Easy Homemade Applesauce

There is something incredibly satisfying about making homemade applesauce. Perhaps it’s the simplicity in being able to make an applesauce from scratch that tastes WAY better than store-bought applesauce. It’s stupid simple. Apples, water, cook, mash.

It’s reason enough to plant an apple tree in your backyard, or your friend’s backyard if you don’t have a backyard. Tell your friend they can have a 50/50 cut of the best applesauce they will ever eat if they let you take over a small patch of their property. And if they aren’t swayed, offer to make them these apple pear galettes or this blackberry apple crisp. That oughta do it.

• Apples: Use any type of apples you fancy (except for Red Delicious, they become mealy in texture when cooked). I like to use Honeycrisp apples for their natural sweetness (and because I have a tree in my backyard loaded with them). When deciding which apples to use, take into consideration whether they are sweet, tart, or tangy. Applesauce is pretty forgiving and is easily customizable if you need to adjust the flavor by adding a little sweetener.
• Water: Just a little bit of water steams the apples while they cook helping them to become soft and mashable.
• Optional ingredients: If needed, add a little sweetener (white sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, etc.) if your applesauce is too tart or tangy. For spiced applesauce try cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ground ginger, or combination of any of these spices. Some people enjoy adding a little bit of vanilla extract and even butter to their applesauce. Others include a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to brighten the flavor. It really just depends on what type of apples you are using and what your own taste preferences are so have fun experimenting!

For a full list of ingredients and quantities see the recipe card at the end of this post.

Step 1: Wash the apples and then peel, core, and slice.

Step 2: Place the prepared apples and ½ cup of water in a large pot with a fitted lid and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Step 3: Once the apples are soft and tender, use an immersion blender to puree the applesauce to your preferred texture. A regular blender or food processor will work great too. To avoid getting sprayed with hot applesauce be careful not to fill the blender or food processor too full. If you like a chunkier applesauce, mashing the cooked apples with a wooden spoon or a wire potato masher works great too.

Step 4: Serve your applesauce! Enjoy it hot or cold!

Homemade applesauce is tasty by the spoonful whether it’s packed into a school lunch (these reusable squeeze pouches are super cute!) or served as an after-school (or after-work) snack with a sprinkling of cinnamon on top, but here are a few other ways to enjoy it:

• Use in baking to add moisture or as a substitute for oil, eggs, or butter. Try it in my favorite Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.
• Make a yogurt parfait layered with chunky applesauce and topped with granola.
• Use as a topping for pancakes, waffles, or French toast.
• Stir into a bowl of oatmeal.
• Spoon over ice cream with a sprinkling of granola for a quick apple “crisp” dessert.
• Make a chunky applesauce with a little bit of brown sugar and warm spices (such as cinnamon and nutmeg) and use as a filling for homemade hand pies.
• Turn it into apple butter! Add some sugar, spices, a little lemon juice and cook low and slow for 1 to 2 hours and you’ll have the most delicious spread.
• Serve with pork chops or latkes.

If you have other ways you enjoy applesauce tell me in the comments below. No secrets allowed.

Make it chunky, make it smooth, make it plain, or make it spiced. You really can’t go wrong. Maybe even throw some red hot candies in it (#childhoodflashback).

Enjoy. ♡