles of fancy-pants organic produce shipped in from a different continent!!!
As I’ve noted before, apples are truly lovely fruits that flood me with warm memories of waning Fall afternoons, trees heavy with fruit casting long shadows into the grassy rows dividing up the orchard.
And, wonderfully, apples are quite versatile: you can use them in chili, roasted with winter squash, baked and drenched in liquor (as my heavily-drinking former landlady preferred them), or, obviously, in tarts, pastries, or pies. Though I love the sweetness and texture of applesauce, I don’t tend to eat a lot of fruit, and generally use it for egg replacer. It’s one of my favorite egg replacers for cookies, as it adds a nice moistness and the flavor is not overpowering (as mashed banana often can be).
First, decide whether you want chunky or smooth applesauce. If you don’t have a china cap or food mill and you want applesauce with a similar texture to store-bought, you should take care to peel your apples first. Otherwise, just core and chop your apples into bite-size pieces and place in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Sprinkle with a little bit of lemon juice (for tartness and color), put the lid on, and turn the heat on low. For beginners particularly, and anyone who’s making a large amount of applesauce (think: full saucepan) or is using old/dried out apples, I suggest adding ¼-½ cup water to ensure nothing burns to the bottom. Extra water won’t hurt; it may just cause you to have more liquid to drain out at the end. No big deal! Just leave that sucker on the heat for 30 minutes to an hour, stirring very occasionally to make sure nothing’s sticking to the bottom. Very quickly, liquid should start to cook out of the apple chunks, and, in turn, cook them down. It’s up to you when you want to stop cooking; when they’re very soft but still holding their shape, it’ll be just a few more minutes until they break down. At that point, I mash them a bit with a potato masher.
If you’ll be serving the applesauce plain and aren’t an applesauce purist, you may want to add white sugar, a hearty dose of cinnamon, and a dash of cloves. We serve warm, chunky, spiced applesauce at Food Not Bombs fairly regularly, and it’s always a hit.
If you’ll be using it for cooking, you may want to leave the spices out and move right on to the next step.
Drain your cooked apple mash; I just let mine sit in a china cap over an empty bowl for a half hour, pressing it gently to force out extra liquid (but not fruit). You can also line a colander with natural paper towels or coffee filters, if need be.
Use the leftover liquid in place of sugar syrup for a fruit-sweetened drink. I like to make a modified version of Apfelschorle, a popular drink in Germany that consists of (carbonated) mineral water and apple juice: fill a tall glass with ice, add a quarter cup of apple syrup, fill it the rest of the way with plain seltzer, and stir. I drank this stuff heavily the summer I lived in Heidelberg.
Once the excess liquid has drained, I like to mash it through my much beloved china cap to achieve a perfectly smooth texture. Eat right away, store it in a jar in the fridge, or can it for future use.
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Thanks C. This prompted me to create apple butter yesterday
heheh
Awesome! I love apple butter
[...] fry them until browned and crispy like I like to do. Top with cabbage and onion mixture. Serve with applesauce or sour [...]