Slow Cooker Applesauce

I am transferring all of the recipes from my soon to be defunct food blog to this blog!  Here's a good one!

I’d be lying if I said I was a store bought applesauce enthusiast.  I always buy the stuff with no sugar added and mostly use it in baking.  Aaron and the girls like it, but it’s just kinda “meh” to me.

I lumped all applesauce into the “meh” zone…until we were at Aaron’s parents’ house.  His dad made some applesauce that was so amazing.  It tasted like apple pie filling perfection.

Years and years ago, when I lived and worked at camp, my friend, Leandra, made applesauce, but it never really occurred to me to try.

Well, suffice it to say, I’ve tried making my own and I’m hooked!

This is pretty basic and easy to do in the slow cooker and on the stove top.

You need a 3 pound bag of apples.

You can use an many apples as you want, but I just grabbed a bag.  I used gala this time around, because they were $1.49 for 3 pounds, but my favorite is probably mcintosh.

My friend, Beth, has a food mill that I’ve used when making applesauce.  When you have a food mill, you don’t need to peel the apples.  I made this batch of applesauce on a whim, so I didn’t have time to borrow it.

So, when you don’t have a food mill, peel your apples.  I’ve read that you can leave the peels on, but I tried that once and was not a fan.  I don’t have a fancy, high powered blender to pulverize the peel.  I wasn’t a fan of the texture when the skin was in (that rhymes).

Put just enough water in the bottom of your slow cooker to coat it.  Add your peeled and sliced apples.  I also squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, because it seemed like the right thing to do.  Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally.  The top of my slow cooker slides around a bit, so I put a piece of foil on top of the slow cooker insert before putting the regular cover on.  It helps keep the heat in.

When the apples are plenty soft, sauce it up!  You can use a potato masher, immersion blender, or regular blender.  If you have a food mill, this is when you’d use it to grind your apples and remove the skin.

Add cinnamon to taste.  It adds a nice warmth and spice to the applesauce.

The cinnamon sticks are just on there to look cute 

You can also make applesauce in a pan on the stove.  Just follow the same directions (using a tiny bit more water).  It’ll only take about a half hour to cook down.

Mmmmmm…applesauce!