I guess there are several parts of the US that constitute "apple country" -- I live in the "capital region" of NY (which apparently is not upstate, and is also not central, and is also not downstate.. though to me it IS upstate because I grew up outside of the city and this is well north of that), and so that means I've been wolfing down LOTS of local apples. It kills me that you can't buy local apples in the regular supermarkets. I mean, you can drive like 20 minutes to an apple orchard and pick your own, but the supermarket apples are from Washington State (Not that there's anything wrong with Washington state apples, but CARBON FOOTPRINT FOLKS) and other countries, oddly. I buy mine from the co-op. They aren't coated in wax and gross and overly shiny, and they're always super fresh. In addition to the "nice" apples, they also sell "utility grade" apples for $.49/lbs (which is more like $.36/lbs when my discount is factored in). These are my favorites for making apple sauce. They're perfectly fine, especially once peeled, and make absolutely delicious apple sauce. Apple sauce is among the easiest things to make (even easier than tomato sauce!), and nothing compares to homemade! I mix and match different apple varieties, so use whatever you like!
Before
AfterApple Sauce
8 Apples, peeled, cored, and rough cut into pieces
1/2 cup water
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1. Put the apples and water in a 3 qt sauce pan and turn the heat to medium, and cover. Cook for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on the size of your apples and how chunky you like your sauce. Check on it regularly and stir, especially for the first 15 minutes, and make sure it isn't bubbling up over the top of the pot or anything. Keep turning the heat down if it's bubbling too high!
2. Turn off the heat and stir in the cinnamon and lemon juice. The more you stir the smoother the sauce will be.
(Yea, that's it. Easysauce!)
5 comments:
I was just thinking today about making applesauce but I have never done it before. Your way sounds very easy and I will give it a try.
My mother in law just gave me a bag of cooking apples (someone gave her an entire box) and I made a boatload of apple sauce the other day. I find it very sad that Brits tend not to eat apple sauce on its own, but that means more for me. mmmmmmmm.
I've never made my own applesauce, but you've convinced me.
Ooh, something very simple and soothing to try once I finish my raw month trial!
Hahahah - oddly, we have apples from Chile, New Mexico (say what?) and New York here in our Washington stores... There ARE some Washington apples, but they're the "specialty" ones... whoop-de-do!! Like you, I just go to the co-op - or my parents backyard!!
Have you ever used a food mill (Google to see what I'm talking about) or ricer to do applesauce? You don't peel or core or anything, just quarter, cook down and run thru the food mill (takes about two minutes to do that part - much less time than peeling the apples) and the food mill removes the peels, seeds, stems, etc... Not that any of us need more kitchen gadgets but I got my food mill for about 2$ at Goodwill and it was shiny new. Makes tomato sauce just as easily!!
Yours looks SO YUMMY!!!
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