October 23, 2012

Apples and Sauce


It's apple season! I love this time of year, not only because of the delicious apples, but the beautiful weather that goes along with them.

On Saturday we made a trip to an apple farm about an hour out of town. My sole purpose was to get apples for making sauce. And I picked up a few for snacks... I probably would have bought out the whole farm if I had the room in the car. Fresh apples are the best heaven on earth.

Yesterday I turned 20 pounds of these


into this


which then became 13 of those lovely pints you see in the top picture. The boys had a few bowlfuls for lunch, including the baby who, after the first bite, responded by opening his mouth very wide and lunging for the spoon. I think he liked it.

I used mostly Golden Blush, with a few (maybe 4 or 5) Red Delicious thrown in. I also added a bit of cinnamon, since I like spiced applesauce. The apples are so delicious on their own that I only added a tiny bit of sugar - a half, maybe three quarters of a cup total for all 20 pounds. I just doubled the juice and cinnamon in the recipe for my 20 pounds.

Applesauce - makes 8 pints or 4 quarts
12 pounds apples, peeled, cored and quartered*
Up to 3 cups sugar - optional and to taste
4 Tbs bottled lemon juice
1-2 tsp cinnamon
Place apple chunks into a large pot with just enough water to prevent sticking. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and boil until apples are soft. Let cool slightly.

Working in batches, transfer to a food mill or food processor and puree apples. Return to pot, adding sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and stir to prevent sticking, then keep at a low simmer while filling jars.

Fill sterilized jars to 1/2" headspace. Water bath both pints & quarts for 20 minutes.
*I left all of mine with the peels and cores intact, removing nothing but the stem and chopping them into quarters. Then I just ran them through my food mill/strainer and it worked perfectly. So much less work, and so much quicker.

I still have quite a few Golden Blush left, which I think I will use the make turnovers or some delicious dessert!

Happy Eating,
Meg

6 comments:

Kessie said...

Oh man, that sounds so delicious! I love the description of the baby lunging for the spoon.

Are you going to make an apple pie? With LARD in the crust?

Farm Girl said...

It looks and sounds yummy and I love that the baby is now a number one fan. That is so cute. I also like the way you made it. I never thought about putting it through a food mill. What a great idea.

Woman Seeking Center said...

Hi Meg!

I wondered if, in your opinion and/or experience freezing would work (or not, lol)
I'm going to be trying my first (small)experimental batch this season and striving to keep super simple - so freezing came to mind. Lots of how to's on the net for freezing but I'd love a trusted opinion (if you have time to share your thoughts).

Many thanks

Issy

From Beyond My Kitchen Window said...

Yummy! The applesauce looks great. I also heard it was a good idea to leave the skins on because it gives the applesauce a nice color.

Kim said...

It looks great Meg. I like apple sauce on my cream of wheat. Try it

myletterstoemily said...

yum! i love your idea about skipping the coring.
let the processer do the work.

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