Homemade Applesauce

I confess, I don’t absolutely love fruit. For me, it’s a texture thing. I love all-fruit smoothies but eating raw fruit is difficult for me. The one fruit I don’t mind eating raw is an apple but I’m VERY picky about it having ANY bruises and the texture has to be extremely crisp. That said, I am always trying to find ways to incorporate more fruit into my diet. I go and off of applesauce kicks. I don’t usually mind the texture and it’s easy to store and doesn’t go bad quickly but a nagging part of me always felt guilty about it since the kind you buy in the store has preservatives, even if it has no sugar added. Then I found this recipe for homemade applesauce. It sounds daunting, yes, but it was surprisingly easy and DELICIOUS. I can’t get enough of it. I put some on a toasted whole wheat English Muffin yesterday and I was in heaven. Also, I then put it in my baked oatmeal this morning (Recipe to come) and it was a revelation. Here’s how to do it:

Homemade Crockpot Applesauce:

5 medium Gala apples, peeled, cored, quartered, and chopped

2 medium Granny Smith apples peeled, cored, quartered, and chopped (the flavor in these babies is very prominent in the end product. If you aren’t a huge fan of tart apples, I suggest only using one and substituting another type of apple)

2 medium Honey Crisp apples peeled, cored, quartered, and chopped (My grocery store didn’t have honey crisp so I used Fuji)

Fresh Lemon Juice – I juiced two lemons

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup water.

If you are like me and work then you’ll want to do all the prep the night before.

I sat and watched a movie the night before and peeled all the apples, then sliced them using an apple slicer, then chopped the slices into small bits about the size of a dice. It was mindless and relaxing.

When that’s done, place all of the apple pieces in the crock pot, pour the fresh lemon juice over them and toss them until you are reasonably confident that they are coated. Add in the sugar and cinnamon. Pour water in the crock pot, stir the whole mess together. Now, at this point, you can turn the crock pot on and let it cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours but if you are me, you stick the pot in the fridge and go to bed and in the morning put it on heat while you go to work.

When you come home, your house will smell like apple pie and you should probably invite people over and act like that’s how your house always smells. I plan on doing this the second time around.

Makes about 4 cups of applesauce.