Well, hello again! Today, I have another awesome apple recipe for you that is both easy-peasy, and way more tasty than store-bought. Perfect for a gloomy Monday…
I don’t even like applesauce. I mean, bleh. Right?? I’d pretty much discounted applesauce as a boring, ho-hum, yawn-inducing food, and really only appropriate for toddlers and younger.
At least, that’s what I thought…. I’ve only bought applesauce in the past to use in baking, and thus leftover jars of applesauce were pretty much fated to get moldy in my fridge before I would ever eat it. The taste of applesauce always seemed bland, and the grainy texture just reinforced my dislike. 
But last fall, I stopped at a local farm stand and bought a whole bunch of fresh apples, and I had to do something with them. So, I tried this applesauce, which my favorite blogger Mel had posted and raved about.
If you even halfway like regular applesauce, then you will love this recipe. It’s the easiest thing ever. You basically just throw quartered apples (with the peel still on… no peeling required!) into a crock pot with a few spices and let it cook for a few hours. Then you just dump it into a blender and whirl away until it is smooth. That’s it. Done.
There are three things I love, love, love about this recipe: 1) This applesauce has great flavor. Of course, the flavor profile will depend on the apples you use, but the touch of spice makes this applesauce taste a bit more like pie, with a bit warmer flavor and perfect for autumn. 2) There is no sugar added. None. Nada. And it tastes plenty sweet from the natural sugar in the apples. 3) My fav-fav-favorite thing is the amazing texture. This applesauce is not grainy! It is smooth, with an almost silky character. It has a pillow-like softness and feels light on your tongue. Basically, unlike any applesauce I have ever eaten before.
Here are several ways to make use of your homemade applesauce:
- Enjoy while still warm and fragrant, just after pureeing. Yum!
- By the spoonful, directly from the fridge.
- Warmed up and drizzled over vanilla ice cream. It tastes just like apple pie a la mode!
- Caramel apple milkshake – vanilla ice cream, caramel topping, and spiced applesauce, blended to perfection and topped off with whipped topping…. oh, my!
- Chocolate Cinnamon Applesauce Cake – sinfully good and chocolaty – coming to the blog someday!
Do you have any other great ways to use applesauce?
- 2 Honey Crisp apples
- 5 Golden Delicious apples
- 7 Gala apples
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- Wash your apples thoroughly with warm soap and water. Cut apples into quarters, and remove the cores.
- Toss the apples with the lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat for 4-6 hours.
- Blend the applesauce with a handheld immersion blender, or scoop into an upright blender (in batches) and process until completely smooth.
- Serve warm, room temperature, or chilled. It will keep well refrigerated for 1-2 weeks, or can be frozen for several months.
I left the peels on all my apples. You can peel your apples if you prefer.
I used my Ninja smoothie maker to puree the apples once they were done cooking and it worked like a dream. Just be sure not to fill your container too full, as the sauce will expand from heat while blending.
Recipe slightly adapted from Mel’s Slow Cooker Applesauce Recipe.
I agree, making applesauce in a crockpot is so easy and delicious! However, I like it chunky rather then smooth. To me when it is smooth it is like eating baby food. To eat it over ice cream is really hummy! I am trying to use my crockpot more to make dinner time a little easier. Want to start making more soups and stews as the weather gets chilly. Love to read your blog!