Applesauce from Tree to Freezer

All hail apple-picking season!!!  As we do every year, we headed down to a local orchard and loaded up on dozens of pounds of apples intended for all sorts of homemade deliciousness.  With a preschooler, toddler, and soon-to-be newborn in the house, well-processed applesauce is a necessary staple.  This recipe is ridiculously easy for processing MANY apples in a short amount of time, and I hope the tools and tricks we use with be useful for you as well!

applesauce_final

What I Used:

  • Food strainer
    • Somewhat expensive, but ridiculously useful if you like making homemade pasta sauce, jam, salsa, baby food, or anything of that consistency (differs from a juicer in that it processes a thicker consistency but easier than a food processor because it automatically separates the “waste” from the pulp of fruits and vegetables).
  • Water
  • Apples

(1)  Wash apples, remove stems, and quarter.

applesauce_quarter

(2)  Place apple quarters in a large pot, fill with water until apples barely covered.

applesauce_water

(2)  Bring to a boil and boil, covered, for 10-20 minutes (depending on your variety of apples and size).  You want them to be soft but not disintegrated.  The picture below shows apples that were probably boiled too long.

applesauce_boil

(3)  Ladle apple quarters with a slotted spoon into top of food strainer and process.

You may save the leftover ingredients for apple cider vinegar or apple pectin later!

applesauce_process

(5) Store apple sauce in desired containers (make sure they are labeled).  Applesauce will store frozen for several months at least (to be honest, we’ve frozen batches for over a year, and they’ve still been amazingly tasty).

applesauce_store

You can also use this applesauce as the base for many different recipes such as various baby pouches, apple-spinach fruit leather, etc.

The leftover “pomace” from the applesauce process can also be saved for making pectin (for canning certain fruits) or apple vinegar.

 

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