Applesauce

One of my most favorite new family traditions we have is apple picking. I had never been before last year but I will never skip out ever again. The apples are like little bits of sweet heaven. I had no idea that apples could taste so good…or that they actually tasted so different. I have 2 giant bags of Winesaps because they are by far my favorite for eating. They have such a sweet but wine-like taste to them. We also picked Jonathans, Crispin, & Golden and Red Delicious. So far I have make applesauce twice. Once with the Jonathans and once with the Crispins. I ate a Red Delicious and it was just eh. We only have 6 of them so I am glad they didn’t impress me and I only got 6. In the coming weeks I will be making more with the apples, then sauce but this is an amazingly easy recipe that produces the yummiest of results.

Mia took her inaugural ride in the wagon and she loved it

He liked to make baskets with the apples in the bags
hmmm, applesauce

I had never made applesauce before but I have made it twice in 3 days. Here is the thing with many of the apple recipes I have read. They say to use 4 apples but all apples are not the same size. The Crispins were the size of Mia's head. I wish they would use cups but they don't. Since I used more apples, I doubled the recipe but the 1st time it wasn't very sweet because the 2 lemons made it too tart. So no matter how many apples you put in be cautious with the lemon. The second batch was much sweeter with double everything but only 1 lemon. It also looks like a lot of apples but it cooks down to barely anything, you will be shocked.

Crockpot Applesauce

borrowed from A Year of Slow Cooking

--4 large apples, skinned ,cored, and cut in quarters

--juice from 1 lemon

--1/2 tsp cinnamon

--1 tsp vanilla

--1 T brown sugar

--1/4 cup H20

The Directions.

I used a 4 quart crockpot for the applesauce.

Skin, core, and cut your apples into quarters.

Plop the pieces into your crockpot.

Add the juice from the lemon, and the water.

Pour in the vanilla, and add the cinnamon and brown sugar.

Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

When the apples are super tender, mash with a potato masher or large fork.

My apples were very tender after 6 hours, and I used a fork.

VERDICT:

YUM---YUM---YUM

Go apples picking if you never have. Get the apples off the tree and then go home and make this applesauce. It is like nothing you can get in the store.