One of my most vivid and earliest memories of my childhood was going to an apple orchard when I was in preschool. The thing I really remember is watching all the apples on the bouncy conveyer belt and then the most delicious apple juice I’d ever tasted (turns out the apples also tasted like no other apples I’d ever tasted. Which, I guess, is kind of what happens when you eat it straight off the tree rather than from the other side of the world. Also, not from our kitchen counter, which is where my mom kept our apples because she liked them mealy. As I got older, I made lots of these culinary discoveries that led to a life of food blogging: butter instead of margarine, grilled cheese not made in a microwave, cold cereal that wasn’t plain Shredded Wheat sprinkled with All-Bran.)
That whole experience led to a life-long obsession with apple cider. Not the drinky-drink kind of cider, just the fresh-from-an-orchard-tasting murky brown stuff. I love it. Like, last meal kind of love. And brew it up with spices? It doesn’t get better.
I feel the same way about applesauce that I do about apple juice–I’ll eat it in a pinch, like in the hospital after I have a baby or when I lock myself in the bathroom while hiding from my children. But really, it’s pretty low on my list of snack foods, kind of in the realm of Goldfish crackers and bubblegum-flavored yogurt in a tube. But this apple sauce? I could eat it with for every meal of every day. It’s like a mug of spiced cider, only applesauce. Does it have stuff in it that regular applesauce doesn’t (vanilla…a little brown sugar if you want…a tiny bit of butter, because, you know, butter)? Yes. But that’s what makes it so amazing. And your house will smell so amazing that you may or may not try to imagine ways you could make this every day.
You’re going to need 5 pounds of apples. Stick with apples you would actually want to eat, and mix and match them however you want. Good choices are Braeburns (tart-ish and crisp), Fujis and Honeycrisps (a good balance of sweet and tart) and Golden Delicious (sweet). I made this particular batch with mostly Braeburns because they were on sale, with a few Honeycrisps thrown in for sweetness and I probably would have made it more half and half, at least, because I ended up sweetening it up quite a bit at the end.
Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples. This will be painful and feel like punishment if you’re doing it all by hand, but if you have an apple corer peeler, it will be like a carnival. Just kidding, it won’t, but it will be very easy and fast (and absent of clowns, which is a plus.) Place the peeled, cored, thinly sliced apples in a large Crock Pot.
Squeeze the juice of a small lemon over the apples, add about 1/3 cup of water, then sprinkle with cinnamon, cloves, ground ginger, and a little nutmeg.
Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or until the apples easily fall apart into an applesauce-like consistently. Add a teaspoon each of butter butter and vanilla as well as a pinch of salt and blend with an immersion blender until desired consistency is reached. Add brown sugar or maple syrup to taste (I probably wouldn’t add more than 1/2 cup, but that’s me; a lot of it depends on what type of apples you used. Also, keep in mind that it will taste sweeter when it’s cold, so less is more here.) Serve warm or refrigerate until ready to use (you can refrigerate this up to a week or freeze it for several months.) I also bet you can can it, but I’ve never made quite that much and we go through it so fast that it’s never come to that. This makes about 6 cups of applesauce.
Spiced Cider Apple Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 5 pounds apples Braeburns, Fujis, Golden Delicious, and Honeycrisps are good options, peeled and thinly sliced
- ⅓ cup water
- Juice of 1 small lemon
- 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon butter
- pinch of kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- brown sugar or maple syrup to taste optional, see recipes notes
Instructions
- Place peeled, sliced apples in a large crockpot.
- Add lemon juice, water, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.
- Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or until the apples easily fall apart into an applesauce-like consistently.
- Add butter, vanilla, and salt and blend with an immersion blender until desired consistency is reached.
- Add brown sugar or maple syrup to taste (I probably wouldn't add more than ½ cup, but that's me; a lot of it depends on what type of apples you used. Also, keep in mind that it will taste sweeter when it's cold, so less is more here.)
- Serve warm or refrigerate until ready to use (you can refrigerate this up to a week or freeze it for several months).
Nutrition
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Questions & Reviews
Made this today- instant hit!! This stuff is divine, and it makes your house smell like heaven for hours. I used golden delicious apples and just under 1/4 cup brown sugar.
I am about to rock your world! I use the apple corer that slices the apple at the same time into segments. I plop the segments with the skin on into the crockpot. I don’t add any liquid and crank that puppy onto high. It is very forgiving if you happen to leave it on all day at that temperature. Then I use the immersion blender and zhiz it til it is nice and smooth. I add sugar (brown and white) and spices to taste. THEN…I melt some caramels in the microwave a bit just to soften them.Add that to the crock and stir it in til it is all melted. Do NOT add them if you happen to burn them in the microwave. It takes less than 30 seconds to soften. After it is all thick creamy and yummy then you can refrigerate, freeze it or can it…or eat it with a spoon right there on the spot! It is AMAZING on grilled cheese sandwiches! Enjoy….:)
I’ve been searching the internet for weeks looking for the perfect slow cooker applesauce recipe. Weeks. Needed a way to finish off all the odd apples from our apple tree and here it is.just loaded up the slow cooker and it smells fabulous already … Thanks again for posting the recipe I’ve been looking for 🙂
I grew up on a farm. Apples were not a crop, but we did grow our own fruit.
So even though I live in town now, I did plant an apple tree. There is a connection with that fruit and Americans—-good ol’ apple pie is an obvious
reference.
This sounds amazing and perfect timing since I have a box of golden delicious apples that I need to do something with. I will be making this tomorrow. Thank you!!!
I love homemade applesauce, so I couldn’t resist making this today. The whole house smelled amazing and it was so tasty! We love to have it warm with a splash of cream stirred in. I would classify this as a health food, so it is perfectly acceptable that I had two bowls, right?
Yay!! I’m so glad it turned out!
where we live, in the Bitterroot Valley of Mt., Macintosh apples make the best sauce…and you need a “Victoria strainer” or other brand to make sauce. There is NO PEELING of the apples…and that’s the key to beautiful pink sauce, is cooking the apples WITH THEIR SKINS ON; all you do is remove the stem & blossom end, cut them in quarters, YES, LEAVE SEEDS in them…put in a pan with little bit of water (or u could crockpot them), cook, stir, watch so it doesn’t stick to the bottom..then you put spoonfuls of the softened fruit in the funnel top of the strainer, turn the handle, and MAGIC!!!.. out comes the sauce, and at the side chute comes the skins and seeds!!! I will can or freeze up lots of sauce..I’ve even added a handful or so of red hots to make it more pink…we love apple sauce on pancakes too….the Victoria strainer also can be used for tomatoes, or squash…all 4 of my dtrs make lots of sauce with this…best investment to share in a family of sauce lovers. Love your recipes..
The applesauce maker thingy is wonderful! I can make a ton of applesauce in very little time!
This is what I have and it is amazing! http://www.amazon.com/Victorio-VKP250-Strainer-Sauce-Maker/dp/B001I7FP54/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414774679&sr=8-1&keywords=applesauce+maker Less than $50
Does it make a difference if you don’t peel the apples either for the taste or consistency?
I’ve always peeled. It will definitely make a difference in the consistency (and I don’t like the skins), so it just depends on how you feel about the cooked apple skins. 🙂
Not a huge applesauce fan, but I think this recipe will change my mind:)
“Add a teaspoon each of butter butter and vanilla”
OOooo I LOVE “butter butter”! 🙂
making this tomorrow!