Monday, October 6, 2008

Easy applesauce

My babysitter presented us with a bag filled with apples the other day, picked fresh from her father's neighbor's orchard. Sure they weren't pretty, but does that matter?

A dozen or so apples is a lot to manage in our household. Raw apples don't go quickly if the 3 year old isn't currently obsessed with eating them, and I'll be the first to admit I tend to forget the fruit that's sitting on the counter.

As we're still working through some homemade apple cobbler made the other night, I searched for an applesauce recipe. I cobbled the following from several recipes I found online. Sure, you could make it on the stove, but there's something remarkably stress-free about tossing ingredients into a Crock-Pot and letting it go all day while you go about your business.

Slow-cooker Applesauce
10-12 apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine apples and lemon juice in your Crock-Pot. Mix in brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Add water. Cook on high for four hours or until chunks are soft. Mash with potato masher or blender until desired consistency. Serve warm or cold. Makes about 8-10 cups.

I am proud to say that despite recent issues with eating, both kids can't get enough of this!

Looking for other ideas for your apples? Visit Eco'Burban's blog for other tips.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds good, but that's a lot of apple sauce! Have you tried freezing it to see if it will keep for later?

Anonymous said...

This sounds great and my little one LOVES applesauce - I will have to give this a try!

Anonymous said...

Becky, seeing that we ran out of applesauce yesterday, freezing was never an issue!

But, you can always make smaller batches.